A congregation can hear a biblical verse every week and still receive only a narrow range of biblical instruction. A preacher may speak often about forgiveness while rarely explaining repentance, or regularly speak about assurance while passing over warnings addressed to believers. The resulting weakness becomes evident when someone brings a persuasive claim that uses familiar biblical words in a way the congregation has never learned to examine. It also becomes evident when a believer needs to act on a command that has been quoted often but seldom explained. Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders connects the breadth of his teaching with their ability to guard the flock (Acts 20:26–31). His charge to Timothy explains what a preacher owes his hearers when they would prefer to hear something else (2 Timothy 4:1–5). Both passages make the instruction a congregation receives part of the care it is owed.

Paul Declared the Whole Purpose of God

Paul summoned the Ephesian elders to Miletus and reminded them how he had taught among them (Acts 20:17–21). He had declared what was profitable in public and from house to house, testifying to Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. He also speaks of the good news of God’s grace and of proclaiming the Kingdom (Acts 20:24–25). These particulars show what Paul means when he says, “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:27, UASV). He had made known God’s saving purpose and the response it required, even when speaking about it brought opposition. A preacher may need to spend an entire sermon on a single passage, but over time the congregation needs to hear how the parts of the message belong together. Hearers who know about God’s grace also need to know why repentance is necessary and what faith in Christ calls them to do.

Paul says that he is innocent of the blood of all men and immediately gives as his reason that he had declared the whole purpose of God (Acts 20:26–27). His concern is the responsibility borne by a man who has been entrusted with a message that bears on the lives of others. The connection recalls Jehovah’s charge to Ezekiel, who was responsible for warning the wicked man when given a word to deliver (Ezekiel 3:17–19). The hearer remained responsible for his response, and the messenger was accountable for whether he gave the warning. That distinction applies when a preacher knows what a passage says and is tempted to pass it over because an influential hearer will object. The preacher cannot produce repentance in another person, but he can give that person a fair opportunity to hear the instruction, understand why it applies, and respond to it.

What Selective Preaching Leaves the Flock Unable to See

Paul tells the elders to pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock, which God obtained with the blood of His own Son (Acts 20:28). He expects fierce wolves to come in from outside and men from among the elders themselves to speak twisted things in order to draw disciples after them (Acts 20:29–30). The second danger explains why familiarity with a teacher cannot take the place of examining what he teaches. A man may use language the congregation has heard for years while quietly changing what that language means. If a teacher appeals to grace to excuse conduct Scripture condemns, people who have heard only that grace forgives may find the claim persuasive. Those who have also been taught how grace trains believers to renounce ungodliness have a passage with which to examine the claim (Titus 2:11–14). Paul’s warning gives the elders a reason to build that knowledge before a persuasive error is already dividing the congregation.

Paul tells the elders to remember that for three years he had admonished each one night and day with tears (Acts 20:31). His example shows that preparing a congregation takes sustained instruction and concern for particular people. A sermon can introduce a truth, but people often need to see it applied in more than one situation before they can recognize its bearing on a decision of their own. If a pastor teaches that Christians must speak truthfully, for example, he can also explain why Paul tells believers to put away falsehood and speak truth with their neighbor because they are members of one another (Ephesians 4:25). That reason helps a hearer consider the effect of concealing a damaging mistake from a fellow believer who needs to know about it. Instruction that follows the author’s reasoning gives people grounds for deciding what faithful conduct requires when the preacher is absent.

Preach the Word When Hearers Resist It

Paul charges Timothy in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and he invokes Christ’s appearing and Kingdom (2 Timothy 4:1). He then tells Timothy to preach the word, to be ready in season and out of season, and to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching (2 Timothy 4:2). The solemn setting identifies to whom Timothy answers when hearers disagree with what he says. The command to be ready means that the duty remains when the circumstances are unfavorable. Paul’s requirement of patience and teaching governs how Timothy is to carry it out. A rebuke can name a wrong plainly while explaining what the passage says, why the conduct falls under it, and what obedience would require. Hearers should be able to understand the grounds of a correction even if they are reluctant to accept it.

Paul expects a time when hearers will refuse sound teaching and gather teachers who tell them what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3–4). Their desires help determine whom they will listen to, and repeated listening then reinforces those desires. A pastor can feel this pressure when members praise messages on mercy but complain whenever a passage names a sin they want left undisturbed. The instruction to Timothy in that situation is to stay sober-minded, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill his ministry (2 Timothy 4:5). Sobriety of judgment helps a pastor distinguish resistance to a biblical command from a valid objection to his explanation of it. If a hearer identifies a flaw in his reading, he should examine it. If the objection concerns a command the passage clearly gives, he should be prepared to explain it again with the patience Paul requires.

