My Open Life

I have been thinking about a curiosity: where does Jesus’s Great Commission (“make disciples of all nations”) appear in the epistles? After all, wasn’t that Jesus’s final command? Isn’t this the primary mandate for the church? Why then isn’t that command echoed in the letters to the early churches?

I can recall only three places where the epistles tell us how to interact with outsiders:

“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Colossians 4:5-6, ESV

“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” 1 Peter 2:12, ESV

“In your hearts honor 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, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” 1 Peter 3:14-15, ESV

Notice what’s missing? There is no command to “share your faith,” not even an admonition to steer the conversation toward spiritual matters. What the apostles seem to assume is that Christ-followers will live close enough to non-Christians that their lives will provoke questions and that spiritual conversations will emerge naturally. It seems that when the New Testament speaks of personal evangelism, it speaks of a kind of opportunistic, reflexive evangelism that is never forced.

That comes as a relief to many of us who have had our share of awkward experiences with door-to-door campaigns or “cold turkey” efforts on the street.

But don’t imagine that this takes us off the hook. Christ-followers must be close enough to their non-Christian friends for their lives to be accessible and observable. For an introvert like me, that is the great challenge: to open up my life to my non-Christian acquaintances so that God can reveal Jesus to them.

So what are we to do with this? As always, start where you are, not where you should be. Begin to pray that God will give you a greater burden for those non-Christian acquaintances on the edges of your life, people whom God loves dearly, ferociously.

Begin to pray and to think and to plan how you can create space in your life – in your schedule, in your home – for those people to get close enough for God to reveal Jesus in you. This is a long-term commitment. Friendships take time to mature, especially to the level where serious personal conversations can take place.

And I must add, in the interest of full disclosure, that you must be prepared for the possibility that God may want to reveal His glory and His grace in the way you handle suffering, so that your non-Christian friends become curious about the ”reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).

Then, as over time you do life with your new friends, pray that God “let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:6) so that your new friends can see Jesus.