Teach the Bible with High Moral Obligation

By A. W. Tozer

. . .Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive

from the dead, and your members as instruments of

righteousness unto God.                    --Romans 6:13

   Much that passes for New Testament Christianity is

little more than objective truth sweetened with song,

and made palatable by religious entertainment.

   I take the risk of being misunderstood when I say that

probably no other portion of the Scriptures can compare

with the Pauline Epistles when it comes to making

artificial saints.  Peter warned that the unlearned and

unstable would wrest Paul's writings to their own

destruction, and we have only to visit the average Bible

conference and listen to a few lectures to know what he

meant!

   The ominous thing is that the Pauline doctrines may

be taught with complete faithfulness to the letter of the

text without making the hearers one whit better. The

teacher may and often does so teach the truth as to leave

the hearers without a sense of moral obligation.

   One reason for the divorce between truth and life

may be lack of the Spirit's illumination.  Another surely

is  the  teacher's  unwillingness  to  get  himself  into

trouble.  Any man with fair pulpit gifts can get on with

the average congregation if he just "feeds" them and lets

them alone.  Give them plenty of objective truth and

never hint that they are wrong and should be set right,

and they will be content!

   But the man who preaches truth and applies it to the

lives of his hearers will feel the nails and the thorns.

He will lead a hard life --- but a glorious one!

---

Yours in Christ,

Paul N. F.