I’m good at coming up with a lot of different ideas. Ideas about doing this, or doing that, mostly in an effort to help the Gospel move forward, but sometimes also just thinking about how to create a project that will be ancillary in advancing the Gospel.

It is an important thing, I believe, to make sure that we do not sacrifice the work of sharing the Gospel or helping others understand and follow the word of God in favor, instead, of developing a project, even if it will be a help to the community, or eventually lead to the spread of the Gospel in a new way.

There was an example of this type of situation in the early church. In fact, it was even more challenging for them because apostles were facing a scenario where some of the widows in their community were not receiving the daily distribution of food. You might think that the right thing to do would be to stop everything and fix the problem. Or be the one to start taking the food to the widows so that the job would get done.

The apostles, though, knew that it was critical that they continue to speak, to preach, to declare the word of God. They knew that they had the responsibility to teach others. They had been with Jesus and they needed to help others understand who he is and how they also can follow him.

But of course, it is important that the widows receive food too! However, not at the expense of preaching and teaching the word of God:

So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

Acts 6:2-4

So they found 7 others. The first deacons, we might say. These seven men made sure that the food was distributed properly and that all of those who needed food received it.

And the result? The word of God spread! More and more people there in Jerusalem believed. And even a large number of priests, those from among the Jewish leaders, believed.

Both are necessary. We must care for people, but we absolutely cannot do the caring for others without speaking and proclaiming the word of God while obeying the command of Jesus to make his disciples. Many have believed that we can just do good deeds and the world will know that we follow Jesus because of this.

No they will not.

No one is wondering. No one is just going to ask you why you are a good person. No one is spending their time thinking about how they can be like you.

Yes, our deeds must match our words. But there must also be words.

There is a phrase that is misquoted to Francis of Assisi that says:

Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.

First, it is important to know that he didn’t say that. Francis most certainly encouraged the Francescan order to match their deeds to their words, but this isn’t necessarily a quote that can actually be attributed to him.

And second, it also runs against the words of scripture, contrary to what Jesus and other parts of the Bible teach. Jesus told us that we must make disciples, teaching them to obey everything that he commanded. Not even just teaching, but teaching to obey, to do what he said to do.

Or even, as Paul asked the church in Rome, how can they believe unless someone preaches to them…or for that matter, someone just tells them?

We must make our deeds follow and align with our words, but let’s not forget that we also must, as the first church did, speak the words of life, telling others about Christ and teaching them to follow him, doing what he said to do. In this way, we will also see the spread of the word of God and many come to know him.