It’s Just a Distraction

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:3

We used to walk around college campuses to try and strike up gospel conversations after I graduated from college. Its amazing how many people were willing to talk about the state of their souls. Unfortunately, most that we met either gave lip service to the gospel or would outright deny it. One thing that came up fairly frequently, almost like people were reading from the same playbook, was a denial of the sufficiency and authority of Scripture. I can’t tell you how many times I heard someone say, “You know that book was written by men, right?” And I used to, rightly, do my best to show that it was God’s word, written through men, and that it was infallible, authoritative, and perfect. But one thing I began to realize was that this was just a distraction.

What I don’t mean is that the doctrine of Scripture is unimportant and shouldn’t be addressed. It is of paramount importance. We must be willing to stand on the word of God. But as important as the doctrine of Scripture is, there is one thing that it isn’t: It isn’t the gospel. It’s one thing to defend the Scripture, it is another to share the gospel through the Scripture. We give people God’s word like a sower sows seeds (Luke 8:11). We hope that they hear it, believe it, and are saved from the wrath to come. God’s word is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, so in our evangelism it is crucial that we share the word (Heb 4:12). So the tricky deception is that the devil convinces us to talk about the Scripture, while keeping us from actually sharing the gospel.

And this is just one example of a million ways that the devil tries to distract us from sharing the gospel. I would spend 15-20 minutes trying to convince someone that the Bible was the word of God, and then they would leave having never heard of the penalty for sin and the message of the cross. I was there to evangelize and would leave a conversation where I didn’t share the gospel once. The devil loves to get us talking about good things, so long as we are not sharing the best thing. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news'” (Rom 10:14-15)! The gospel is a message, and unless that message is shared, no one can hear, believe, and be saved.

After I realized that I was being taken off the gospel, I formed a new tactic. When someone raised that question about the Bible, I would say, “I understand that you don’t believe the Bible is true, but let’s just pretend that it is true. What does it say about you?” Because here’s the thing, God’s word IS living and powerful. God is not asking permission to have a living and active word. His power is not dependent on their faith. They didn’t believe it to be true, but I’m gonna share it anyway! And by side-barring the very important question, I’m able to still share the message that is, “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16).

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I want you to be aware of the schemes of the devil and avoid being distracted from the main thing. When we go to share Christ, let’s actually share Christ! We need to tell folks about sin, and righteousness, and the coming judgement. People need to hear about their great need, and they need to hear that God in love sent His Son to die for sinners. Jesus died on the cross to save sinners and He was raised from the dead, proving that He is everything He said He was. This is the message that saves sinners, and this is the message that we never want to be distracted from.

Jacob Crouch 2024