Luke 3:18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

I think it’s important to note that John, who was famous for his tart tongue, calling people vipers in verse seven, was preaching good news to the people. We don’t often think of a call to repentance as good news! He also wasn’t preaching what they wanted and expected to hear, because they were looking for the Messiah, and he very clearly said that wasn’t him. However, he did say the Messiah was coming, and so was preparing the people for Jesus, just as Isaiah had prophesied (verse four) and had been specifically prophesied about him before his conception. (Luke 1:17) From this, we need to learn that soft and gentle words aren’t always the most loving. The term, tough love, comes to mind. Truth is always better than falsehood, even when that truth hurts. When we forget that repentance is essential to salvation, we lose the whole point of evangelism. We make a big deal of “gospel” being the same as “good news,” but we forget that the very first step of the Gospel is, “You’re lost and headed for hell.” That was John’s message, and it was just as much good news as, “Heaven is wonderful.”

As I’ve commented many times, I’ve never been much of a “hellfire and brimstone” preacher, but I must not hold back from speaking the truth, particularly not to make people like me. I am always to speak in love, (Ephesians 4:15) but never draw back from whatever the Lord wants to say through me. At the same time, I need to remember that just because something is true doesn’t mean I have to say it. Even so, words of correction are often genuinely good news, because without them we won’t grow. I well remember what Cornelius Iida said to me almost 30 years ago, telling me I was treating my God-given ministry like a hobby. It was devastating to me at the time, but he was right, and it was an extremely necessary word of correction, and as such, good news! As I was recounting to someone just yesterday, it was painful to me to have to tell a “transgender” person that no, God didn’t accept him as a woman, regardless of his surgeries and hormone treatments, but He did accept him as a person. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but it was what he needed to hear. I still pray for him every time I remember him, and we will welcome him with open arms if he comes to us as a detransitioner.

Father, thank You for the person I was talking to yesterday. She had come because we were having a Gospel music practice, and her first visit last week had given her a thirst for more. Thank You for the various things You said to her through me. I pray that she would be quick to realize that she is indeed hopeless without Christ, but that in Christ she can have eternal life, and so repent and believe for her salvation, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!