Believing Is Witnessing
10 min read
23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
John 8:23-24
In Jesus’s day, the things that Jesus said would have been understood slightly differently than the way people might hear Him today. When Jesus says, “if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins,” people today might think, “Oh. All I have to do is ‘believe,’ then.”
In the ancient days, though, and in some cultures today, a word like “believe” was not merely a mental exercise. For the ancients, the word “believe” involved a person’s entire worldview that shapes one’s attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and actions—that is, all one’s heart, soul, strength, and mind.
And so for people in Jesus’s day, and in John’s day, no one could say, “I believe in Jesus,” and then continue to live as if they belonged to the world. No one could say, “I believe,” and then continue to live a life that is driven by our sinful natures.
The separation of a mental “belief” and the actions associated with that “belief” is very much a modern western phenomenon. And that is why, even in the Reformed movement in the West, so much emphasis is placed on a right understanding of the gospel confession, as well as a right understanding of the Bible—that is, “discipleship.” But less emphasis is placed on the daily outworking of grace and witness—that is, mission.
Of course, I am speaking in general terms based upon my limited observations. No doubt, my previous comment is not true across the board. But it has been my experience that many who come from more Reformed traditions here in the US don’t tend make our witness of Jesus Christ a very high priority in their Christian lives. And that is because they have been raised up learning that knowing the right things, theologically speaking, is enough as far as our walk of faith is concerned.
In Asian cultures, that tendency is reinforced by an unhealthy overemphasis on the value of education. If we can be really honest with ourselves, there is an unspoken attitude, among Asian Americans particularly, that education is more important than relationships, education is more important than family legacy, education is more important than bearing witness to Jesus Christ.
For the ancients, if you “believe” in Jesus, you will bear witness to Jesus. If you do not bear witness to Jesus, then you do not really “believe.”
Of course, the grace of God is never so black and white. That is why so much of the New Testament and so much of the Bible, in fact, is an exhortation to bear witness in the face of opposition (Matthew 5:3-12). That is because our human tendency is to shy away from opposition, and, therefore, to shy away from our Christian witness. Incredibly, though, in the history of the church, the greatest opposition to our Christian witness has not been persecution, but comfort.
There are many places in this world where it is very difficult to bear witness to Jesus Christ. Those places may be reserved for missionaries with a specific and special calling. And we are all called to support that work. No one can or should do it alone. The gift of evangelism is given more to communities than it is to individuals.
On the other hand, there are many places in this world where it is not difficult at all to bear witness to Jesus Christ. We can fly on a relatively comfortable plane, share the love of Christ in relatively comfortable communities, spend some time doing some relatively comfortable sightseeing to beautiful places, and then come back safely on comfortable planes, once again, to our comfortable homes. Whether the trip is for one week or two or one month or one year, that too is missions, as long as Jesus is shared and the global church is strengthened and encouraged.
The narrative that missions can only be ministry done out of a tent to some poor, undereducated native people is a lie. Of course, that is most definitely missions, too. But while the work among such peoples is good and necessary, sometimes such missions to “lesser” people can serve to make us “greater” people feel “gracious,” “generous,” and “humble.” It can be patronizing and colonial if we do not guard our hearts.
And then, there is the witnessing that is done right out of the comfort of our own homes and our house churches. That may be the most potentially fruitful witnessing opportunities that we are given from God—and they are given from God—simply because we have so much more opportunities right here where we live.
But even here, we find ourselves struggling to get out of our “comfort zones,” don’t we? The devil is always working very hard to make our “comfort zones” smaller and smaller and smaller until it collapses into “me-myself-and-I.” And everyone learns to be OK with such a collapsed comfort zone in our overeducated, Asian-American hearts because “I believe.”
Believing in Jesus is an act of love and an act of courage to break out of the shell of “me-myself-and-I” so that someone, anyone, might be saved (1 Corinthians 9:22).
Father, I confess that I get trapped in the comfort of my own self. Forgive me. For myself, and for my Canvas family, I pray (1) that You would give us Your heart for the lost and unchurched, (2) that You would give us many opportunities to bear witness to Jesus through our missions and through our house churches, and (3) that many would be saved through our witness, and if not many, some, and if not some, anyone. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
