Essential Doctrines are doctrines that put you outside of the faith if you deny them. To reject these teachings means you are not a Christian, and the word “Heresy” is usually invoked for this category of error. Examples of essential doctrines are the deity of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

Some Christian doctrines are weightier than others. When discussing Christian theology, many of us have heard the helpful quote attributed to Augustine, “In the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity.” There is much to be learned from this quote, but did you know that many Bible teachers identify four different categories of doctrinal weight?
Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:23-24)! In this passage, Jesus says that some teachings of Scripture have more theological impact than others.
One way to describe a doctrine’s weight is by understanding the consequences of being wrong about it. Believing the wrong thing about some doctrines could send us to hell, while being wrong about others has little impact on our spiritual life.
The categories have different names depending on who you ask, but they are essentially the same regardless of what we call them. Graham Cole names the four categories this way.

Level 1 Convictions
Level 2 Convictions
Opinions
Speculations

Those are valuable categories and might be what you have heard. My professor, Craig Hawkins, taught me the following: these are more descriptive.

Essential Doctrines
Cardinal Doctrines
Non-Essentials
Tertiary and Peripheral

Essential Doctrines are doctrines that put you outside of the faith if you deny them. To reject these teachings means you are not a Christian, and the word “Heresy” is usually invoked for this category of error. Examples of essential doctrines are the deity of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
Cardinal Doctrines Are extremely Important and have significant ramifications in our lives, but Christians can disagree and still be Christians.
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Written by Robert W. Alexander |
Thursday, May 23, 2024
By faith we depend on Jesus to walk with us. We rely on his Spirit to guide us so that our relationship with Christ brings life to the wearisome, broken aspects of life. We can participate in God’s work wherever he has called us. Whatever our role—student, dishwasher, waitress, stay-at-home mom, working mom, office staff, church staff, small business owner, doctor, plumber, artist, contractor—we do all things with Christ, because of him, and with the Spirit’s help (Philippians 4:13). Christ transforms our work from something we do to fulfill our own goals into something much more significant. 

A friend who just lost his job sits across from you with tears in his eyes. “I know I have a purpose,” he says. “I need to know that what I do matters, that I’m doing what God wants me to do.”
A young mom shares with her friends at playgroup, “I just wasn’t pre­pared for the drudgery of caring for a baby. I love her so much, but how do you cope with doing the same thing day after day on little or no sleep?”
“My work is so stressful,” a hardworking executive confesses. “Even when I’m home I’m connected to work electronically. I know my family wishes I wasn’t always ‘checking in,’ but they don’t understand what’s expected of me. I don’t even have the time to think about God and what he wants. It seems like just one more thing to do.”
“I’m trying to get my schoolwork done, but everyone around me is party­ing,” a college student says. “I don’t know if I’ll get a job when I graduate anyway, so usually I go for the fun. I’m a Christian, but I don’t know how that connects to life right now. Maybe I’ll work on that later.”
“Homeschooling my children was so much work, but I loved it,” a mom said. “But now my oldest son doesn’t want to go to church or do anything. What was it all for?”
How about you? Most likely you also have questions about the meaning, significance, and motivation for what you do. We all want the work we do to make a difference, yet we feel the gap between the realities of daily work and our lives as Christians.
We wonder:

Am I doing the right thing?
Why do I get so afraid when I make a mistake at work?
What should I do with the rest of my life?
Is it possible to go to work and not get involved in gossip and politics?
My work is unpaid; does that mean it’s not important?
Am I a good parent?
Why is work so stressful?
Is what I’m doing making a difference?
What if I lose my job? Who will provide for my family?

These questions are not just about work. They are spiritual questions about faith, meaning, significance, identity, and the struggle with sin. The struggle to bring work and faith together is as old as the fall of humanity. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, they experienced God’s good gifts of work, childbirth, and relationships as broken and hard. We know this isn’t the way it’s meant to be, but we wonder how (and if) our lives can be made whole again.
A Deeper Understanding of Vocation
In Genesis 1 and 2, we see God at work, creating, separating, filling, examining, and declaring all things good. God’s intent was for human life to bind together work, family, personal spirituality, and worship into a seamless tapestry. The need to apply faith to work wasn’t necessary before the fall since Adam and Eve enjoyed a perfect relationship with God, each other, and creation. One day in the future, the effects of the fall will come to an end. We will see the end result of Christ’s first and second comings. All of life will be made new.
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If you have been a pastor for any length of time, you know the traditions of a church can create some tension. The key to managing these traditions is making a wise assessment—do they elevate above the commands of God? Often, they do not, but in some cases, they do. A rural church will often have traditions handed down by generations of men, and the current generation does not even know why they do it. 

Jesus asked many questions. One was asked of the Pharisees concerning their traditions: “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matthew 15:3)? Tradition can exist in churches of all sizes, whether rural, city center, or suburban. The “we’ve always done it this way” crowd generally exists in smaller churches and is often deep in family ties. Tradition is not evil in and of itself. Defined, it means “something given or handed down over an extended period of time.” According to Mounce’s Expository Dictionary, “paradosis refers to keeping the traditions of men with the ultimate effect of disobeying the commands of God” (Matt. 15:2, 3, 6; Mark 7:3, 5, 8, 9, 13).
When referring to his traditions as he was being schooled in Judaism, Paul said in Galatians 1:13,14,
And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased.
The Pharisees had a niche for adding to the law and elevating it above Scripture. Paul wrote in Colossians 2:8,
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
Not all tradition is bad. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 states,
So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.
Likewise, 2 Thessalonians 3:6 says
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.
It appears that whatever these traditions were, they were spiritually beneficial and did not exceed the authority of Scripture.
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