TESTIFY!

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

1 Peter 3:15b-16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus has called every Christian to do Gospel work. No one is exempt and everyone can do it, even when limited by their health. Here were His marching orders:

“All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

Go. Make. Baptize. Teach.

All are action words and that tells us that Jesus demands us to get up and do something so that others will know of Him and the salvation God freely gives through His death and resurrection. With this, we can add another action word to the list, the word “testify”.

Now if you look in the dictionary, here’s what you will find in regard to testifying, the act of sharing a testament or testimony with another:

“To make a statement based on personal knowledge or belief; to bear witness.”

All Christians believe that Jesus died on Calvary’s cross as a substitutionary sacrifice, a perfectly sinless man who was offered up by God the Father to serve as an atonement for the transgressions of all mankind. They know that after His death, Jesus was placed in a tomb but on the third day, He was resurrected and today is alive and reigning in all authority over all things in Heaven and on earth. Finally, and most importantly, they know that they, once a sinner destined for eternal damnation in Hell, have now been saved by simply believing in Jesus as Savior. They know that through Christ, they have gained the victory over death and the grave, having been assured a guaranteed place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Friends, THIS is our testimony as believers, the testimony that brings us a hope that can never been taken away, a hope that maintains and sustains us no matter what this temporary life brings.

Indeed, we are to share this good news with others but don’t just take my word for it. I never want it to be what I say but rather what the Lord says through His Word. Here’s what we find in 1 Peter, chapter 3 regarding this matter:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. Vv. 15b-16

Did you catch the absolute nature of this command?

I often teach on this matter of absolutes in my writing because they are critical for believers to recognize and then comply with. In this instance, the Word of God is commanding us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks to give the reason for the hope you have”. In other words, testifying is not optional.

If someone asks you about the hope you project in the way you live out your life (and we had better let that hope be seen every chance we get), then you are obligated to speak with them about the Gospel. It’s not negotiable.

Will everyone receive the good news about Jesus with respectful acceptance and even move toward conversion?

In a perfect world, yes, but as we know, we don’t anymore live in a perfect world as they did in New Testament times more than 2,000 years ago.

The reality is that persecution of Christian believers happens. Just as in first century A.D., there will be those who “speak maliciously against” a believer’s “good behavior in Christ”. Satan isn’t going to stop attacking until Jesus returns and his sure, eternal dismissal occurs.

With this, one more important point we find in our passage today regarding how we are to react to those who oppose our Christian testimony. For we read where we are to conduct ourselves “with gentleness and respect” so to keep “a clear conscience”. We do this “so that those who speak maliciously against” our “good behavior in Christ” will be “ashamed of their slander” as they are convicted over their sinfulness.

As we pass through every day the Lord blesses us with, we will encounter many people, whether in person or by means of social media, email, texting, or other means. These encounters offer us the amazing opportunity to convey the amazing, irremovable hope we have in Jesus Christ and when someone asks about that hope, we know what we need to do. For God’s Word is clear when it commands us to...

Testify!

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.