1 Corinthians 1:21 says that “it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Preaching the gospel is very important part of the work of the church because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). In order for one to obey the gospel they must hear the gospel, studying it to learn what they must do to be saved. Most who hear the truth today hear it first from a preacher of the gospel, but preaching is more that just what happens on Sunday morning in our weekly worship services. Each Christian is responsible for preaching and not just those who are called preachers in the brotherhood.

In Acts 8 a great persecution befell the church as the number of disciples multiplied. The church in Jerusalem was targeted and Christians were scattered through Judea and Sumeria. “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word (verse 4).” Note that this verse doesn’t say the Apostles or the preachers were preaching everywhere but those who were scattered. This would include all the Christians that were scattered, so we should see that it is every Christians responsibility to preach and spread the good news of the gospel.

That’s not to say that we all must be able to stand before others and preach as we usually think of preaching, but there are a couple of ways that we all can spread the good news. First, we should preach to others by living the word of God in our daily lives. If we live as God teaches us to live and as He would have us do, we will be different than others who we encounter in our lives and this difference will often be noticed by others. This is how we can preach in our daily lives by, first and foremost, living the word of God before others.

This, of course, is not as easy to do as to say, but it will take a full commitment on our part to godly living and not just giving lip service to God and His ways of righteousness. There is a vast difference between saying we should do something and actually getting our there and doing it. We must be sure we are doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22). By living a godly life before others we can preach the word by showing how it works in the lives of the faithful and being a godly example to others.

Living as God would have us leads to the other way we may all preach in our daily lives. When others see Christ working in us and may even ask about Him, we have opportunity to share the “hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15).” We should always look for every opportunity we might have to share the gospel with others and pray that God will provide us with the chance to do so.

We may offend others by speaking of God, especially in this era of “political correctness,” but we must not be swayed by this prospect. Jesus and the Apostles did not waver in their zeal to spread the gospel and they quite often offended others by doing so. Of course if a person is offended by Jesus, we should perhaps use wisdom before sharing Him, because we are not to cast our pearls before swine, meaning if it would do no good to try to persuade one continuously who repeatedly rejects the message.

Still, we can be surprised by just who might respond, so we should be careful when judging who will and who will not. If others are offended by any preaching we do by living Christ before them, there is not much we can do about it. We must not give in to peer pressure or what others expect of us in a way that causes us to sin to seem like one of the crowd. Instead, we must live Christ before them and let the chips fall where they may by leaving it in God’s hands.

If we all do what we can in preaching the gospel, the word of God cannot help but be known throughout all the earth. Word of mouth and example is the way the gospel has been spread since the beginning. If each person tells one other the gospel, it cannot help but spread through the entire world. This is how we must all do our part to see that the gospel is preached and God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

May God bless and keep you until next time.