“Let your light shine in front of men.” Matthew 5:16 NLV It has been the source of many sermons and studies calling Christians everywhere to stand up and share their faith. We have all encountered people who jump in and share and push and prop people to listen to them and often pressure people to believe with them. We have all even seen people walking around carrying a bible big enough to choke a mule trying to engage people in conversation hoping to convince them that they need to believe what we believe.
Unfortunately this has caused people to write us off a religious nuts who run around pressuring people to believe with us. And so we try harder to share, because we know it is what God wants us to do, or we simply go quiet and hide. Neither option is worth it. God does want us to share with people about who He is, but He doesn’t want us running around badgering people doing everything we can to convince people that what they believe is wrong and what we believe is right.
Evangelism is a biblical requirement for us a Christians. It is something that we are all called to do. Jesus said “Go and make disciples”. We have a mission while here on earth and it is the same as Jesus had. Jesus said His mission was ” For the Son of Man[a] came to seek and save those who are lost” Luke 19:10 NLT and He stated that He was passing on His mission to us ” As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you..” John 20:21 NLT. So evangelism is a requirement for us if we wish to follow Jesus. But badgering people with doctrine isn’t working, and isn’t evangelism.
Jesus went all around Israel and shared of the goodness of God with people. He allowed His light to shine before everyone He encountered. But His light was His salvation as many people profess today. It had nothing to do with the cross because the cross hadn’t happened yet. It had everything to do with His relationship with the Father. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4-5 NIV. In Him (Jesus) was life. And this life was the life of God. His connection to the Father. The life and power of God flowing in and through Him. And that life was the light of men. It puts an interesting change to evangelism. Do you have the life of God flowing in you? Are all you offering people is a doctine they need to choose to believe or are we sharing with people something that we have in us that is transforming us and making us different. If we don’t have God’s life, we have no light to share with others.
” you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.” 1 Peter 2:9-10 MSG Time for us as followers of Christ to get plugged in to Him and allow His life to fill us. Then we can let our light shine and talk about the transformation that God is doing in us. It will completely revolutionize our evangelism if we do it the way Jesus did.
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