"For
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through him might be saved." (John 3:17).
In our quest to preach the Gospel,
God desires that we express and manifest His love and compassion to the hurting
and dying in our world. We’re the oasis of His love in a harsh and cruel world.
The world is already without hope, being alienated from the God-life (Ephesians
4:18); thus, we need to communicate the Gospel to the people of the world in
love. We need to bring them words of love and compassion.
When you preach Christ, preach His
love—don’t condemn anyone. The judgments of God are real, but don’t judge
anyone. The judgmental message doesn’t produce lasting results. It’s His love
message that works. Whenever the children of Israel sinned in the Old
Testament, they bore the brunt of judgment with God. This made them terrified,
such that even when God wanted to speak to them, they were sore afraid and
would rather that Moses spoke to them in God’s stead: "And they said
unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with
us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:19).
These things were written for us to
learn that the love-way is the only way. Love motivated the Father to give His
most priceless gift—His Son—to die for the sins of men. It wasn’t judgment,
condemnation or destruction, but His unfailing and unconditional love that
compelled Him to reach out and deliver humanity from the bondage of sin and
eternal condemnation. So, preach the Father’s love!
1 Corinthians 1:18 says "For
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us
which are saved it is the power of God." Until you deliberately
change the content of your communication and act accordingly to reflect Jesus,
your preaching won’t be impacting the minds of men. In Romans 5:8, the Bible says
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us."
Further Study
Ephesians 5:1-2;
1 Corinthians 13:13
Andy Agim
Christ Realities
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