Preach, Hear, Believe and Obey

How important is it that Christians learn to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ in a language and medium that people are familiar with? We have the greatest treasure, the light of the world, but if it's hidden under a bushel basket or tucked away in a dark, dank cathedral, how will the world hear, believe and obey the Gospel? Showing the sequence of preaching, hearing and believing, St. Paul wrote in Rom. 10:14-15 -

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!'"

The blog How Are They to Believe in Him of Whom They Have Never Heard? illustrates beautifully this principle of communicating the Gospel in the language and medium that people in today's world understand and can relate to. We need to use the communication tools such as the Internet that the young generation is tuned into, and in language they understand!

Not only should we preach in word and demonstrate in action the Gospel of the Kingdom, we must also ask for commitment. The word "hear" in the N.T. actually includes the idea of obeying. In fact, in Mat. 10:7-15 that word in Russian literally means "obey" -

"As you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give. Don’t take any gold, silver, or brass in your money belts. Take no bag for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food. Into whatever city or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy; and stay there until you go on. As you enter into the household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it isn't worthy, let your peace return to you. Whoever doesn't receive you, nor hear your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Most certainly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city."

Note above that the judgment for not hearing/obeying this preaching and demonstrating the Kingdom of Heaven will be more severe for those rejecting it, than for those practicing the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah - homosexuality. It is convenient for many Christians to scapegoat such sinners, while at the same time these "comfortable middle-class Christians" don't lift a finger to heal the sick or cleanse the lepers. And in Heb. 3:15-4:2 we see the connection between not hearing and disobeying -

"It is said, 'Today if you will hear his voice, Don't harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.' For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn't all those who came out of Egypt by Moses? With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn't it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom did he swear that they wouldn't enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief. Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps a promise being left of entering into his rest, anyone of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn't profit them, because it wasn't mixed with faith [belief] by those who heard."

James, the step-brother of Jesus, also tells us of the vital connection between hearing and obeying/doing, in James 1:22-27 -

"But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the word, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

Thus it ought to be abundantly clear that it isn't sufficient to simply nod our heads in agreement to the preacher and thank him for a good sermon. No, we also need to believe-and-obey the Good News!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 10 May 2015.)