Daily Devotional for Sunday, February 26th

Preach the Gospel

“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God,”
1 Corinthians 1:17, 18.

“Many Christians love evangelism as long as someone else is doing it.”—Ed Stetzer

The apostle Paul, at times, defended his ministry to fellow-believers by restating his call from God. Paul was sent to preach the gospel; He made no bones about it. When his ministry was called into question or when he gave accountability to his sending church, he spoke of little else than his faithfulness to preach the gospel. Local churches have a commission from God to send missionaries around the world and we are blessed in doing so. As we require accountability from those missionaries, many times we expect more evangelistic fervor from them than we require of ourselves. As fellow laborers in the kingdom, we should call ourselves to account personally for our own faithfulness to share the gospel just as we would the missionaries we support.

As members of the Lord’s churches, we will be called to account for how faithfully we have shared the gospel. We may expect our pastors and other leaders to be faithful evangelists. But we cannot abandon the command for evangelism to the officers of the church. We must personally preach the gospel to those God has placed in our lives. We will give an account for how we stewarded our time for the most critical of tasks: evangelism.

REFLECTION
There is not a greater responsibility nor a greater joy for the Christian
than to faithfully preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Steven Ridings