"If necessary, use words"

It is a known, and obvious fact that Christianity requires consistency. If you're going to claim to be a Christian, it is essential that you live as a Christian. Unfortunately, this fact can sometimes be taken too far. Many pride-filled Christians, upon hearing a Christian preach, will ironically preach against preaching, claiming our actions are more important.

Although attributed to him, Francis of Assisi did not, in fact, say "preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary, use words". It is not in his writings, neither did any of his contemporaries attribute it to him. But regardless of who said it, I contend that it is not Biblical, at least as far as its modern usage goes.

Far too often, people use this quote to stifle apologetics. The argument goes that rather than witnessing to people by actually preaching, we must witness to them simply by not being jerks. The truth, however, is that both are necessary. Paul says it best: How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?

I don't know if you've noticed, but the Bible is full of words, being a book and all. And it's a rather large book, too. It's not full of pictures, nor does it advocate a 2,000 year long game of Holy Charades. In Christianity, the words come first. In fact, one of Jesus' titles is the Word of God. Not once is He referred to as "The Action".

In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas healed a cripple. Of course, they did it with words, but the action of healing the cripple is what got them noticed. The result was that they were worshipped as gods themselves. When words are alone, faith can be created, for God's words do not return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11). But when actions are alone, nobody is saved.

You see, then, the importance of words. If no one preaches, no one hears, no one is saved. It is essential to both preach and live according to the Gospel. Those who use this quote to stifle verbal preaching need to get off their high horses. We get it, you do good to be seen by men. Now tell them what Jesus did for them so that they can be given living water.