There is a popular notion making the rounds in pulpits and
in devotionals these days. “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if
necessary.” Have you heard this idea? It is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi who founded the
Franciscan order in the early 1200s. The trouble is, St. Francis never said it.
If you fact check the quote (something I obviously don’t do often enough since
I just discovered 5 minutes ago that St. Francis didn’t actually say this!) you
will learn that no published source of this quote prior to the 1990s has yet been
discovered. Even more troubling than putting words in someone’s mouth, I think
if you actually investigated St. Francis himself you would discover that he was
quite a preacher of the gospel and the misquote matches neither his ethos nor
his actual deeds.
St. Francis didn’t say “Preach the gospel at all times.
Use words if necessary.” But I didn’t set out in this blog to vindicate St.
Francis. Actually I had planned to provide a biblical correction to St. Francis’s
philosophy of evangelism. Now I see I shouldn’t drag St. Francis into it! Unfortunately,
a quote doesn’t have to be based in fact for an idea to gain traction among
people. The bottom line is the philosophy “it is more important to practice the
gospel than to preach it” has gained traction within the church in our day.
Is this approach valid? Does it
have biblical support? In one sense, yes. Jesus said, “you know a tree by its
fruit.” (Matthew 12:33) And he rebuked the religious leaders of his day for
being “white washed tombs - clean on the outside but full of filth on the
inside.” (Matthew 23:27) And "they will know you are Christians by your love." (John 13:35) Obviously Christ condemned hypocrisy and promoted integrity. Our outward acts
must match up with our words. Living a life of integrity is foundational to
evangelism. I think one of the reasons that the “practice the gospel” approach
has gained popularity today is because many are frustrated by “preachy”
Christians whose lives don’t match what they preach. People are bombarded with
hundreds of messages a day. Salesmen and advertizing abound in our generation.
“Sales pitch” evangelism no longer works (if it ever did). People need to see
fruit on the tree before they’re willing to buy in to something. So “Preach the
gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” has a valid point in that our
actions do reflect positively or
negatively on our Savior and the gospel. To quote another adage – “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
(Emerson? - fact check anyone...)
However, in a fundamental way the
“practice the gospel” approach to evangelism is flawed. Its failure lies not in
the desire to “practice what you preach” before a watching world, but in replacing gospel proclamation with
actions only. The bottom line is that faithful evangelism requires words.
Testimony must be given. The good news must be spoken not only modeled. The
Apostle Paul puts it this way:
ESV Romans 10:13-15 For
"everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14
But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are
they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?1 And how are
they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to
preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet
of those who preach the good news!"
We must preach the good news. We must use words to tell
others about Jesus. Ultimately “lifestyle evangelism” fails without word
proclamation because the message sent is: “be a better person (like me), more loving and
caring and thoughtful of others and you too can become right with God.”
Is this not works righteousness? Basing our standing with God on our
performance? We must use words to give interpretation to our lives so that
people know it isn’t what we do that
saves us but what God has done.
So to
correct a commonly misused quote, biblically we should say: “Preach the gospel
at all times. Use words if necessary. And words will definitely be necessary!”
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