I recall Elder Sonny Pyles saying (back in the 70s) that he had been called, in ministry, to not only "comfort" but to be a "cocklebur under the saddle blanket." I heartedly agree. Not all preaching is to be soothing. Some is meant to be provocative, to "ruffle the feathers," so to speak. Some involves "rebuking sharply" (Titus 1: 13), stern warnings, and other harsh addresses.
Looking over my life as a servant of the gospel I can say that I have often had to be a cocklebur under the saddle blanket. I believe in being straightforward, to "call a spade a spade," to use a common figurative expression. It involves being frank and blunt. We should be both lambs and lions. God give us the wisdom to know when to behave more like the one than the other! Too often we are lambs when we ought to be lions and are lions when we ought to be lambs. One of my blogs has the word "gadfly" in it (The Baptist Gadfly), which, as all know, was the word used of Socrates, who was a pest to the Athenian and Greek ignorance and superstition of his day. It is used much the same way today to describe those who confront ignorance and give critical analysis to the various errors and outright falsehoods. Thus a "gadfly," as an adjective applied to people, denotes "a person who stimulates or annoys other people especially by persistent criticism." Generally, "gadfly" has a negative connotation.
Wrote one writer:
Plato in his Apology for the life of Socrates reminds us that all societies need a “gadfly” to sting the “steed” of state into acknowledging its proper duties and obligations:
I am the gadfly of the Athenian people, given to them by God, and they will never have another, if they kill me. And now, Athenians, I am not going to argue for my own sake, as you may think, but for yours, that you may not sin against the God by condemning me, who am his gift to you. For if you kill me you will not easily find a successor to me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God; and the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find another like me, and therefore I would advise you to spare me. (see here)
What is the difference between being a gadfly and a goad? Were not the prophets and apostles, and the Lord Jesus himself, cockleburs, gadflies, and goads? Are not the "words of the wise like goads"? (Eccl. 12:11)
Father used to tell how he had been told by some that he "rubbed people the wrong way." He would say that sometimes, in rubbing the cat's fur the wrong way, you need to turn the cat around! I agree that such is the case many times. The fault in people feeling as though they have been rubbed the wrong way via preaching is in the people, and the change that needs to be made is not in the preaching but in the hearts of the people. All this makes me remember elder Pyles saying that people are simply "far too touchy," too sensitive. That is true.
To "provoke" is "to arouse to a feeling or action" or to act as a stimulus. In the NT Greek there are two different words for "provoke," one denoting a stirring of the emotions of jealousy and anger, generally in a bad sense, though sometimes not. To be stirred to hate evil is one thing, and to be stirred to hate good, another. The other Greek word (as in "provoke to love and good works" - Heb. 10:24) carries a more favorable connotation connected with the English word "provoke."
I feel sorry that some people have, over the years, been offended by any harsh or unbecoming language I have used. Yet, my conscience will not let me become overly condemned in this matter for I know that I was not sent to speak smoothly, as did the false prophets (Isa. 30:10), and as do false teachers in the NT (Rom. 16:18), but to sometimes speak harshly, realizing that I am to expect that sinners will be offended by the preaching of the gospel. "It must needs be that offences come," said the Lord. (Matt. 18: 7)
I can at least say that I have provoked thought. I think my theological criticisms have been just.
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