God is clear about this. Our job is to communicate, by whatever means appropriate, the message of the good news (1 Cor. 9:22-23, Matt. 28:19, 2 Cor. 5:20 etc.)
There was a time in my life when I thought that I needed to police the preaching of the gospel by others. I defined the gospel as anything in the New Testament and if people didn’t preach what I taught on the matter, then they were judged by me as agents of Satan and not deserving of the name, Christian.
God was patient with me and eventually I opened by my ears to the teaching of the very New Testament that I felt I had done such a good job of policing. I started to notice that nowhere in the Book was anyone judged as lost for the preaching except for the
1. Preaching a different gospel to Paul and the apostles (Gal. 1:8-9). The gospel, according to Paul, was not the whole New Testament. It was and is the message of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus for us (1 Cor. 15:1-4, Titus 3:16).
2. Teaching that Jesus is not the Christ and did not come in physical form (1 John 2:22, 4:2)
If someone teaches the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, who am I to judge them? Just because they don’t agree with me on a list of teachings that I think is important doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t give glory to God because of them. Paul addressed this issue while considering all the preachers he knew. His conclusion was “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,” Philippians 1:18.
We don’t get to be the ones who must be listened to because we get everything (or even most things) right. No one does. We get to be the ones who preach the gospel because God got everything right in Jesus. Listen to the Holy Spirit’s words on this. “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5. “But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,” 1 Corinthians 1:23. “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2.
Church, let’s preach the gospel. Let’s work with whomever we can to get the message of the cross to a hopeless world. Let’s not be judgmental of others because they are different. Let’s give glory to God that His Son is being proclaimed.
