“Gospel-centered” and “gospel-only” are not the same thing. The former gives life to our spiritual universe. The latter blinds itself to the world and the gospel’s effect on it.
Did Jesus ever say, “Only preach the gospel?” Is that his directive for pastoral ministry?
Perhaps the ready mind jumps to Paul’s words of introduction to his short summary of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. . . .” Many people read “of first importance” and seem to conclude “of only importance.”
Or maybe another Pauline passage springs to mind: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). There Paul contrasts his plain preaching of the gospel against the “lofty speech” or sophistry he steadfastly avoided. Some who read “I decided to know nothing . . . except Jesus Christ and him crucified” go on to conclude that we should only preach the gospel.
Without question the gospel is of first importance. Nothing should come before it. Without question the preacher should make the gospel plain. I would go so far as to say every sermon preached should include a proclamation of the gospel and a call to repent and believe in Christ.
However, if we take this to mean that only the gospel should be preached, or if we selectively shy away from other subjects the Bible addresses, we do something neither Jesus nor Paul ever does. We contract the scope of God’s concerns to the nucleus while ignoring the rest of the nucleus-informed cell. We reduce our vision to sun’s central place in the solar system but neglect its effect on the remaining planets and stars that orbit it. Isolate the sun in this way and you soon fail to see how the sun’s gravitational pull holds the rest of the solar system together, how it affects the temperatures of planets, how it gives light to other bodies, and how all of that creates life.
Read more: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabiti-anyabwile/only-preach-the-gospel/