Teaching a Difficult Passage in Its Own Context

A pastor preparing to teach a difficult passage should begin by determining where the author’s argument starts and what question it answers. James 2:14–26, for example, opens with the case of someone who says he has faith while having no works. James immediately asks what good it does to send a poorly clothed and hungry brother or sister away with kind words while supplying none of the things the person needs (James 2:15–17). That example explains what James means by a claim that has no corresponding action. His later appeal to Abraham shows faith working together with his deeds and being brought to maturity by them (James 2:21–23). A sermon that begins with the dispute over the word “works” can leave hearers uncertain why James brings up a hungry person. Reading through the argument gives them a concrete way to see the inadequacy of a profession that never governs conduct.

The pastor can then compare James with Paul’s explanation of salvation in Ephesians 2:8–10. Paul says salvation is God’s gift through faith and excludes works as grounds for boasting. He immediately adds that believers were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared for them to do. James addresses a person whose claim to faith is contradicted by the absence of action, while Paul addresses the ground on which a person receives salvation and the life for which believers are created. A congregation can therefore learn why good works cannot earn salvation and why a professed faith that leaves conduct untouched is dead. In application, a preacher can ask hearers to consider whether their words to a member in need have been accompanied by help they are in a position to give. That application comes from the case James presents and leaves the relationship between grace, faith, and action intact.

Giving Biblical Warnings Their Intended Force

The warning in Hebrews 3:7–19 illustrates why a pastor should explain who is being addressed and why. The writer recalls the generation that heard God’s voice in the wilderness and hardened its heart. He then addresses his hearers as brothers and tells them to watch lest any of them develop an evil heart of unbelief by falling away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12). The danger is described as something the hearers must guard against, and the writer tells them to exhort one another daily so that none will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13). He also connects sharing in Christ with holding their original confidence firm to the end (Hebrews 3:14). A pastor who treats the warning as irrelevant to believers leaves the congregation without an explanation of the very responsibility the writer gives to the brothers.

A preacher can give that warning its force while showing the congregation how it is meant to help them. Hebrews identifies the deceitfulness of sin as a danger and mutual exhortation as a response (Hebrews 3:13). For example, a believer who has repeatedly excused dishonesty may begin to speak of it as an unavoidable feature of his work. A fellow believer who knows the purpose of the passage can approach him before that defense becomes settled, help him identify what he is doing, and urge him to act honestly. The warning belongs alongside the invitation to approach God with confidence for mercy and help because of Jesus’ priestly work (Hebrews 4:14–16). The pastor can teach both passages in sequence so that a person who recognizes the danger also knows where to turn for help. In that way, a doctrine about continuing in faith becomes instruction believers can use in caring for one another.

Teaching Moral Commands Alongside the Hope of Change

In 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, Paul names conduct incompatible with inheriting God’s Kingdom and then reminds the Corinthians that some of them formerly lived in the ways he describes. A preacher may be tempted to read only the words about being washed, sanctified, and justified because they are easier to hear. Another preacher may spend so much time denouncing the offenses that hearers are scarcely told what God had done for people who had turned from them. Paul’s argument requires that the warning and the change in the Corinthians’ lives both be heard. His warning includes sexual immorality, theft, greed, drunkenness, and reviling, so the preacher has no basis for directing the passage only at the sins his own hearers readily condemn. A sermon can explain the Kingdom warning, speak plainly about particular conduct, and show why the changed standing and conduct of former offenders give reason to take repentance seriously.

The way a pastor handles objections can determine whether hearers understand the passage well enough to respond. A person may say that a longstanding habit is part of his character and ask whether Paul expects people actually to leave such conduct behind. The preacher can point him to Paul’s reference to what some Corinthians formerly were and explain how it relates to their changed lives in Christ (1 Corinthians 6:11). He can then explain the command later in the chapter to flee sexual immorality and the reason Paul gives for honoring God with the body (1 Corinthians 6:18–20). The movement from what God has done to what the believer must do makes the instruction more concrete than a general demand to live better. Patient teaching gives the hearer grounds for taking the first obedient step and for seeking help where a pattern of conduct has become difficult to abandon.

Giving the Congregation a Way to Examine What It Hears

A pastor can notice recurring omissions by reviewing what he has actually taught over a period of time. Teaching through whole books or substantial portions of them makes it harder to pass over an argument simply because one paragraph is difficult. A topical sermon can serve the same responsibility when the passages are read in context and the congregation can see how each one supports the point being made. After a sermon on a disputed teaching, a pastor can invite questions about the passage and return to a question that requires further study. The Bereans examined the Scriptures to see whether the teaching they received was so, and Luke commends their eagerness in doing that work (Acts 17:11). A congregation can practice the same kind of examination when it learns to ask where a claim comes from, how the passage’s context supports it, and what faithful action follows from it.

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