Cotton Candy Preaching
If I were to ask you what would be worse, to give your children cotton candy or poison, what would you say? In answer to this question most people would very quickly say that poison would be the worse thing to give our children. But consider this, what if all we gave our children to eat was cotton candy? What if cotton candy was their favorite food and that was all they wanted, and any time they received anything else they would throw a fit? Would we only give them cotton candy? Would we be loving and concerned parents if we only fed our children this cottony pile of sugar? Most assuredly not! We understand that our children could not survive only on sugar, for they would soon grow weak and sick, and would soon die. So, what is worse for us to give our children, only cotton candy or poison? The truth is that both will eventually kill our children.
Now let us make a spiritual application. Is it worse to teach in the Lord’s church false doctrine or to teach simple pleasant truths from God’s word? In answer to this question most people would quickly say that false doctrine would be the worst thing of all to teach. But consider this, what if we only taught concerning the loving story of Ruth, or about benevolence, or about the need for loving families, or about the need to feel good about ourselves? Now these are topics that we should be concerned about and are issues of interest, and should be taught. But, can a Christian survive spiritually solely on this kind of diet? Can a child of God mature and be grounded in the faith solely on these kinds of meals? The answer is no!
There are many preachers and teachers in the Lord’s church who are not teaching error, but neither are they being distinct in their preaching and teaching. Many are given more to proclaim what the brethren want to hear than what they need to hear. Concerning the people of Isaiah’s day, the Lord declared, “For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the Lord; 10 Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions. ” (Isa. 30:9-10). Many today are clamoring for the same things as the Israel of old – smooth things, and sweet and pleasant words. And what is even more disturbing are the preachers and teachers who are giving into their cry with sermons and lessons filled with nothing but “lovey-dovey mush.”
Many preach to please men and tickle their ears with what they like to hear. Paul said, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” (Gal. 1:10). Paul warned Timothy about people who have “itching ears” and warned that such people will gather around those who will scratch their ears by teaching lies (2 Tim. 4:3-4). The whole counsel of God must be preached, regardless of how it is received (Acts 20:26-27)! The truth is truth and must be preached! Modern preachers didn’t write the book (Bible) and they have no right to “water it down” to please men.
The apostle Paul declared, “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, … Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” (Acts 20:20, 26-27). If we really care for our families and brethren, these same actions of Paul will be true of us! Furthermore, Paul also said, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (2 Tim. 4:2). You will notice that good gospel preaching demands both positive and negative proclamation of truth. But as already mentioned, some “will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). But we must not allow this attitude to influence us away from preaching the whole counsel of God.
There are too many “cotton candy preachers” in the brotherhood who are proclaiming a “sugar coated” gospel that is lulling the brethren into spiritual decay! Tell me, which are worse, false teachers or cotton candy preachers? The truth is they both will cause the spiritual demise of their listeners.
Tom Moore
Park Heights church of Christ
P. O. Box 107
1300 East Boynton Street
Hamilton, Texas 76531
* Note : Slightly edited
This article is longer and takes more of a negative tilt than I like to include in my bulletins, but I ran it because it has an important message, one of which we need to be reminded from time to time. The goal of preaching is to change lives, to lead us into conformity with the likeness of Christ. ( Eph. 4:11-16 ) Even so, lessons do not have to be abrasive to accomplish their purpose. However, even if some brethren find certain topics to be abrasive to their ears, faithfulness to God demands that the preacher must address some unpopular topics, in particular, though by nature we do not like to be told we need to change, we must address the areas wherein we are out of conformity with the likeness of Christ or the will of the Father. Peter taught us that there are things of which we need to be reminded, and of course, we need to continually reinforce those truths which we have already incorporated into our lives. Positive reinforcement is good and we all like to hear lessons extolling our virtues, lessons that emphasize areas where we are pleasing, we are successful or we are examples to other, but some topics that we need for our growth are not always pleasing to our ears, in fact, some are permanently “out of season.” Thus, we need articles like this to remind us of the purpose of our studies and of the need for balance in our preaching.
