Weapons & Tactics in Evangelism: The Word of God

The Bible describes the Word of God as an offensive weapon.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. 6:17)

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)

In modern parlance, we would call this last action conviction of sin, one of the states of unregenerate man that precedes repentance.

The other great result of preaching the Word of God is faith. Faith is caused by the preaching of Christ. “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

We are commanded to use the sword of the Spirit in 2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.”

F.W.H. Meyer said it this way in his narrative poem St. Paul:

Then I preached Christ, and when she heard the story,
Oh? is such triumph possible to men?
Hardly, my King, had I beheld Thy glory,
Hardly had known Thine excellence till then.

Then with a rush the intolerable craving
Shivers throughout me like a trumpet call,
Oh! to save these; to perish for their saving;
Die for their life; be offered for them all.

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