For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
God gives differing gifts to each member of the body of Christ, for the edification of the saints. We are not all called to be a preacher, but we are all called to preach, in the sense that we all have someone who looks up to us or asks our advice. These individuals may be our children, our relatives, our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers, or a stranger that we meet and tell about the good news of God’s grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. When we have these opportunities, we must alway preach our Savior and not ourselves or some other man. We must always point to the perfection that is in Christ and God’s Word, and acknowledge our weakness and the fact that it is by His grace that we stand. Otherwise, when our weaknesses are seen, we can be viewed as hypocrites and shame can be unjustly blamed on the Lord.
In those instances when the Lord uses us to edify someone through His Word, we must disallow the individual to exalt us above measure. I dare say that if Calvin and Luther were here today, they would be horrified to see millions of people in Christian denominations dedicated to their names and their interpretation of God’s Word, instead of reading God’s Word for themselves.
The Holy Spirit through the pen of Luke in Acts 14 gives us an excellent example of this. Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra preaching the gospel, when Paul heals a crippled man. The people witnessing this, begin to deify Paul and Barnabas as the Roman gods Mercury and Jupiter. In verses 13-18 we read:
Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. Which when the apostles Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these sayings he scarcely restrained the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.
The adversary wants us to preach ourselves or other men and not the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants men to be idolized, so they can either be torn down and deemed as hypocrites and cast a negative light on the gospel or so they can be deified and faith can be placed in them instead of our Lord.
As we raise our children, minister to each other, and talk to others may we pray that the Lord would strengthen us so that we by Christ’s love might serve one another and always point to the Author and Finisher of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Him,
Derrick
A study of the Sword 