Passage Read: Acts 24-25
Meditation Verses: 24:24-25
Thought
Felix was interested in hearing about faith in Jesus, until he discovered that faith in Jesus included righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment. That means that the first time Paul has to explain the Gospel in detail to someone, he includes all those aspects! So to Paul, a complete Gospel means not only sharing about Jesus, His death and resurrection, but about the need for righteousness, God's standard of perfection, the need for self-control and the fact of the judgment to come. Those elements of the Gospel make unbelievers uncomfortable, but they need to be included. Sharing the Gospel isn't about making someone comfortable and amenable to receiving Jesus, it's about telling the truth about God and His rule and righteousness, so that they understand who He is and what they owe Him.
Application
The Gospel I preach needs to include all these aspects: Jesus as fully man and fully God, His death and resurrection as the only payment for sin, His standard of righteousness and judgment against all who fail to meet it, and His expectation on us to walk according to His standard, exercising the self-control needed to walk in His ways. We lose autonomy and must submit to Jesus's rule. No one will like that message except those to whom God grants mercy and faith. I can't withhold these things in order to make the Gospel more attractive; that would give people a wrong understanding of God and false hope for salvation.