Doctrinal preaching is all about handling biblical truth as the “true and living Word” that it is, with the sermon functioning as a privileged partner with doctrine in what can be described as a joyous doxological dance to the glory of God.

“Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matt. 19:6, NIV). These are the words of Jesus. Used in the context of preaching, they reflect a critical linkage between didache (teaching) and kerygma (proclamation). Doctrinal preaching is both content centered (teaching to instruct the mind) and intent centered (preaching to move the heart). Doctrine and joy interpenetrate and are intertwined.

The attitude of the doctrinal preacher must be, “Hallelujah! What a privilege it is to preach about a great God.” The truths of Bible doctrine are appropriated, and the preacher serves as a personal witness of those truths because the text of Scripture not only works on the preacher but works in the preacher as well.

The apostle Paul, in 2 Timothy 2:15, admonishes the minister to rightly divide the word of truth. The writer of Hebrews 4:12 speaks of the Word of God as a “two-edged sword” that divides. Ministers who dare to preach doctrinally must always remember that they not only participate in rightly dividing or “cutting straight” the Word of truth before their congregations but that they are also divided by that same Word. Ministers can be guilty of spending much of their time preparing messages that will impact others but not enough time allowing the text of Scripture to impact themselves.

Preachers cannot effectively, with the gospel, address people by an intellectual engagement alone. This is exactly what biblical scholar Gerhard von Rad has asserted:

No understanding at all is possible without some form of inward appropriation. It would be an illusion to think that we could deal with the transmitted intellectual content as a foundry worker handles molten ore with long-handled ladles—and thus keep them at a distance from ourselves. Moreover, no understanding is possible unless what is to be interpreted is applied to ourselves, unless it touches us existentially.[i]

The preacher who handles the Word must first be touched by that same Word. Doctrinal preaching has an impact within both the cognitive and the emotive sectors. Preaching that leaves the cognitive untouched produces hearers who may leave the sanctuary feeling better but without having been helped by the deep doctrinal truths of the Scriptures. Classical rhetoricians attempted to be holistic in the speech act: enlighten the mind, touch the heart, and move the will. Preaching that avoids head engagement will lead to blindness, and preaching that ignores heart engagement—the emotive realm of the believer’s existence—does so at the cost of boredom and dullness, which prevents the result of an engaged hearing for a transformed life.