The Figurative Finger of Non-evangelistic Faith

There are a few things that I am dogmatically bound to. One of those is the priority of evangelism for anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ. If we follow Christ, we must understand that there is literally nothing more important than the sharing of our faith. Jesus' last words to His followers in the Great Commission were to "go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you." If you think about it, this being the last thing Jesus said to us makes it extraordinarily important. It's not something we can ignore, but we lose some of the force of the statement in translation. What Jesus is saying in sentence construction in the original Greek is: "make disciples as we go, make disciples as we baptize, make disciples as we teach." The absolute importance is on making disciples in every aspect of life.

But, before we go on, let's take a second to define disciple: a disciple is one who follows. They strive to become like the one they follow so that they can ultimately be as close to exactly like the person they're following as possible. The idea in Jesus' day was that a disciple was one "who was covered in the dust of their master's feet." if you've never lived down a dirt road, that statement might sound odd, but if you have ever followed someone driving down a dirt road it ought to click. Following someone down a dirt road means being caught in the dust their vehicle is throwing up. In fact, if you grew up that way, you were taught to stay far enough back that you could still see in case the vehicle in front stopped or slowed down instead of being caught in the wake of dust from the leading vehicle. What that means in terms of our context, is twofold. One, that we must remain close to Jesus if we claim to be His disciple- proximity is necessary to be covered in the dust His feet put off as He walks. Two, we must follow, not attempt to pass Jesus and lead into our own direction- if we ever pass Him we are no longer followers, but attempting to lead.

Jesus' leadership always leads to the last, least, and lost and His heart always beats for their salvation. In fact, as we see Jesus in the gospels, He is always more concerned for those who are NOT following than those who are. He told His disciples they would face trouble, persecution, and death for His sake- yet He was willing to die to bring just one person to salvation. That dichotomy is hard for us- we want a Jesus who coddles us and takes care of our needs, but Jesus' core mission is what He passed on to us: finding the lost and doing absolutely everything in our power to bring them to Jesus. Charles Spurgeon put it well saying:

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for."

All that has gone to say, if you are not passionately pursuing the lost and dying of our world as a follower of Christ, you are missing the point and are the most hateful person anyone can imagine. Yep, I just said that and I'm going to take it a step further. I'd go so far to say that if you are not wholeheartedly seeking to share Christ with anyone you possibly can, I'm fairly certain you don't actually know Jesus. Yep, I just said I'd question your eternal salvation if you are not actively working to bring people to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Thinking I'm some crazed fundamentalist nut-job you should just tone out? Are you asking why I would ever say something like that? Hear me out- think about what any follower of Jesus' failure to share their faith proclaims to anyone they meet. When we are not actively sharing our faith we are literally flipping everyone the bird and screaming, "Go to hell!" at them. When we fail to share our faith we are literally hoping people will suffer eternity away from God. That my friends, is evil of the most extreme degree. But don't just take my word for it, take the words of an atheist who sees the contrast clearly:

"If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me along and keep your religion to yourself—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"-Penn Jillette

So here's the burning question: can you hate people enough to flip them the bird while condemning them to hell and say you are following Jesus?

Think about that and do what Jesus told you to- love people enough to care about their eternity and share your faith in word and deed or quit pretending to be something you are not...