“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12. Having your (conduct) honest among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
At the close of all four gospel accounts, Jesus gave a command that we witness to the world. You have probably read what we call “The Great Commission” from Matthew 28, which tells us to go into all of the world and make disciples. In John 20, Jesus breathed on His disciples and told them, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” These are two examples of what I wrote above. It is clear that Jesus wants us to be witnesses to the world. That means to be witnesses where we are and to support others who go to other parts of the world. In Acts 1:8, Jesus told His disciples: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Over the last two thousand years we have devised all sorts of methods of missions and evangelism. Each denomination has its program of missions and evangelism. Some of these methods are better than others, but not a one of them is the best method. Peter gave us the best method. He did not write this to be a method of missions and evangelism, but it is nevertheless the best method that will be revealed as we take a closer look at what Peter wrote. The first thing that Peter wrote was that those to whom he wrote were “strangers and pilgrims.” Notice that he wrote: “As strangers and pilgrims.” He did not suggest that they act like strangers and pilgrims, but that they were strangers and pilgrims. I think that it is understood that as Christians we are to be in the world but not of the world. This does not mean that we are not to be, for example, good citizens. It means that our lives are not to reflect the world’s negative values but the values of Christ. We cannot become totally immersed in the world and be good witnesses of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in Romans 12:2a : “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” If we want to be good witnesses for Jesus, we will be in the world but not of the world. We can do this by “abstaining from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” The second thing that Peter wrote was that our conduct be “honest among the Gentiles.” The reference to “Gentiles” here is a reference to the pagans that surrounded early churches. Of course we should be honest in the sense that we do not cheat and steal, but we should also be honest in the sense that we live the gospel that we say we believe. We have all heard the accusation: “What you do speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you say.” As the old saying goes, “We need to walk the walk if we are going to talk the talk.” None of us will “walk the walk” perfectly, but we do need to walk it by how we live. One good example is that we need to be careful how we treat the people who serve us. Waiters and waitresses say that the most difficult people to wait on, and the poorest tippers, are the people who come to eat after church on Sunday. Space does not allow me to go on with a lot of other illustrations that I could give of how we need to improve our witness, but suffice it to say that we need to be careful how we live before the world. Living the Christian life genuinely is the best method of missions and evangelism. This doesn’t mean that we are excused from verbal witness. What it means is that people will not listen to our verbal witness if it is not backed up with a sincere and genuine Christian life. Don’t we agree? Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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