Two dangers regularly present themselves in our preaching – particularly when it comes to application. The first is the temptation to apply the Word to the world out there. The second is the temptation to apply in the ‘thank God we’re not like that’ way. Both are two sides of the same coin in reality.
The fact is, the Bible is God’s Word to God’s people. The point of preaching is to aim at heart-change. The church, by its nature, is a gathering of God’s people. The purpose of preaching in church, then, is for the Spirit to change the hearts of God’s people through the preaching of the Word so that they might conform more fully to the likeness of Christ. We are fundamentally aiming to build up God’s people so that they might be more Christlike and conformed to his image by his Spirit through his Word.
If that’s the goal, then application aimed at what the world is like out there minimally misses the point. For one, preaching about those out there does nothing for them because they aren’t there to hear it and be changed by what they hear. But it similarly does nothing to help conform those in front of us to the image of Christ because they aren’t those out there, but God’s people in here. The kind of preaching that aims at what the world is like outside does nothing for anybody in truth.
The other problem with a ‘those out there’ approach to application is that it tends towards Pharisaism. What is the point of telling those in here just how awful everything is out there? The only thing that can conceivably do is cause us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought by thanking God we’re not like those out there. Which is to say, it causes us to think we’re altogether better than those out there. Which, aside from not in any way necessarily being true, conjures up in us the very opposite of what it means to conform to the image of Christ. It provokes us to pride and not humility. It tends to cause us to think of ourselves as great, or at least not that bad, when we are but sinners saved by grace.
If the point of preaching is aiming at heart-change in God’s people, then we need to meaningfully apply it to God’s people who are in front of us. Which means perhaps not landing on obvious applications about how terrible the world is doing such and such a sin which none of us in here are doing and the majority of us are not even tempted by. That helps nobody change, except in more negative, self-congratulatory ways. Instead, we need to think about the ways the passage does apply to us in here. We need to apply it in line with the sins and temptations that are present in the room. We need to apply it according to the issues that the church need to be encouraged or challenged in rather than scolding the world for acting like… well, the world. The church need to be encouraged to look more like Jesus, not patted on the back for not looking as much like the world as they might.
We need to avoid the kind of preaching that says everything out there is terrible and everything in here is wonderful. That is Pharisaism 101. Instead, we need to preach and apply to the people in front of us. We need to think of the real life situations facing the people in the room. We need to point people to what the scriptures say specifically to them as they go into work on Monday morning, as they head into that serious hospital appointment, as they struggle with addiction, as they juggle a million things as a single parent, as they do whatever it is they do. What does the scriptures say to them? What does it encourage them to press on doing? What does it encourage them to change? What hope does it give them? What challenge does it give them? But it is God’s Word to them and we are preaching to and for them in the prayerful hope that God’s Word, by God’s Spirit, will change them.
We have to preach to the people in the room for the people in the room in order to build up, challenge, grow, serve, love and help those in the room. These are the people God has given us to shepherd. Not those out there, but those in here. Let’s make sure we apply God’s Word to them, not to everyone else who isn’t there and in the process end up serving nobody at all.