Preach the Word…please!

Paul charges Timothy, his own “son” in ministry, to focus on the preaching of Scripture:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.   —2 Tim. 4:1-4

Paul gives us a hint of the alternative to preaching the Word-when ministers do not preach Scripture, they end up telling stories designed to meet individual human needs that are ultimately useless. In a letter to another of his ‘students,’ Paul explains that the minister must be a man of the Word:

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.   —Titus 1:9

Why is it so critical that ministers preach the Word? We can begin at the beginning-because it is the Word that makes us Christians. We are regenerated by the Word:

[Y]ou have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God….   —1 Pet. 1:23

The Word sanctifies us:

…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.   -Eph. 5:25-27

The Word is the Agent of our complete transformation:

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.   —James 1:21

Our very lives as Christians—including our continuing transformation and final destination—are a product of the Word of God. Ministers need to preach the Word because it is the only way we can ever know God. God is hidden to all of our natural senses. We cannot hear Him, see Him, smell Him, touch Him or taste Him. We can know Him only through His Word. This is not surprising, since God and His Word are One:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.   —John 1:1-2

Christianity is not an experience of God apart from the Word. It is a relationship with God through His Word. If we do not abide in the Word, we do not have a relationship with God:

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.   —2 John 9

The Word of God is our sure guide for knowing God, knowing ourselves, and knowing life. The Word is true, astute and applicable to us even in our time, because God inspired it:

All Scripture is inspired by God, and is beneficial to instruction, to reproof, to correction, to training in righteousness, so that the man and woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.   —2 Tim. 3:16-17 (own translation)

Because the eternal, omniscient, omnipotent God stands behind the written word, we can count on its veracity and accuracy. The word is truth, because God Himself is truth. Jesus revealed this in his prayer before his final passion:

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.   —John 17:17

If we want to know the truth, if we want to know God, if we want to know the answers to those questions that plague us throughout our lives—we need to know God’s Word. To learn why we need salvation, to learn how we are saved, to learn how then we should live once we are saved, we need to learn the Word of God. No wonder Paul tells ministers to preach the Word! It is the source of Christian life and direction. How much more should preachers today be preachers of the Word?

The Church should be the place where the Word of God is systematically and faithfully expounded. Sadly this is not necessarily true in our time. We need God’s help. He is the Head of the Church and is listening for a people who will cry out in hunger and thirst for His Word. May we be that kind of people. May God have mercy on us, and give us His Word afresh and anew!