Romans 10.14-15:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (15) And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (ESV)
The preaching of the Gospel of Jesus has built within it a matter of going. The sharing of the Gospel in verse 15 is connected to someone who is sent to preach. And the going that the Apostle Paul did himself after he was sent out was frequently done by means of walking from town to town. Paul would travel by ship on the Mediterranean Sea, disembark, and then travel by walking.
And so Paul correlates the “beautiful feet” described in Isaiah 52.7 to be in the New Testament the beautiful feet of the evangelist of the Gospel. The communication of the Gospel during Bible times was of necessity a matter of going. And it was typically traveling by foot. Jesus went from place to place by walking, and likewise He sent His disciples out on missionary journeys that required walking from town to town.
In the Great Commission recorded in Matthew 28.16-20, Jesus tells His disciples to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (ESV). In today’s world there are many options as to how we can “go therefore and make disciples”. Books, Television, DVDs, radio, internet, travel by car, train, airplanes, boats, and on and on are now available to enable us to “go”, to the extent we are physically able to do so.
And with the world suffering from the COVID-19 plague, the going is difficult. The major methods of travel have been curtailed, and traveling now has more personal risk of harm from disease. And who really knows what government leaders will promulgate in the future. Some of them also appear to be inclined to curtail the freedom of assembly in churches.
So it is incumbent upon us to find new ways of “going”. In verse 14 above, the Apostle Paul uses what I believe is the official word for “preaching”, when he asks, “and how are they to preach unless they are sent?” In verse 15, Paul expands methods of communicating the Gospel when he uses the more generalized expression of “communicating the Gospel”. This word is used many times in the New Testament, carrying the meaning of “announce the good news”.
There are many ways to announce the good news, and each person can discover his or her ways to do so. New, creative thinking is required. This effort has the aim of carrying out the Great Commission’s purpose of making disciples.