The Imperative Mood - Linguistic Moods & Preaching


The imperative mood is defined by exhortation. It is not difficult to find this mood in preaching and is found towards the end of the sermon, encapsulated in the "call to action": how will we act differently after the service. 

This call to action is found across the theological spectrum in both conservative and liberal churches, typified by "pursue holiness", "spread the gospel", "spend more time in prayer and scripture reading", "spend yourself on behalf of the poor", "love others radically" etc. 

Without this imperative, a sermon can end up sounding like a nice thought for the day. The danger with the imperative comes when we acknowledge our own lack of ability to carry out these exhortations. At best it can be something to be safely ignored with "so much on our plate already"; at worst it can become a crushing burden that weighs heavily on our souls when we realise our inability to carry these imperatives out (Luke 11:46). 

To this end we have to return to the primary point of a sermon in the first place, which is to be a vehicle for the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ. This good news is that Christ has accomplished everything necessary for us through the cross. We are the recipients, the beneficiaries of his grace, and there is nothing that we can do in order to make ourselves worthy of his grace. 

This is why it is my sincere belief that every act of preaching must place at its centre the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; which is the gospel. Every exhortation and every application of scripture must be viewed through the lens of the gospel, otherwise we are in danger of descending into legalism.

 To look at this in practice let us take something like spending more time in personal prayer. It starts with the fact that Christ is united with the Father and is the perfect image of the Father. Christ lives in communion with the Father and acts as the example of prayer for us (as in all things). We are not united with the Father because of our sin and rebellion. Christ died and rose again in order to unite us with the Father. In achieving this he has sent his Holy Spirit to dwell within us and we are united with the Father through the Spirit. The spirit inside of us and Christ as our mediator are pouring out prayers on our behalf. Therefore when we pray we are joining in and participating with the Spirit and the Son. Prayer is therefore a response to the love of God in sending his son, the love of the son in dying for us, and the love of the spirit in interceding for us. It is not our work, it is his and we are joining in. 

Or let us take the example of being more generous. When viewed in the light of the gospel we become keenly aware of both the generosity of the Father in giving us his Son and the generosity of the Son in giving his life for us. We are aware that as the beneficiaries of his grace, all that we have belongs to God but that we are also heirs and co-heirs with Christ. When we fully understand the gospel we become aware that all we have is but as garbage compared to knowing Christ and we willingly share what we have with generosity.

Hopefully, you can see how framing exhortations in this way, understanding first what Christ has done for us and in our inability to do these things for ourselves, enables people to not see these imperatives not as soul-crushing but as the necessary response to the gospel and feel empowered to enact accordingly.

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

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