Is it true that Christians should "preach the gospel and, if necessary, use words"?

In His service for the Lord, the apostle Paul exercised himself to maintain a good conscience void of offence Godward and manward. To witness rightly in our walk this is necessary. Even in the warfare of Ephesians 6 our ‘feet’ are to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and as to our brethren in the Lord we are to ‘walk’ ‘according to love’ (Rom. 14:15), and we are exhorted to “walk in wisdom towards them that are without” (Col. 4:5). Words are not enough to bear witness truly; one has often heard it said, So-and-so’s life gives the lie to what he says! By their fruits ye shall know them! On the other hand we have known cases where the children of God have been mentioned, and it has been said, If any hold the right thing, they do, for they are as consistent on week-days as they are on Sundays! That is just what it should be.

Here, the good works are the fruit of the working of divine light in the soul. If we let our light shine, good works will also be connected with it. But they are not the focus of our attention here. In this world many good works are being done by different individuals and groups. For example, the Red Cross and other organisations providing humanitarian aid have, especially recently, been able to do much good to needy people. If we as children of God purpose to do such good works, we are not necessarily a testimony to our Lord. He wants us to be a testimony to Him. Therefore He does not exhort us here to do good works, but to let our light shine. We should not think of “our” works, but of Him. Good works will then be the result. The apostle Paul speaks of the fruit of the light which is in all goodness, righteousness and truth (Eph. 5:9).

“ … And glorify your Father which is in heaven.” If good works bear the character of heavenly, divine light, then people will not say, “What a good person this is,” but rather they may be led to glorify God. If the light shines, the actions will be seen as in connection with this light.

On earth today there is a company whom the Holy Spirit indwells, and in them the testimony to the living and glorified Christ flows out. It is a living testimony and is the manifestation of the divine life, the eternal life, that they have received from the Son of God. This is not only preaching, though it will surely come out in word as well as in deed; it is primarily what is seen of Christ in all the details of the lives of His own, that which has brought refreshment and blessing to their own hearts, and that which will bring divine blessing to those who accept their testimony to the Son of God.

Notice too that the light is supposed to shine in things practical, not merely in things theological. It is not that men recognize it in our clear or original teachings expressed in words, but rather in our acts and works. They should certainly hear our good words, but they must see our good works, if we are to be light to them. The word for "good" here does not mean exactly benevolent but rather upright or honest. Such actions find their source in the Father in heaven: they shed His light and glorify Him.

We have looked at these two striking sketches of the testimony of believers here below as the salt of the earth, the preservative energy in the midst of profession; and as the light of the world going out in the activities of love toward the poor world; and the danger of the salt losing its savour, and of the light being put under a bushel. Now we find the great object of God in this twofold testimony. It is not merely a question of the blessing of souls, for there is not a word about evangelizing or saving sinners, but of the walk of saints. There is a grave question that God raises about His saints, and this is about their own ways apart from other people. Calls to the unconverted we find abundantly elsewhere, and none can exaggerate their importance for the world; but the sermon on the mount is God's call to the converted. It is their character, their position, their testimony distinctively; and if others are thought of throughout, it is not so much a question of winning them, as of the saints reflecting what comes from above. This light is what comes from Christ. It is not, Let your good works shine before men. When people talk about this verse thinking of their own works, they are generally not good works at all; but even if they were, works are not light. Light is that which comes from God, without admixture of man. Good works are the fruit of its action upon the soul; but it is the light which is to shine before men. It is the confession of Christ that is the point before God. It is not merely certain things to be done. The light shining is the great object here, though doing good ought to flow from it. If I make doing good everything, it is a lower thought than that which is before the mind of God. An infidel can feel that a shivering man needs a coat or a blanket. The natural man may be fully alive to the wants of others; but if I merely take these works and make them the prominent aim, I really do nothing more than an unbeliever might. The moment you make good works the object, and their shining before men, you find yourself on common ground with Jews and heathen. God's people are apt thus to destroy their testimony. What so bad, in the way of a thing done professedly for God, as a work that leaves out Christ, and that shows a man who loves Christ to be on comfortable terms with those that hate Him? This is what the Lord warns the saints against. They are not to be thinking about their works, but that the light of God should shine. Works will follow, and much better works than where a person is always occupied with them. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven " (ver. 16). Let your confession of what God is in His nature and of what Christ is in His own person and ways — let your acknowledgment of Him be the thing that is felt by and brought before men; and then, when they see your good works, they will glorify your Father which is in heaven. Instead of saying, What a good man such a one is, they will glorify God on his behalf — connecting what you do with your confession of Christ.

"Thus let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good (or, comely, καλὰ) works, and glorify your Father that is in the heavens." This is practical Christianity in its outgoing, as the salt is the preservative power of purity which we always need to have in ourselves. It is to confess and live Christ, not only in secret which is essential and so pressed elsewhere before Him who sees there, but also truly and unflinchingly before men. Benevolent works are no test, and are not what Christ looked for and here expresses. He spoke of works excellent in the sense of what suits the Father and the Son, and of which the Holy Spirit is the sole power in us. It is not His mind to let our good works shine before men, but our light, or confession of Himself in word and deed.

Nor can anything other or short of this secure the end He proposes. For I might dole out all my goods in what men call charity, or deliver up my body to be burned without confessing Christ, and therefore without in any way glorifying the Father. There is neither light nor love without the faith and the confession of Christ; and self might thereby be honoured, but not the Father. Whereas let the light of Christ shine in your confession; and when men see right works in accordance with the will of God, they glorify not you but the Father who is the spring and aim of what you do.

A man once said to me, “I know what you preach is right.” I asked him, “How is that?” In reply he told me that he was brought up in a district where a well-known servant of the Lord lived and laboured. He said he had watched his life, and what he saw of that convinced him of the truth. I know this servant of Christ, and he is as watchful of his state and behaviour as he is also of his service. This life preaching is open to all of us. And often those who confess Christ as a result of public preaching have been previously prepared through this. How often, too, our own souls have been cheered and elevated by intercourse with some gentle saint of God, to whom Christ is everything, but who has not been called to public service. Great, very great indeed is this side of the truth. This living fruitfulness, this wealthy treasure brings true blessing to others and glory to God.

A body of consistent, earnest Christians, is the complete refutation of all the infidel arguments that were ever spun out of the depraved heart and head of man. A young man told his minister that it was not his preaching that had been used to his conversion, but his own mother’s practising. In the long run the life tells more for God than the lip; and the lip only gains its authority and force when the life is behind it. Let us be more careful that walk and talk agree, so that in dependence upon God, by the Holy Ghost, we may be here wholly for His glory and use.

Happy indeed were those Christians whose walk and whole existence made of the world itself a witness for the truth, who were so distinct in their confession, so consistent in their life, that an apostle did not need to speak of that which he had preached, of that which he had been among them. The world spoke of it for him and for them.

Nothing less than this is true and proper Christian testimony. Behind preaching and service lies the life. Christ in His glory should be clearly manifested in the preaching, but that manifestation will only reach to its maximum of power and effect as Christ is manifested in the life. And this is as true in regard to ourselves today as it was for the Apostle Paul. Without a doubt here lies one of the main reasons for the ineffectiveness of so much modern preaching, even though the preaching itself is correct and sound.