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Writer's pictureBible Brian

The Gospel is not a game of charades


There is a quote, attributed to Francis of Assissi, that says "preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." There is some merit to this phrase. Properly applied, it can mean that our actions are very important, sometimes more so than our preaching. We must practice what we preach in order for our preaching to be effective. No one listens to a shameless hypocrite.


However, this saying is often misapplied. It is more often heard when a Christian gets "too passionate" about actually preaching, or is preaching an unpopular truth, or actually cares about advanced theology. Basically, anything more than "Jesus loves you" is considered "too many words".


But the Bible tells a different story. Rather than "preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words", the great commission, from the mouth of the Lord Himself, is "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."


I don't know about you, but that sounds like a lot more than just a few words, followed by the world's longest game of charades. Preaching is important. There's a reason Christ is called "The Word", not "the action".


Indeed, words are the very thing that separates us from the animals. We can form coherent sentences, allowing for communication of even the most complex of messages. Even a service animal, while it can be trained to get people's attention, isn't capable of something like "hey, please follow me, my human has fallen over and I need you to call an ambulance".


It is often said that actions speak louder than words, but as shown in the header image, that isn't the case. Some things, you just can't decipher from an action. As Paul tells us in Romans 10:14, you can't believe in something you've never heard. Therefore, when preaching the Gospel, words are always necessary. Actions merely back them up. Words are the superhero, actions are just the sidekick. Therefore, preach the Gospel at all times, period. Just be consistent about it. Live it out. You do that, you can use as many words as Jesus did, you'll still be effective.

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