Witnessing. Three verses in the Bible that say a lot to me on the topic are listed below. The first one everyone uses to witness. It is the most well known verse in the whole Bible. I believe the two verses that follow should mold and shape the way we witness to others.
“ 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
- John 3: 16-18 New King James Version
Thank God for the grace to allows us to have eternal life. Did you catch the other parts though? The part about God making salvation possible because of his love for each of us. What about the part about salvation coming from belief in Jesus? It isn’t through condemnation of our sins or imperfections. It is through belief in Jesus brought about by God’s love.
What does this say about the way we should witness? If Jesus came to bring salvation through love and not condemnation shouldn’t our witness follow that example? Yet, how often do we use condemnation of someone’s sins as a starting point for our witness? Every time you start pointing out what you perceive as someone’s sins you are taking part in condemnation. Verse 18 tells us that not believing in Jesus is condemnation all by itself. In other words we could be sinless and still be condemned if we don’t believe in Jesus. So it is pointless to tell a non-Christian about all the sins they are committing. Allow the Holy Spirit to bring about conviction. That’s his job. Your job as a witness is to show them the way to salvation so they can understand God’s love. The Holy Spirit can convict and condemn much more loving than you ever could anyway. If you really feel the need to point out to someone that they are a sinner just show them that in Romans 5:8 it says Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. At least then you put a positive spin on things.
Why do you think it is important that John 3:17 pointed out that salvation does not come through condemnation? Think about it. I’ll use a over the top example as illustration. Imagine you are introduced to two people. One of them immediately starts pointing out everything they perceive to be your faults and wrongdoings. The other accepts you and loves you despite your shortcomings. You then find out they are both part of differing clubs. They are each representative of the people in their particular club. Both have asked you to join. Which one would you join? We would all join the club with the person that loves and respects us no matter what. You wouldn’t want to be like the obnoxious people in the first group that expect you to make multiple changes before they accept you, right? The same thing applies to your witness. If your witness makes Christianity look like a stuck-up country club I can promise that you are pushing people away.
In my experience the most important part of witnessing is timing. Are you one of those Christians that anytime you are around a non-Christian you think you must be witnessing to them? There are times people simply are not going to be receptive to any witness. Maybe they have so much on their mind at that moment that not only do they not want something else to think, but they simply couldn’t process it at that time anyway. Maybe they are just in a bad mood. The best witness in these situations might simply be to show them God’s love instead of telling them about it. Your actions can be much stronger than your words. God made every person different. That means you can’t use a cookie-cutter approach to witnessing. What works for one person may not work for everyone. So you have to let the Holy Spirit lead you. There are times when you will be prompted to speak about Jesus and salvation. There will be times when you are prompted to simply take action to help or love someone. There will even be times when your witness would be best served to set back, shut your mouth and give someone the time and space they need at that moment.
If you never give a spoken witness shame on you. God has not called any of us to silence when it comes to telling others about him. There is a flip side of this coin though. If you always give a spoken witness to everyone there is a good chance you have pushed people in the wrong direction. Because a word spoken at the wrong time no matter how well intended can have disastrous results. So, yes timing is important.
When the chance to tell someone about Jesus and the salvation he offers presents itself don’t overdo it. It’s a fairly simple message. Adding extra to it doesn’t help get the message across. You may even find you have added something that causes a problem for the person you are witnessing to. You should make it seem simple, because it is. This is definitely a situation where less is more. As you go about your witnessing from now on remember one thing. By witnessing to someone you are presenting yourself as an example of Jesus to that person. If you are going to be someone’s example of Jesus it better be loving.
