Full Text for Dogmatics 4- Volume 29 - Certainly that must be motivated only by the Gospel. Right? Isn't it wrong to use guilt to motivate people to share their faith? (Video)

No. 29. >> What about doing the work of evangelism? Certainly that must be motivated only by the Gospel. Right? Isn't it wrong to use guilt to motivate people to share their faith? >>DR. JOEL D. BIERMANN: Guilt works. Quick answer. It does, Nick. I mean, guilt is a marvelous motivator. And we all know it. Now, is that the best motive? Obviously not. But there's a reality to that. Guilt sometimes drives us to do the right things. Now, is evangelism an issue of the Gospel or the law? That's an interesting question. Obviously evangelism is by definition the proclamation of the Good News. That's Gospel. And you can't get much more Gospel than that. But the obligation to do it, well, I just said it. Obligation. Responsibility. God expects us to do this. Christ calls us to go and proclaim the Good News. To tell all nations. That's a responsibility put upon us. That makes it law. Does the Gospel inform it? Yes. Does the Gospel drive it? Yes. But it's still a responsibility that I have. I need to be doing it. And while I'm thinking about this, this actually kind of goes back to the giving question. But it's important. Because you hear this a lot. You know, oh, stewardship has to only be of the Gospel. No other kind of motivations of stewardship. Only the Gospel should motivate. And if you do less, you're cheating, you're being evangelical, you're being a bad Lutheran. I'll challenge that. And I think I can challenge it pretty confidently. Because Saint Paul himself. You look at the book of I Corinthians. When Paul was encouraging the I Corinthians to give, he does the most marvelous thing. He says: I hope you Corinthians aren't going to be outdone by these other Christians who have far less than you do and actually gave very well. I hope that you guys kind of live up to that standard. He's just challenging them by kind of comparing them. And sort of guilting them into doing this. It's phenomenal the kind of moves this Paul makes. Because he knows this is an issue of the law and their obedience. And he's encouraging them to be obedient. And he doesn't hesitate to use a little comparison, a little guilt, to try to get the job done. We miss the point when we try to boil it all down to: It's only Gospel. Certainly the Gospel is there. But guys, there's more to it than that. It's not quite so simple. And the law does have its place. In its stewardship. And yeah, even in evangelism. So to get up in a pulpit on a Sunday morning and say: You, my friends, are responsible to share the Gospel. You must talk about Christ with those around you. That's appropriate. Is that going to motivate some people to maybe think about it again? It might. And you can also inform them of the forgiveness of sins and the love of Christ and raise them to a higher motivation. But if you get them thinking about it, that's a good thing. Motivating obedience is always a good idea.