Preach the Word!

2 Tim. 4:2"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

  3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine..."

When Paul writes his letters to his spiritual son Timothy, he stresses the need to protect the church from teaching that strays from the Truth of the Word of God.  In their day the danger was heathen practices, false gods and religions that were seeping into the church.  In both letters Paul describes the conditions of society and even a faltering church and the need to remain steadfast in the belief systems established by Jesus and the Apostles.  His answer to false teaching and deception, "Preach the Truth!"  You might say, "well, what else could the Church or preachers preach?" A quasi gospel is one that is apparently truth but not really.  Several times in the last few months people have approached me after I finished preaching and they all said something like this.  "Thank you for preaching the Truth."  At first I didn't think much about it.  Then as I began to hear it more and more in different places as I was traveling I began to wonder what it meant.  Could it be that they were all just using the same phrase to flatter me?  I began to think it might be much more than that.  What if preaching from the Scripture as the central focus of my sermon was unusual or different from their normal diet in that Church?  That would be alarming!  After all, when most of us were ordained by some spiritual authority we made a vow of sorts.  Like to taking the oath to join the military I raised my right hand and vowed to protect the nation and the constitution.  When I was ordained into Christian ministry I vowed to "preach the Word!"  Could it be that there is a trend away from preaching and teaching the Word of God in exchange for natural recipes of self improvement?  I surely hope not!  

The Word of God, the Scripture, is not boring.  It is a life force that, when preached with conviction, releases a life changing supernatural power that "converts the heart".  

Self improvement lectures motivates from without but the Word of God motivates and changes from the inside out. Even reading the Scripture in a group setting imparts the very life of God.  However, before one can preach the Word, one must know the Word.  Paul in writing to this same son Timothy also said in his letter, 2 Tim. 2:15 "

 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  You cannot rightly divide the Word until you have studied the Word.(KJV)  

May we place a fresh faith upon the Power of the Word as the force that accomplishes the work.  While we may impress with our oratorical abilities, at the end of the day nothing is changed.  The preaching of the Word on the other hand releases an inescapable power that remains with the hearer long after the service ends.