Pastors: Should We ONLY Preach The Gospel and Nothing Else?

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I received an interesting email which highlights something very important. I was told by a pastor "I am thoroughly weary of all this. We seek to preach Christ, and Him crucified." Therefore, I would like to address his statement in this article.

Is he correct?






Edited 4th Aug 2012 (parts edited are highlighted blue).

Of course our focus MUST be on Jesus. However, Paul told us to not be ignorant regarding the methods used by our enemy and that we should be vigilant as watchman in warnings and prayer. "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices." 2 Cor 2:11


I assume that "we preach Christ and Him crucified" means that these pastors focus entirely on ONLY preaching the gospel message of salvation and nothing else.  If that is true, it gives me grave concerns.


Pastors:  Is that ONLY what we should be preaching?


If you are ONLY preaching to the unsaved then it would be totally acceptable. But, if you are preaching to the saved, then shouldn't you be taking note of Hebrews 6:1-2:


" Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment" ?


Our job is not to go over the same elementary message over and over again but go on to disciple believers. Part of the discipleship process is 
to warn them about the dangers of leaven, false teachers, deception etc.


Throughout the NT, the church is being warned against false teachers, deception and error. Paul warns us about "another Jesus" being preached.


Today we have many Jesus's or Christs being preached. We have the eucharist Christ being presented by Catholics and now emergent Christianity and by many "new" calvinists. We have the New age gnostic Christ being presented, we have the WoF and Latter Rain "we are Christ" nonsense being preached, we have the Jesus PLUS works, we have the Jesus ONLY and the false religions versions like Islam, JW's etc etc.


Then both Jesus and Paul warn about "leaven" for example, "a little leaven will leaven the whole lump". 1 Cor 5:6 and Galatians 5:9


The message is clear! Unless we teach/warn against deception and expose the leaven (using the plumbline of the Bible to do this, by "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" 2 Tim 2:15), it will spread. It has already spread globally throughout the 21st Century protestant/evangelical church because the emphasis on unadulterated biblical truth has been replaced by other things. 


Therefore, each individual church fellowship and all believers who are trying to isolate themselves from all this, need to be informed!!!  As a pastor, surely you are concerned for those who are entrusted to you? If they are all believers then they need to be warned against the false teachings of other Christian groups, and against any other doctrines/philosophies which are opposed to the pure faith.


"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" Col 2:8


You cannot completely prevent your congregation from visiting other churches or from getting influenced/soiled by these groups or from individuals outside the church, but you CAN forearm, forewarn and equip them within your church, by informing them of these things and showing them HOW to get into God's Word, so that if they become entangled within those other groups, they will be much better prepared to deal with it and not get deceived by false teachers.


In fact, your teaching can enable them to spread the word wherever they go. Not only will they know how to win the lost but will also be able to expose error within those other groups.


Do you really believe that you do not need to preach against false teachers or indeed against ecumenism? Why is it that Paul spent so much time (in his letters) warning the churches against false teachings? What about:


Acts 20:31: "Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears."


Please also see this link  An Exhortation To Pastors or "Good Shepherds"
which says even more on this subject.