Here we are, the first week of the new year. And because we are, most of us are considering resolutions. There are the standard promises of weight loss, gym membership, more reading, and a host of others. But if you’re a Christian, please consider this:
Do the same thing this year that you did last year.
This isn’t a “you’re doing okay at life so just keep on keeping on” kind of thing. It is a reminder, though, that as Christians we don’t graduate from the one, singular thing that marks us as the children of God. That is, we preach the gospel to ourselves and others. And when we’ve done it for a year, we turn around and do it again.
It’s for the child and the adult, for the student and the retiree. Preach the gospel both inside and outside yourself. Take these words from the Apostle Paul to heart at the first of this year:
Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you—unless you believed for no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received… (1 Corinthians 15:1-3).
Before Paul goes on to articulate the core tenets of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that which is indeed most important, notice a key word in verse 1:
Brothers.
These people were not pagans. These people were not outside the faith. These were brothers and sisters in the Lord, and yet Paul did the thing he did when they were still dead in their sin: He preached the gospel to them. That’s because, as he articulates, this is the message we have taken our stand on and are being saved by, right now. This is the message we need to hear in 2016 just like we did in 2015. This is what’s most important for our forgetful hearts and lethargic souls.
Make a resolution, then, but let is be a lasting. Resolve to do the same thing you did yesterday and then to it again tomorrow. Preach the gospel over and over again until faith becomes sight.
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