With the sin remaining within us, we Christians can still make a mess of seeking to obey God. I recently wrote an article regarding the responsibility of Christians to take the Gospel into all the world and to expect ultimate success of the spread of the Gospel prior to Christ’s coming.

Sadly, in seeking to carry out this command we want to do it our way. We get matters confused. We want to play God. We forget that God builds His church (Mt. 16:18). We forget that God resurrects dead sinners, giving them spiritual life (Eph. 2:8-10). We believe we can convince others our way. This belief works itself out into life in a number of ways.

We stress the power of our words. We may enter into a quarrel with a non-Christian. Instead of addressing actual objections held by the individual, we end up in a shouting match. We think if we yell the loudest, or be the final one yelling we have won. Instead of yelling, we may use words such as “idiot” to put down the Gospel opponent. When he walks away we believe we have won another argument or shouted our opponent into submission. Instead we have shown a primary dependence on ourselves and the power of our words.

In our technological age, we can blast away at opponents by launching missiles in the form of emails or send out attacks from our blogs. We may set up straw men and then ferociously tear them down. In doing so we believe we are advancing God’s kingdom. We may use strong words or name-calling that we would not use face to face with the same individual. Somehow we believe that a computer keyboard and our blog site give us great opportunity and power to defeat our opponents our way. We seldom stop to think how our approach and our words will be perceived by outsiders who read our posts. We tell ourselves we are waging war for the truth so nothing else matters.

We can also shun sinners. Before I go further I hasten to point out that we dare not befriend wrongdoers in such a manner that our own morals are corrupted (1 Cor. 15:33). At the same time giving the lost the “cold shoulder” is generally not going to get the Gospel out. As Christians, we should trust the Holy Spirit to use our words, rightly spoken, as instruments to save the lost. This means we have to bring the Gospel to them.

Many times the actions of unbelievers make us shake our heads. We must remember they are blind in their sins. They are in spiritual darkness. They are where we once were and would be today, but by God’s grace. We may view them as hopeless cases. Yet, outside of the Holy Spirit’s work we are all hopeless cases. What makes us different from the lost is not that we are better or more moral. The difference is what God has done in our lives.

Shunning those we believe are unsaved, when we have not sought to witness to them does not advance the Gospel. We have to remember that Christ came to those who did not receive Him (John. 1:11). Again, our hope for conversion of others must rest in God, not in ourselves.

We do not know who the elect are. Our calling is to witness to all whom God puts in our path. We must remember to witness in dependence on God not in the power or silence of our words. In your witness, are you ultimately depending on yourself or God to advance the Gospel?

©2008 Byron Snapp, Hampton, Virginia