 What Will I Say? Part 2 2004 : Week 49 | Printer Friendly Version Last week we began looking at Paul’s letter to the church of Corinth and Paul urging them to avoid two mistakes when sharing the Gospel:
Paul seems to be cautioning against getting involved in discussions where our debating skills become the center of attention. When we do this, we shift the focus from the point we should be making; Jesus is the only path to Heaven. If you’ve tried to share the Gospel, you’ve run into people who try to drag you into intellectual discussions on any of a number of topics. Debate on these issues is fine, and the topics could be many: creation vs. evolution, humanism, relativism, the role of religion in society etc., but our aim is not to win a debate against a lost soul. Our aim is not to look scholarly, and our aim is not to impress people with the way we sound. Our aim is lifting up the Lord and presenting the Bible accurately and honestly. What is the use of winning a debate on a Bible topic but not sharing the Gospel? Our aim should be ‘teaching the importance of Jesus and His crucifixion.’ At the end of our debating, has the person been told about Jesus? Did they hear the Gospel, or were we so wrapped up in the debate that we forgot what we should have been telling them all along? Sometimes we think we have to add or take away from what the Bible says when we are sharing it. We feel we have to sound impressive to the people we are preaching to. It’s almost as if we think, “If I can make my Bible presentation intellectual enough, I’m sure to impress these people and they will be converted.” Again, this is not what we are meant to do. Our Bible is perfect, and it delivers it’s message perfectly; we would be wise to focus on what the Bible says. When we feel we have to manipulate what the Bible says, we are showing a lack of faith. We are concluding that the power of God, as revealed in the message of the Scriptures, needs our clever interpretations to reach some of the people we meet. This is exactly what Paul is warning against when he say’s
When we minister to the lost, we must focus on the Gospel. When we preach about the Bible, the basis of our message should be the Bible. The words contained in the Bible are part of the Lord’s perfect plan for the salvation of humanity. We have no right dumb it down or fancy it up in clever language. It is perfect. It is adequate and it is perfectly adequate to capture the hearts and souls of men. The Lord wouldn’t have made it so, if it weren’t. Think, for a moment, about your own conversion. Did it come because of the speaker, or did it come because of what you heard? Didn’t the message of the cross haunt your soul? Were you not broken by the weight of your sins, so that you prayed that Jesus would remove the horrible burden? Why would we think that that rest of the world would need any other message. Further, why would we think that we, in and of our own wisdom, would have that message? If someone does not want to hear the message of the Bible, then there is little you can do to make them hear it at that time. It doesn’t make sense to force yourself upon them because you think they are ready to hear it. When the Lord prepares them, they will hear it. In the meantime pray that the Lord would bring people into your life that are ready to hear the plain and simple truth of the Bible. Pray as well that the Lord would give you the wisdom to adhere diligently to what the Bible says when you share it. Paul’s lesson is simple, the message of the Bible is pure, powerful and able to transform sinners, so we must not deviate from it. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you today and always…  Printer Friendly Version Archives | Tell Your Friends | Submit a Devotion |
 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 (NASB) 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. • Read Chapter • Listen to Chapter |
