PREACH THE WORD (“Our Preacher Preaches the Bible!”)
Paul told his young protege Timothy to “preach the word” in 2 Timothy 4:2. Timothy was a preacher. Paul was a preacher. Paul was also an apostle of Jesus Christ. And he was telling Timothy what the message is. What he wanted the young preacher to spend his time doing.
When we think of preaching, we think of standing up in a man-made pulpit, talking to the same group every Sunday. That is not what Paul was talking about. You can certainly do what Paul said to do here in a “pulpit” in a building. But Timothy was a man who was commissioned to spend his life telling people about Jesus.
To “preach the word” is to preach Jesus, the real one found in the New Testament writings that we have now. In the previous chapter, Paul had just made reference to the Old Testament Scriptures with which Timothy was familiar. He said that even those were able to inform someone about salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15).
So even the Old Testament is about salvation through Christ. How much more are the New Testament Scriptures about that? So Paul said that the Scriptures are inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16), and are able to make one knowledgeable about salvation through faith in Christ. But he was talking about the Old Testament Scriptures—the New Testament Scriptures were in the process of being written.
So what would this directive mean to us today? What would be the principle for us since we have the New Testament writings? If Timothy was to preach the Old Testament writings from the standpoint of salvation through Christ and focus on Christ—if “preach the word” even for him meant preach Christ, in other words—how much more does “preach the word” mean “preach nothing but Jesus” to us, since “the word” we have is the New Testament Scriptures that actually tell us directly about Christ?
We hear many people saying, “Our preacher preaches the Bible.” What that almost always means is that they quote or read a lot of Bible verses in their “sermons” and teach their and their denomination’s interpretations of Bible doctrines. And that is worthless.
Do they preach Jesus? That should be the question. Like Paul’s preaching, is he or she determined not to know anything except Jesus and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2)? Do you think that to Paul, “preach the word” meant to preach about church organization and interpretations of the Book of Revelation, and how to take communion and all sorts of other things in the Bible that no two believers could ever interpret exactly alike unless one of them stopped thinking? No. Paul meant in 2 Timothy 4:2 what he meant in 1 Corinthians 2:2.
We don’t need preachers who “preach the Bible” in the sense that that is usually meant. Preaching their views on Bible doctrines and impressing people with how much they “know” about the Bible. What we need are people who preach Jesus and nothing else.
The only kind of preaching that matters is preaching Christ. Teaching people so that they grow in their knowledge of Jesus the person. “Preaching the word” is preaching what the word says about Jesus. The Bible has only one purpose. To help people know and love Jesus.
The Scriptures are inspired by God. And they have always had one purpose, whether we’re talking about the Scriptures of the Old Testament or the New Testament. It is and has always been about Jesus. Always about knowing him and loving him. Nothing but him.
Dewayne Dunaway
