“Spread the word,” (4:2) Paul directs Timothy. The Lord summons those who are called to Christ’s holy ministry to deliver his message. Whether it’s convenient or politically correct or not, we are to be faithful preachers of God’s word. “Point out errors, warn people, and encourage them” (v.2). The holy Scripture is useful “for teaching, pointing out errors, correcting people, and training them for a life that has God’s approval” (v.16). God speaks to our own generation in the words written here.
God’s word calls us to “Speak out for the one who cannot speak, for the rights of those who are doomed” (Proverbs 31:8). Especially today, when the God-given right to life itself has been left unsanctioned for unborn children, we must speak up for these “little ones” created by God’s hand and redeemed by God’s Lamb. God wants these also to be saved and to learn the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).
The life issues present a wonderful opportunity to proclaim God’s word to the nations. These issues-abortion, embryonic stem-cell harvesting, the use and abuse of our sexuality, euthanasia-go to the heart of our identity and our need for God’s restorative kindness. God’s word is addressed to all of us in these matters.
Proclaiming of God’s Word of Creation
God speaks, and his word instructs us that we are amazingly and miraculously made. All preaching presupposes this truth and must make it explicit. Proclaiming God’s word for life should leave the hearer in a state of awe and instill a certain sense of wonder at the astonishing facts of our creation. “From the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what he made” (Romans 1:20).
The lie of evolution dethrones the majesty of God in human estimation and leaves people blind to his intelligent design of every creature. This lie deceives people so that they neither thank God for the blessings of their creation nor acknowledge God in their view of this world and their place in it. As a result, a cancerous culture of death has developed. It eats into the fabric of society, giving the strong “rights” over the weak, and leaving the old and the infirm expendable.
In spite of popular opinion, part of the task given to proclaimers of God’s word is to point out error and to warn people of the consequences of holding on to that error. Preaching in the name of the God of truth exposes the error of evolution by proclaiming a positive message of the wonder of God’s creation which restores value to human life and promotes the healing power of a culture of life.
Proclaiming God’s Word of Law
God speaks, and his word of law condemns sin. Sin happens in our relationships with others-husband and wife, parent and child, sister and brother, neighbor and neighbor. Sin disrupts and destroys those relationships. Within a generation after our first parents rebelled and disobeyed, Cain murdered his brother Abel. God’s judgment is directed against all that would cause harm to the life of his creation, specifically against that which is created in his own image. “Never murder” (Exodus 20:13).
These hurts must be named not only so that the hearer feels them, but so that every attempt at self-justification is brought to an end. The proper preaching of God’s word of law leaves us no excuse for the wrongs we have done and permits no way for us to earn God’s approval for ourselves.
Here the preacher must take particular care. Guilt over God’s commandment that addresses the life issues runs particularly deep. The mother who knows her actions have robbed her offspring of life may now be suffering a post-abortion trauma which no other person may fully measure. The purpose of preaching God’s word of law is not to drive someone into absolute despair, but to make the hearer receptive to the help they really need. This help can be found nowhere else other than Christ.
Additionally, God’s word of law must not be proclaimed in such a way as to give the impression that only the particular sins of some are condemned by it and that others who are not involved directly in these sins are left unaddressed. We must not become hardened in our hearts toward those who have had an abortion while we have not. We must identify ourselves as fellow sinners who always stand in need of the same divine kindness as those who have made a particular wrong decision against life. The law always accuses. None are left untouched by that accusation.
Proclaiming the Good News of God’s Word
God speaks, and his word of kindness, brings forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The Christian faith is not, “It’s good to be good, and bad to be bad.” It’s not enough to be against abortion. A defense of moral causes can be found outside the Church. The real heart of preaching is something quite distinct from the preaching of the law. It is the blessed Good News of Jesus Christ. We are to announce that in Christ God has come near to us. He brings help for the helpless, solace and comfort for the abandoned, pardon and approval for condemned sinners. He brings a life that is complete and enduring-life with God and his people forever.
In the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has acted decisively to reclaim his lost creation. He has taken our past into himself, to strip it of its guilt, and to make us right with himself. In the cross of Christ, God disarms the powers arrayed against us-sin and death, law and judgment, devil and hell-restoring the balance between his creature and himself as rightful Lord. Paul’s appeal to Timothy is based on this fact, that Christ who died for all, comes to judge the living and the dead, and will come to rule over us. That is Paul’s—and the Christian’s—worldview.
Jesus came so that we might have life in God and with that life everything we really need. The proclamation of God’s word of life is centered on the incarnation, on the One who is praised as the Church sings the Te Deum, for he “did not abhor the virgin’s womb.” By that greatest of mysteries, God the Holy Spirit brought it about that God the Son should become tiny and helpless tucked away in the womb of his earthly mother. God made it this way, so that Jesus should pass through all those stages of life through which we ourselves grow, sanctifying them all in his holy life.
Jesus gave his life for ours. “My life for yours”—that’s the motto of his people. The proclamation of God’s word for life is incarnational in this sense also, that in such preaching God the Holy Spirit is truly speaking, using what Christ has appointed as a means of divine kindness, to bring life to the dying, and set them on paths of gratitude, joy, and service for his own name’s sake. So preacher spread the word!