Jesus said, "Preach the gospel"

But that is only one thing He said out of his many commands.

His strongest warnings and divine threatening’s centered on loving our neighbor. Mercy! Matt. 25:31-46  rings out above almost all.

Thankfully we know exactly how Jesus acted, almost every page of the gospels illustrates it in warm, compassionate actions displaying the love of God to sinner and saint.

No doubt the evangelical church emphasizes the Great Commission over all else, but any successful evangelical mission organization, now, or in the past, will explain how the hunger of body must be met before the hunger of the spirit can be reached.

Mark 12:29-31 is where Jesus summarizes the entire Bible, in crystal clear language, and boils it down to two commands, we can't improve on that, and His entire life demonstrated it in vivid detail.

We see in Isaiah 58:6-12 the Lord declares in clear and concise words what His will is for us, and in addition, it is interwoven with His promised blessings if we will simply obey.

 I think many in the church today think they can bring the world to Christ by simply sharing God's word, and that it can be done without personal involvement. But the entire force of Jesus's words and actions were personal, individual, where over and over He commands us to care of the poor and marginalized.

In Luke 14:12-24 he gives this illustration --

"But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

We can see in that one passage how personal and individual Christ's exhortations are. I have to ask myself, do I know any poor, crippled, lame and blind?

Our love must exceed the love the Pharisees showed, but that has a cost associated with it, and many of us act like some who work for pro-life causes, they want to declare the value of life, but fail to advocate for the child once born. It requires little to say we are pro-life, but it requires much to care for the baby once born. Do you see the parallel there?

The church of Christ is not just a humanitarian aid society, but hospitals, orphanages, asylums and schools and colleges were created by Christians for the betterment of all. 

If we err, let us err on the side of compassion; our chastisement on judgment day will be little.

Lastly I'll say that it is important to know what the "Gospel" is, when we say we are to preach it. In my opinion influenced by many, the Gospel is the entire teaching of Christ and the Apostles. For example, if you preach a sermon on holiness, you are preaching the gospel and the same goes for all the teachings of Christ and His apostles.

This is my conclusion after fifty plus years as a Christian and watching the church from 1969 where the Lord poured out His Spirit on America, until today. Today's church, in many ways, has lost its savor I'm sad to say.