Be Doing Good

The last time I visited Israel our guide said much that stayed with me.  One comment in particular stuck out about the differences between the religion of Judaism and Christianity.  He was a secular Israeli and made an observation I never considered before.  "Judaism is not a missionary religion like Christianity," he said.  "Christians want everyone to believe in Jesus, but the Orthodox Jews are not interested to have people join them.  They try to make following their religion as difficult as possible.  They don't want you."  While I can't say for certain he was correct concerning Orthodox Jews, he was accurate in his assessment of Christians.  Jesus has called us to be His witnesses and to go throughout the world, making disciples of all nations.  We, like our heavenly Father, desire all would repent and come to knowledge of the truth.

Our zeal to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ is often tempered with not knowing what to say.  One can never know how people will respond to the truth of scripture because of their background, perspective, or bias.  We would love to discover a "silver bullet" statement or point which can shoot unbelief dead at once.  But there is no silver bullet.  Salvation of souls is not through facts alone, techniques, a formula, or winning a debate.  The only way a mind that is already made up can be reached is through the power of the Holy Spirit, the truth of God's Word, and God's love in the life of a Christian.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, than love is worth a thousand pictures.  Love is active to do good for others, even when it is a costly sacrifice.  Facts might engage willing minds, but love touches the soul.

Our words are important, but it does not benefit to engage in useless debates with minds opposed to God.  Peter in his epistle pointed out the way to make a far greater impact by doing, not just speaking.  Peter 2:15-16 reads, "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men-- ¹⁶ as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God."  Good doctrine must be accompanied by good deeds.  People have a lot of negative things to say about hypocritical or judgmental Christians, and rightly so.  But when the lives of Christians are above reproach and do good it silences criticism.  Men are left to ponder the reality of Jesus Christ in the life of a Christian, something clearly supernatural and not of this world.  Instead of engaging sceptics through arguments, it is God's will that by doing good they would be silenced.  And then they might even want to listen!