LINE UPON LINE, LINE UPON LINE

For precept must be upon precept…line upon line, line upon line;_ – Is 28:10 

I once read the story of a pastor whose only message was  _ “You must be born again !”

Whether it was a Sunday sermon, prayer meeting, Bible study, or even when invited outside for a formal speech, he would always preach on the theme, “You must be Born Again.”_ One day, a local journalist confronted him on this peculiar practice of his. _

“Why?”_ said the journalist, “ Why do you always preach on ‘You must be born again?" 

The pastor’s response was brief:“This is because...” He replied. “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.”

As leaders and teachers of the word, we’re sometimes afraid of repeating ourselves lest it looks as though we have nothing else to say; As though we aren’t vast in the multi-faced, deep dimensions of the mysteries of Scripture. What determines our message choice shouldn’t be whether we’ve preached it before, but whether we’ve seen the expected change in the audience. As someone once noted, “Repetition may not entertain, but it teaches.”

Our Lord’s teachings were characterised by repetition of the same themes, Moses’ Law had multiple rituals that explained the same truths, and the inspired “Preacher” of Ecclesiastes used the repetition of a single phrase _(“Vanity upon vanity”)_ as the motif of his entire Book. Indeed, the principle of repetition is embedded in the entirety of scriptural writing; Some clearly spelt out, others only evident in the original language of the texts.

Acclaimed basketball player and coach John Wooden once said, _“The 8 laws of learning are explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and repetition.”_ So, let’s not bother about being found repeating our thoughts in different messages and through different means. Like Isaiah’s audience complained about him, he didn’t just preach _“precept upon precept and line upon line”;_ they complained that his message was “precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line;(Is 28:10). 

That’s a winning formula, don’t you think?

PASTOR GREG ELKAN.