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Psalm 33:5
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"Preach the Gospel. If Necessary Use Words."
"Preach the Gospel. If Necessary Use Words."
“Preach the Gospel, if necessary use words.”
This common quote/concept is most often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi (even though he never directly used this quote, the concept can be found in his teachings). Today we see this quote (or some form of it) everywhere in Christian circles. Most websites I find that discuss it declare the quote as incredible and an important truth to keep in mind. The idea is that we do not really have to verbally share the gospel, but instead need to let the light of Christ shine through us in a way that “preaches” to people in everyday life.
Let me begin by making two brief points. First, there is some controversy surrounding the context of this quote. One website I found said this about the origin of it:
“In Chapter XVII of his Rule of 1221, Francis told the friars not to preach unless they had received the proper permission to do so. Then he added, “Let all the brothers, however, preach by their deeds.” Click here for this website.
This implies the reason Francis supported the “preach by deeds” concept was because he wanted preaching to be according to the law (in other words, he did not want to share the gospel when it was illegal to do so). If this is the case the issue is: when it is illegal to verbally share the gospel, do we as Christians submit to the government, or do we continue to preach? This is an issue for another article, on another day. For now, let’s stick to the quote as it is used today.
Today, people use this quote in America (where it is legal to verbally share the gospel for the time being) to say that we do not really need to verbally preach the gospel to lost people, we only need to share the gospel in our lifestyle. The idea is that when people see how we are acting, they will want to hear the gospel because they want to know what, “makes us so different.”
I understand that faith without works is dead. If I witness to somebody, and then walk into a bar and start a fight five minutes later, my testimony is ruined. That hurts the cause of the gospel. It is imperative that our deeds/lifestyles reflect the love of Jesus Christ. With that said, making our “lifestyle” our presentation of the gospel and following the slogan, “Preach the gospel. When necessary use words,” is not only detrimental to the furtherance of the gospel but is as far from biblical Christianity as the North is from the South.
Mark 16:15 says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” The word for preach is the Greek kerusso, which means, “to publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done; proclaim with the goal to persuade, urge, warn to comply.” The textual implication here is clearly a spoken word. A public proclamation! Jesus do not say, “Go into all the world and only use words when necessary.” Literally translated He said, “Go into all the world and verbally proclaim the gospel.”
What was the Sermon on the Mount? Matthew 5:1-2 says, “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them…” Jesus did not simply do miracles and good deeds for the people (although of course, His teaching did come with these things); He opened His mouth and verbally preached to them.
What did Paul have to say about the idea of not using verbal communication as the main means to further the gospel? First Corinthians 9:16 says, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” Paul declared that he would be in grief if he did not publicly proclaim the good news! He never would have said, “Preach the gospel, when necessary use words.”
Romans 9: 14 says, “How then will they call upon whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” If the Church abandons the biblical model for spreading the gospel and does not verbally proclaim the message, how will people hear? How will the gospel spread? Read through the book of Acts and imagine if every phrase that tells us the apostles proclaimed the gospel was removed. Pretend every quote or sermon found in the Bible’s pages were not said. Where would we be? Take public, verbal preaching out of the book of Acts, and the book of Acts does not exist. If we live our lives based on this, “When necessary use words,” concept, we are ignoring and neglecting precious portions of scripture that God has given us.
Again, preaching the gospel without living a lifestyle for Jesus Christ is the definition of hypocrisy. And certainly showing lost people the love of Christ is a powerful and irreplaceable witnessing tool given to us by the Holy Spirit. One without the other is useless. Verbal proclamation and showing the love of Christ through our actions are two sides of the same coin; they are joined together and cannot be separated if we desire to reach this world with the gospel. However, if we allow our “lifestyle” to become the extent of our evangelistic efforts, and we rarely share the gospel using words, we go down a path far from the Bible that Stephen, Peter, Paul, and Jesus Himself would have nothing to do with.