The phrase comes from Acts 2:42 which says of the early church that: “42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

When the Lord Jesus went back to heaven to be with His heavenly Father, he specially commissioned the twelve apostles with both the responsibility and the authority to teach in His name: “18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” Matthew 28:18-20

The apostles taught the truth about Jesus Christ – the Gospel. They taught about the way in which he fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures in order to bring people to salvation through His sacrificial death on the cross and His resurrection. They also taught how salvation in Jesus Christ was to be worked out in the life of the believer. (Romans 1:5) They are not teaching something that they have made up in their own minds, but only things which have been revealed to them by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Jesus had already made it clear to them that their teaching was to be consistent with His: “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” John 8:31

These teachings are revealed to us in the New Testament Scriptures. Some of the New Testament books are written by apostles themselves (Matthew, John, Peter and Paul), so they are obviously ‘the apostles’ teaching’. However, the others are written by their associates (Mark, Luke, James and Jude), not the apostles themselves, and for one book, the letter we call Hebrews, the author is not even known. The reason why these writings are included in the New Testament is because ‘who wrote the this?’ is not the most important question to answer. The most important question is “Is this consistent with the apostles’ teaching?” When you read Hebrews and any of the other books of the New Testament, you realise that this is clearly the case.

So, we use the terms ‘apostle’s teaching’ or ‘apostle’s doctrine’ as a shorthand way of describing the true and consistent teaching of the New Testament. To apply this to ourselves, the most important question for us to ask when we hear people teach, or when we seek to teach others, is same question as before. “Is this consistent with the apostles’ teaching?” We are not to deviate from the teaching of the apostles, as Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians: “... we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15. All teaching must be weighed to see if it is in line with that of the Scriptures. If it is, receive it with joy and put it into practice on your life. If it isn’t, reject it and challenge it where appropriate by pointing to what the Bible says.