More Than Just Facts

Some people say their primary hindrance to sharing their faith in Christ is a lack of knowledge.  Faced with the prospect of arguments they do not feel equipped to answer, sharing Christian beliefs with others may appear a daunting task.  It is important to recognise Christianity is more than facts but a real relationship with God.  If we have Christ we can share Christ, even if we do not have the academic background to match others.  Knowledge is valuable and reasonable, and for Christianity it is an imperative.  Our minds are convinced of the truth by evidence in scripture.  Our hearts are moved to receive the truth, and our will responds to walk according to it.  These three things in that order - the mind, heart, and will - must unite together to be born again by grace through faith.

Facts are like keys, but we must realise only God can fit them into a locked mind and turn them to open the understanding of an unbeliever.  That is why facts alone will not convince a person of the existence of God, His righteous Law, the desperate need for salvation, and furnish the desire to receive His free gift through Christ.  1 Corinthians 2:12-14 tells us, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. ¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."  We need the Holy Spirit to open our understanding so we might know what God has freely given us.  If only our natural mind is employed to consider spiritual truth, it will seem like foolishness.  Facts are a necessary means, but they are not the end.

There is a balance:  we must study to show ourselves approved unto God by rightly dividing the Word of Truth, yet we must be reliant upon the Holy Spirit to convince us and others of the wisdom of God.  A blind man may be very perceptive, but he is still without sight.  He could not possibly describe a picture of a simple object you hold in your hand, though it appears to a person with perfect sight clear as day.  We should not be impatient with a person who cannot see, but ought to show grace and compassion in carefully describing the picture in detail.  When we are harsh, easily frustrated, or abrupt without demonstrating love towards the person, the message we intend to convey will be lost.  Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.  Those who rely upon knowledge seek to use facts to bolster their own case, but love seeks to encourage and build up others.  "Winning" an argument is not the point, for if that is our aim we likely slam and bolt shut a door of interest and opportunity others could potentially enter at a later date.

Don't let mockery or the scorn of unbelievers cause you to waver from the foundation of scriptural truth.  When Paul preached in Athens, many of the intellectuals laughed and mocked his message.  When Jesus expounded on a passage from Isaiah in the synagogue, the religious men of the city tried to kill Him in their fury!  If you hold forth the truth in love, and both you and your message are refused with ridicule, you are in good company.  Instead of feeling forlorn, double your efforts in prayers for those blinded by the devil.  Seek the answers in the Bible.  Trust that God is able and willing to open the eyes of the blind and deliver the slaves from bondage to sin, for that is the purpose Jesus was sent and a primary purpose God chooses to leave Christians on this earth.  Don't preach yourself, but Christ.  It is Jesus who is being rejected.  Should you abandon all faith and agree with those who oppose you, you would be gladly accepted.  But it is better to be rejected by man and received by God than to be accepted by men and destroyed by God.

2 Corinthians 4:5-18 reads, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. ⁶ For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-- ¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then death is working in us, but life in you. ¹³ And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. ¹⁵ For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."