Preaching in the New Testament (New Studies in Biblical Theology Book 42)

by (Preaching instructor) Jonathan Griffiths

Not only does the New Testament expect all believers to be involved in word-based evangelism, it also expects all believers to be engaged in word-based ministries of encouragement and discipleship within the church family.7 In Colossians 3:16 Paul urges the believers in the church at Colossae to ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom’. In 1 Thessalonians 5:14 Paul instructs the Thessalonian believers to serve one another in similar ways: ‘And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.’ At Crete, Titus is to ensure that the older women are equipped to ‘teach what is good [kalodidaskalous], and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled’ (Titus 2:3–5). Older women are to teach younger women principles from the word of God so that the younger women will live out those principles and not cause the word to be reviled. The writer of Hebrews calls the believers to ‘exhort [or ‘encourage’, parakaleite] one another every day, as long as it is called “today”, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’ (Heb. 3:13; similarly 10:25). Hebrews can describe the words of Scripture themselves as ‘encouragement’/‘exhortation’ (paraklēsis) at 12:5, and the immediate context here in chapter 3 indicates tha...

Complementarianism: IN: Though all believers are not called to “preach” they are called to ministry of the word.