{"id":92600,"date":"2025-12-15T12:46:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=92600"},"modified":"2025-12-15T12:46:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:46:24","slug":"the-positive-about-the-negative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-positive-about-the-negative\/","title":{"rendered":"The Positive About the Negative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by Lee Moses<\/p>\n

Many a faithful Gospel preacher has been chided for being “too negative” in his preaching. True, a preacher can certainly be overly negative, robbing Christians of the joy that is rightfully theirs by blasting the congregation from the pulpit every Lord’s Day, condemning them for sins they are not guilty of, and omitting the encouragement offered in the Bible. Positive preaching is essential to preaching. However, it is not the entirety of preaching; it is only a part. Negative preaching is also essential, including that which God has commanded man not to do and the warnings God has given to man. When the Lord gave His commission to Jeremiah as a prophet, He told him, “Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant<\/em>” (Jeremiah 1:9-10). Jeremiah had the authority to preach God’s word, by which he would strive to accomplish six things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. He would root out (“pluck up” – American Standard Version)<\/li>\n
  2. He would pull down (“break down” – ASV)<\/li>\n
  3. He would destroy<\/li>\n
  4. He would throw down (“overthrow” – ASV)<\/li>\n
  5. He would build<\/li>\n
  6. He would plant.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Notice that the first four objectives of Jeremiah’s preaching were negative, while only the last two were positive; the negatives were twice the positives. The concept of a balanced mix of positive and negative preaching is extended into the New Testament. Paul commanded the younger evangelist Timothy, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:2). Again, there is seen twice the negative (reprove, rebuke) to the positive (exhort). It is often said that a car battery needs both a positive and a negative post; otherwise, the car will never start. If the church has no negative preaching, it will not work as it should, yet “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them<\/em>” (Ephesians 2:10). Before we can “build” and “plant”; we must root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down all things contrary to God’s will to leave the pure foundation of Christ upon which to build (I Corinthians 3:10-11).<\/p>\n

    The Lord has reasons for demanding negative preaching. Warning is a foremost component of preaching: “I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me<\/em>” (Ezekiel 3:17). Paul told the elders of the Ephesian church, “I am pure<\/em> (‘innocent’ – New King James Version) from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. . . . watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears<\/em>” (Acts 20:26-27,31). If Paul omitted the negative portions of God’s word, he would have been guilty of their blood. He also ceased not to warn (preach negatively to) everyone night and day for well over two years. One may be sinning and not aware of it; yet he is still accountable to God for his sin (Ezekiel 3:18). Some may simply need reminders of what sin is, so that they can avoid it and help others avoid it-even the righteous need to be warned (Ezekiel 3:21).<\/p>\n

    Man can only be saved through the Gospel (Romans 1:16), and the Gospel, though a message of “good news,” is fraught with negative warnings as well. This is because God desires that all be saved, and, if unwarned, man will run the way of sin, and none will be saved. Biblical negative preaching is saving preaching. Christians should appreciate negative preaching-if they hear it and heed it, the results will be positive.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Lee Moses Many a faithful Gospel preacher has been chided for being “too negative” in his preaching. True, a preacher can certainly be overly negative, robbing Christians of the joy that is rightfully theirs by blasting the congregation from the pulpit every Lord’s Day, condemning them for sins they are not guilty of, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[536,1598],"class_list":["post-92600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preaching","tag-rebukes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55437,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-we-have-too-much-positive-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":92600,"position":0},"title":"Can We Have Too Much “Positive” Preaching?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Greg Gwin We readily acknowledge the importance of positive preaching. Brethren need the \"comfort of the Scriptures\" (Romans 15:4). Paul sent Tychicus to the Ephesians so that he could \"comfort your hearts.\" Timothy was dispatched to Philippi (Philippians 2:9) and Thessalonica (I Thessalonians 3:2) in order to comfort the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching-is-a-different-kind-of-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":92600,"position":1},"title":"Preaching Is a Different Kind of Work","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores There are both good and bad, positive and negative aspects to it. But I can say that the positive far outweighs the negative. Because of the nature of the work, you get opportunities to serve the best people in the world - Christians - all the time.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55266,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/balance-in-sound-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":92600,"position":2},"title":"Balance in Sound Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dudley Spears One of the definitions of balance is, \"A harmonious satisfying arrangement or proportion of parts or elements, as in a design. An influence or force tending to produce equilibrium; counterpoise.\" Paul wrote the Philippians, \"Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/balance-300x194.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":69822,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":92600,"position":3},"title":"Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by John Iverson Introduction Even those who have a vague idea of what the Bible teaches know preaching is ordained of God (Titus 1:1-3) Some of the greatest men who have ever lived were proclaimers of God's Word. Noah (II Peter 2:5) Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1:1) Paul (I Timothy 2:7) Jesus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86006,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ezekiel-and-preaching-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":92600,"position":4},"title":"Ezekiel and Preaching Truth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Ezekiel had a most challenging job, preaching the truth to people who were not ready to appreciate it. God gave Ezekiel the vision of God's awesome greatness, and when a preacher preaches because he has a great concept of God, he can preach the hard truths\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42038,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-aim-of-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":92600,"position":5},"title":"The Aim of Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Frank Himmel Churches that are all about numbers gladly alter their activities to accommodate popular demand. While music usually gets special attention, preaching is no less targeted. Perhaps it would be timely to remind us all what God intends preaching to accomplish. Preaching is to Instruct In His wisdom,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/arrow-and-target-203x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}