“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:14-17
Preachers of the gospel often joke that they have “beautiful feet,” and they can prove it. They then quote Paul’s words in Romans 10:15. It isn’t just the feet of “preachers” that are beautiful though. Anyone who carries the gospel message has beautiful feet. It can be a mother in her home with her children, or an employer who shares with his employees, or a coach who has opportunities to influence his athletes.
I read that the good news is not just good news, it’s great news. The nuance of the Greek for the word gospel literally means that this news is ‘almost too good to be true.’ In our world when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. But this is not the case with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This news is true and incredible. And Paul reminds us that beautiful are the feet of those who bring this good news and announce it to the world.
Paul reminds us that it is impossible for us to believe unless we have an opportunity to hear the gospel. He poses the question: “And how shall they hear without a preacher?” We have preacher schools, and we have those who do what we call Timothy Training, a system in which a young man is mentored by an older preacher for a period of time. However, Paul did not intend for us to believe that only trained, ordained preachers can carry this message. He was using the term in a generic sense. Anyone, man woman or child, who shares the gospel with others is a preacher in the sense that Paul means.
When the Samaritan woman departed from Jesus and went into the city, she became a preacher of good news: “The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ‘Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ Then they went out of the city and came to Him” (Jn. 4:28-30). When we first meet this woman, she seems to be the last person we would call a preacher. She had relationship problems; she was off base in her religious beliefs before she encountered Jesus. She became a proclaimer of the good news about Jesus the Messiah.
When we first meet the Apostle Paul in Scripture, he is known as Saul of Tarsus. He is not just an unlikely candidate to preach the gospel, he is doing his best to kill all of those who are preaching it. We read in Acts 9:13-16, “Then Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.’” Whatever else may be said about the Apostle Paul, we know for sure that his feet became more beautiful the day he obeyed the gospel and began to proclaim the good news of the kingdom!
L Scott Gage