What should a preacher do when preaching the Gospel to the lost? Is it to be something that is of pure love, or something that warns them of their sin and exhorts them to come to Christ?
This is something I have personally struggled with tremendously throughout my later childhood and now. I read in the Gospels where Christ preached meekly, “And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.” (Luke 5:31) - in Matthew 5:5 we see Jesus giving the sermon on the mount, saying that "blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth!"
What is it then? Is it the job of a Christian to preach meekness, and meekness alone, without a tint of any condemnation? Was Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century preacher who sparked the second great awakening in America, and who God used to convert 500 souls to Christ the day he gave his sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' in error for mingling meekness with judgment?
Though Christ in the Gospels did preach love and meekness, he also preached condemnation and justice! 5 chapters after the sermon on the mount, Jesus says "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) - after John 3:16, the 'verse of God's love', Jesus tells Nicodemus that: "He that believeth on him [Jesus] is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:18) and, again, in verse 36: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Paul writes in Ephesians 5:11: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
What is my point?
Plainly, that a Christian ought to take the effort to understand the Scriptures, and know when to preach with meekness, and when not to preach with meekness.
This is something that takes much time and study... Something I need to work on.
I recommend 'The Bruised Reed' by Richard Sibbes to anyone interested in this topic. Sibbes understood this topic very well.
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