“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Col. 1:28-29). Paul has just spoken of the service and stewardship entrusted to him by God and continues that theme by highlighting two crucial aspects of his ministry of proclamation – warning and teaching everyone. We will concentrate on the first today. He says he and his fellow workers were warning everyone, but what does he mean by that? In recent years, preaching the Word of God has become a politically correct, never-step-on-toes affair – full of hot air with no real spiritual substance.
The “Good News” is not preached as much as everyone in the audience is made to feel welcome and “safe.” In order to accomplish that, their feelings are taken into account, and care is taken not to upset them. Scriptures, if used at all during what is more a motivational speech than anything else, are carefully selected to encourage and uplift them. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that since the message of Christ is ultimately Good News. Take John 3:16-17, the well-known and arguably most loved scripture in the entire Bible – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Such beautiful words, such comforting words.
The Bible is inundated with verses like these for a good reason – the message is about the love of God and the opportunity Christ provided for the Creator’s most prized possession. But, and it is a big “but,” there is more to the story than that. Read John 3:18, and the complete truth is revealed, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Or read Rom 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” followed by Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death….” For the sake of transparency, it should be noted that the aforementioned scriptures are all followed by an encouragement, but the point is that the message must contain something more than placatory biblical titbits.
There must be warnings, and sometimes dire ones, in order for man to make the most informed decision regarding his future. Take, for instance, Acts 20:19, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” Paul wanted the readers of Acts to be aware of the dangers of false teachers. Even a starker warning comes from the book of Hebrews. Heb. 6:4-6, “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”
Not every sermon or Bible lesson should be “doom or gloom,” especially since we understand that the overall theme of the Bible, and the NT especially, is the assured hope of the coming glory of heaven. But we would be remiss, as Paul clearly points out if we omit those warnings to satisfy the hearers’ emotional desires. We certainly do not want to fall into the category of teacher mentioned in 2 Tim. 4:3, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions….” The Good News is that Jesus died for us; the bad news is that we are fallen beings who must be warned about what could derail His sacrifice for us personally. The job of a teacher or preacher is to reveal the entirety of the scriptures to the audience, not just the “feel-good” parts that will emotionally encourage them today but spell doom for tomorrow.
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