The first part of this blog I talked about the need to be looking to our context to reach people with the gospel but holding to some basic principles of the early church taught in Acts 2:42 saying, "And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers". I will always stand and say these are to be the foundation of any church/group of believers wanting to reach the culture around them for the gospel. This is always and forever a foundational necessity if the body of Christ is to be strong and remain faithful to her calling in this lost and dying world.
As we go about our days in this world not only in building the kingdom, we are to be faithful and true to the church and who she is. I see the bible teaching another important key to remaining strong and faithful to our calling. In first Corinthians the apostle Paul says,
"And I, when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech of wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of man but in the power of God" (2:1-5)
This passage is pivotal in the furthering of the kingdom of God, but also without this gospel as central it can and will hinder healthy growth. Paul talks about this and how our faith needs to rest in God not in the wisdom of man. This is not only the personal responsibility of all who follow Jesus as Lord, but is to be looked at contextually. Maybe your thinking, duh! But to often one of two things happens, either people preach, preach and preach the gospel and don't think about how there coming across with their actions or they are so cautious with their actions they don't want to seem judgmental or pushy so they barely ever preach the gospel if at all. Both are of great danger to the kingdom and to how God is viewed. (I'll talk about how God is viewed next time).
What Paul was dealing with was a culture that held wisdom so high that a false teaching called Gnosticism was born into the Christian church and the apostle John ended up writing 1 John about, as did Paul talk about it in the letter to the Colossians. Anyways back to Corinthians, Paul was writing to a culture that held wisdom as utmost importance for man to attain, but Paul then wrote the words I quoted above about preaching Jesus and only Jesus crucified, nothing more or less. From my experience with believers the truth is that people don't want to "judge" the people they are called to love. This I totally agree with but not to the point of never talking to people about the gospel and God's wrath being poured out on our sins in the judgment or on Jesus as a personal substitute for us when he died on the cross.
When we preach the gospel of hope we are to do so with "gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15) and do as those that are full of grace cause were are saved by grace not a position of our works are not filthy rags, but with love for those we preach to. Now when i say preach I do mean telling people about Jesus, but is always and forever inclusive of good deeds and a heart of love for those you talk to, but I stand on telling people cause my deeds are not good enough in God's sight so why should I allow them to point to Jesus instead of Jesus deeds He is the one I should tell people about, not me or my works!
This again must be done with gentleness and respect and with living in a culture that wants to know you before they trust what you say, so we should love and then preach so people will listen but never love without preaching! This is an issue that needs to be dealt with in all cultures where the Christian church is and the kingdom is being built, but the issue that is equal is that of how to tell people about the Christ with a cultural understanding about the people, but as I said in my last blog we should never study man so far as to have a false or skewed understanding about the sinful nature and we should never put the cultural understanding first and then the sinful nature.
Paul's words ring loud about preaching Jesus only in any culture. When Paul talks about Jesus Christ and Him crucified he points directly to the sinful nature and the work of redemption that god offers to his elect. No matter where you live or what time period you live in, man will always be sinful by nature. Jesus is the only savior acceptable to God for the sins of man, the only true picture and gift of God's love, and the only way to appease His wrath toward man and that is all we should ever preach. This is necessary as Paul says for peoples faith the rest in the Holy Spirit and not in man!
God's love and grace to all who read this, may you continue to be blessed as you serve the one true God; Father, Son and Spirit!
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