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The quality of balance lends grace, order, and beauty almost to anything. The work of preaching the Gospel is no exception. God’s Word contains descriptions of the balance with which God wants His preachers to preach, and men had better not tamper with it. A good example is Jeremiah’s prophetic commission: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:10). This charge typifies the work God gave to all of the Old Testament prophets. Although uninspired, Gospel preachers of today are God’s post-apostolic “prophets.” We should not be surprised that the charge to Gospel preachers is very similar to that given to the prophets of old. It is well summarized in the familiar, but often ignored, words of Paul: “Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).
When we analyze these two passages, we will see God’s idea of “balanced” preaching. It includes both “negative” and “positive” elements, as men are wont to describe them. The plucking up, breaking down, destroying, and overthrowing Jeremiah and the Old Testament prophets were to do is parallel to the reproving and rebuking Gospel preachers are to do. These terms all relate to what people generally refer to as “negative” preaching, which so many brethren like to criticize. The farmer or gardener that sows seed in a field that has not been cleared of various “trash” plants will have little, if any success with his crop. Jesus underscored this obvious fact in the Parable of the Sower. The thorns in the uncleared ground choked out any sprouts the seed produced (Mat. 13:7).
Many pulpiteers (I hesitate to call them “preachers”) have abandoned anything that smacks of what they judge to be “negative” preaching or writing. The steadily increasing cries for “positive” preaching that began in the 1960s paved the way for much of the catastrophic apostasy the church has suffered (pardon the “negative,” but nonetheless true) assessment of history).
I have grown exceedingly weary of such critics over the years. They display either an abysmal ignorance of God’s requirements of His preachers and/or a rejection of these requirements. God has been against sin and false doctrine from the beginning. He requires His people to oppose them, also. There is no way one can be a faithful child of God, preacher or otherwise, if he (or she) does not reprove and rebuke the things God despises. Now should one incessantly reprove, rebuke, and overthrow in his preaching, he would surely be unbalanced. It appears certain, however, that some are determined to eliminate all “negative” elements in preaching (except, of course, their very negative protestations against “negative” preaching).
Balanced preaching requires “positive” preaching, as men generally describe it, too. Jeremiah was to build and plant, and Gospel preachers are to exhort. It is not enough to overthrow false doctrine. We must erect the Truth in its place. Preachers must not only rebuke and expose ungodliness and error, but they must also exhort men to be righteous. Positive preaching will include the great subjects of faith, grace, hope, Heaven, and love—as the New Testament defines them. However, by the Gospel’s standard, positive preaching is not defined by making hearers feel good about themselves when they need to repent. And just for the record, both of these passages contain twice as many “negatives” as “positives.” Shall we call the Lord’s preaching “unbalanced” because He said much more about The Judgment and eternal punishment than He did about Heaven?
[Note: I wrote this article for and it was published in The Lighthouse, weekly bulletin of Northpoint Church of Christ, Denton, TX, April 17, 2011, of which I was editor.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
