Articles
Beautiful Feet
We may notice if their shoes are clean or dirty, dull or shiny, but we seldom see their feet; yet the Bible praises their feet, calling them “beautiful.” Whose feet, you ask? The ones “who bring glad tidings of good things” (Rom.10:15).
If doing the work of believing is important, as we noted in January, so is preaching. After all, as Paul notes in that text, preaching leads to hearing, and hearing leads to believing. So if we want people to believe, we need to be doing the work of preaching.
The dictionary defines preaching as “the presentation of a sermon.” The main NT word for preach is kyrusso and means “to be a herald, to publish openly something that has happened.” Of all that has happened in the history of the world, no event is greater than the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. So if we are going to do the work of preaching, it needs to be the gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus.
Jesus made it very clear that He came to preach (Mark 1:38). For three years He went from village to village, walking all over Galilee and Judah to preach. Driven by the need to speak the message of the Kingdom, Jesus even went into Samaria and taught a sinful woman, who told her village about the Christ. Because of her, they came to hear Him, and believed that He was “the Savior of the world” (John 4:39-42).
Paul knew that Jesus sent him to preach, and focused on doing just that as he knew it was God’s chosen method of declaring His word to a lost and dying world (1 Cor. 1:1721). Paul also knew that Jesus was the focus, and avoided all temptation for self-glory, or any attempts by others to lift him up. He was a highly educated man who gave it all up, even considering it as garbage, to have Jesus and share Him with others (Philippians 3:8; 17).
Paul knew that preaching would be hard work for those who dedicated their lives to the proclamation of God’s word. His letters to Timothy and Titus were filled with warnings that they were soldiers at war and exhortations to diligently go about their daily tasks as workers and servants for the Lord and His people.
But the rest of us who aren’t “full-time” preachers must not sit back and relax as if we have no work to do. God’s word is the good news of salvation, and there is a whole lost world out there that needs to hear that word. Each of us has contact with people that may never meet a “full-time” preacher. How will they believe if they do not hear? How will they hear if no one will go?
The Samaritan woman had beautiful feet. We can too by doing the work of preaching. Make that your focus for February.
