Covenant Reformed News – January 2005, Volume X, Issue 9
This article from Covenant Reformed News examines the Reformed understanding that faithful preaching is the Word of God (based on 1 Thessalonians 2:13), with practical implications for ministers, elders, and congregants. It emphasizes the minister's responsibility to faithfully expound Scripture through careful exegesis and Christological focus, the elders' duty to test and affirm sound preaching, and the congregation's calling to be discerning Bereans who verify doctrine against Scripture. The piece addresses how the Reformed church maintains both reverence for the preached Word and proper ecclesiastical oversight.
Receiving Preaching as the Word of God (3) The truth of I Thessalonians 2:13 that faithful preaching is the Word of God has implications, first, for the minister. Obviously, he must not teach error or his own opinions. Such are wood, hay and stubble (I Cor. 3:12f.), if not worse. For these things the minister receives no reward, and by such doctrines he and the congregation are led astray. Instead, the preacher must labour hard in rightly dividing the Word of truth. He must meditate on the...