After many discussions of the often quoted saying via St.Francis
Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words
I decided to explain why I feel this quote is unbiblical.
First of all, lets just switch this quote around a bit. What if I said that we should preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary act right?
Most people would say that is just wrong. It is totally necessary to act according to the Spirit with a life of holiness.
But for some reason when people use the St. Francis quote is doesn’t bother them that by saying it is unnecessary to preach, with words, the Gospel that they are forgetting the times when Jesus himself said over and over again to preach.
Now I went and did some research into the word preach and this is what I discovered:
The greek word for preach, kēryssō, is used 61 times in the New Testament. That’s a whole bunch of times! Just think…if you have one of those Bibles with the words of Jesus is red….take all that out because that is Jesus preaching. It was necessary for him to preach.
The Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon gives this definition for the word preach:
1 to be a herald, to officiate as a herald. 1a to proclaim after the manner of a herald.
Could you imagine a herald who is supposed to go into a city and make an announcement just going into the city and acting as if the announcement is true lets say in a place of business?
If a herald did that he would no longer have a job as a herald. The herald is supposed to announce whatever news he has to the city.
Over and over again when I am in this discussion people will say “but just the other day I had someone come up to me in my work and say you’re really nice or (fill in the blank) or whatever. And I get to tell them I’m a Christian.” And they use this as proof that the St.Francis quote is true. Rarely do I hear someone say that the other day their friend submitted their life to the Lordship of Jesus because of their Christ-like actions in their workplace.
Then again….to be Christ-like to be like Christ. And Jesus Christ preached all the time, everywhere!
I mean….in the last 10 years I’ve probably seen around 200,000 people make decisions to follow Jesus and I didn’t know 99.9% of them! They decided to follow him because they heard the good news of Jesus preached.
Now….I know not all them are following Jesus today. That’s a given…but take a conservative estimate of say 25% (Jesus in his parable of the sower & the seeds said that only 1 out of 4 soils produced fruit) that is still 50,000 people somewhere in the world producing fruit for the Kingdom of God!
This is why I think it is necessary to Preach (with words….outloud) the gospel. It’s how the Kingdom of God is spread over the planet.
Jesus commanded us to preach over and over again in the 4 gospels.
Paul said that people can’t get saved unless they hear the message of the gospel.
The apostles were told to no longer preach in the name of Jesus because the Religious people of their day understood the power of preaching and wanted it to stop. So the believers told them they had to obey God and not man and then cried out for God to enable them to speak his word with boldness. (Acts 4)
Now….
I want to address a misconception that I sense when people are discussing this with me.
They begin to argue like it is an either or type of thing. Either you preach the gospel…..Or you Act right in your place of business.
It’s not an either or thing. It’s a Both And thing.
You are suppposed to act right in your place of business and preach the gospel there too!
Sometimes the most loving thing you can do is speak the truth to someone. Because truth that people know will set them free.
In no way do I want to insult St.Francis…the dude could talk to animals and they would listen to him. That’s really cool and it encourages me to continue to command the sharks to swim away from me anytime I’m in the ocean.
I just believe that ideas produce action.
And this idea that it’s not necessary to preach the gospel is in my opinion a “bad idea” that I see produce bad action.
If we’re to finish the great commission we need to stand up and speak the truth in love.
