…but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience…(1 Peter 3:15b-16a – ESV)
Proclamation of God's truth from His Word isn't wrong, but it can be done in a wrong way. The danger is swinging the pendulum too far in either direction. Now you want to witness of Christ in a winsome way, and we have no right to be obnoxious. We must remain humble, realizing that it is only by God’s grace that we have seen the light. That being said, we should not be ashamed to defend the gospel, and when we try and round off the sharp corners of the gospel in order to play nice (placate our unbelieving friends), then we are indeed compromising...
In these encounters, we are doing them so as to:
Convey the truth – proclaim the name and truth of Jesus Christ
Convince yourself – sharpen your skills and more fully learn why you believe
Coach others – other believers will witness your witnessing, this helps them to be edified, educated, equipped, and exhorted to grow in their faith
Correct errors – you are doing 2 Corinthians 10:5, this is training others to more fully understand their faith by correcting their ill-informed, misinformed, or uninformed thoughts about the Bible, God, Christ, and the Christian faith.
Contend for the faith – we are called to give an answer, we give them more fully informed and correctly understood representations of what scripture actually says as opposed to mere characterizations, and we proclaim Christ, then let the Spirit do the work
Sometimes you just talk of Jesus, you witness, but sometimes you give a defense, and an answer. You meet them where they are. Yes, as you may expect, most of the time from these hardened ones you will not see any movement. However, we are still to do it, because it adds to their judgment, not that we want to execute them but we are to proclaim, and God holds them accountable. Also, others who may be reading along or see it later could be edified and exhorted and moved. God uses these encounters, and we are to proclaim His glory, His message, His truth.
We cannot be ashamed to proclaim, even if we don’t have all the answers, because we have the right and truthful and necessary ones. We have the eternal perspective. We can be humble but we must still be bold, we cannot cower, especially if we are dealing with people smarter than we are, or people who violently attack our ideas or us. They are God’s ideas, after all, and we worship Him, and must be ready, not only to give an answer (1 Peter 3:15), but also to die, to our self, our dignity, and even with our very lives if necessary. That is the heart of the matter.
11 comments:
JD,
I am in basic agreement with your thoughts. I do think orthodox conservative Christianity in America today is very good at affirming clear Biblical truth, but too reluctant to refute and deny outright heresy from false teachers and prophet. This failure is just as destructive to making disciples as failing to witness to unbelievers.
IMO, we should not only be truth tellers but we should also be exposers of false teachings.
Indeed, the last two points of the five are as important as the others...and we too often want to run and hide...
and we too often want to run and hide...
I really wish you wouldn't talk about me so much on these posts....it's begining to become embarassing!:)
Thank you for this. I have printed this post, and will read it and pray over it until it sinks in.
"We can be humble, but we must still be bold"
Amen! Thank you so much for this excellent post.
Thank you for the encouragement...as soldiers for Christ, we must support one another...
Good post. I'm edified.
Jesus said learn of Me, for I"m lowly and meek.
What do you think of these two traits JD.
Don't we define meekness wrongly in our culture, and lowly as well?
JD,
Good points.
These two passages on this hit home for me:
"...we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." (2 Cor 4:2)
and
24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. (2 Tim 2:24-26)
And the idea of imploring them in 2 Cor 5.
Also the fool who says in his heart there is no god is not necessarily today's Enlightenment rational atheist. They've had a naturalistic worldview imposed on them which makes them question intellectually the existence of God, or downright deny it. Of course all sin against the light of general revelation, but they have this added problem, unknown in Biblical times. Then it was more like, "Yahweh exists, but he doesn't see or care. So we'll do as we please"- among the "fools" or "wicked" of Israel then.
I really appreciate your faithfulness and zeal for the truth, JD. Your remind me (and I've listened to your preaching) of Charles Spurgeon who faithfully spoke the truth in the grace of Christ Jesus.
Keep keeping on! May we all ever grow in the will of God in Jesus.
Don, I think you have a real point there...
Ted, thank you for all you do as well...of course we who "get around" a bit in the blogosphere get to know one another as we see each other comment on different blogs, in different situations, to different people, about different topics, and I appreciate, sincerly, the fact that you are out there among us, as you bring some freshness in when things can get a little, shall we say, too contentious...thre truth is that we need to hit these things from many angles, and several bloggers I know add greatly to the discussions with their different emphases...I am not called to do some of the things others do, and I hope people are mature enough, or will mature enough, to realize that even the biblical writers did this, they focused on what they were doing, in a sharp way, and sometimes made what seem like all or none statements which are, but are only germane to the particular argument, not a universal principle...well that is a mouthful and another subject, and yes, I am a stauch supporter in verbal, plenary inspiration as a doctrine...
Truly I am honored that you have listened to the sermons...
JD,
Thanks for your response. And I so much agree that we're all in need of each other. Certainly a great point you make about different angles and the Biblical writers.
And though I know I have a certain niche, according to the developement of God's gift in me, I also am much aware that I can benefit from seeing areas that are strong in others, which are weak in myself. I see that with you. I most certainly can grow in a bolder proclamation of Christ and the gospel, maybe necessarily blunt at times, couched in a message full of grace (seasoned with that salt!).
Thanks.
Thanks again, Ted...I actually wrote a post titled "Reasoning and Seasoning" recently based on Colossians 4:5-6...we truly need both...
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