The King and His messenger

There once was King, who sent his messenger out, to all the lands, to take a message. The messenger, before reading it to everyone, read it for himself. He noticed that there was bad news about a plague, that people would die from it and good news that the king had the cure for this plague. He decided that he would not share the bad news, for the reasons that the people would not listen to him or they might not like him for bringing such news or they might even kill him. So instead of reading the whole message, to them, he told everyone only about the good news, the cure. When the King heard of this, he was very sad. No one came to Him for the cure; they did not see a need for it. They did not see the danger of the plague and death. Many of them died without knowing that they were sick with the plague, all because the messenger did not tell them about the plague.

Friends, is this how we treat the gospel? Do we as messengers only share part of the gospel, the part that will make us liked by people, that will not get us killed, that will get us listened to? Or do we share the whole gospel both the bad news and the good news? Do we fear man more than God?  How can anyone come to know Christ if they do not know the reason which He died? How can they come to know the extent of His sacrifice if they do not know they are sinners, that they are sick and need a cure? If you just give someone the cure, they are going to think you are crazy and say “why do I need this?” But if you tell them about their disease and show them what will happen if they do not take this cure, then they will take it. People may not like you for sharing the gospel, because they do not want to give up their “fun” (sins). If you really care about people show them about their sin and that they will die and go to hell unless they believe in Jesus Christ and turn away from the world and their sins. They may not like what you have to say, you may die or they may not listen to you. They may not believe that they have a disease, but that does not mean that you stop telling them about it and showing them.

We serve the King of Kings and He has given us a message to give to all the nations. We are God’s messengers.  The Gospel is our message; let us give the whole message of the gospel, so that all may know of their disease and the cure of it. Are we going to be like the messenger in the story or are we going to do as our King commanded us?  Let us go and preach the gospel.

*Note: The gospel consists of both bad news and good news, but in reality it is all good news. We now know we are sick and there is a cure. That is good news!