THE GOD OF LOVE (2022)

The idea of “witnessing” has always seemed a bit strange. Going out and finding a stranger and giving a short speech about the need for salvation and asking him if he would invite Jesus into his heart, and then either taking the glory or heat for it. It’s no surprise that witnessing for me was always this incredible daunting and terrifying venture, this weird part of Christianity that everyone’s pressured to do, or else all your friends will go to hell, but no one really feels comfortable or actually knows how to do it. And I think what got me is that this concept of evangelism, or witnessing, felt so foreign to everything else I knew about Christianity, and about Jesus, and about the church. As if I had to manufacture something and reduce my faith and my commitment to Jesus into something very impersonal and detached from what my life actually looked like.

But here’s what 1 John says witness is. And I say witness, because that’s the verb John uses is verse 3: martureō, to testify or bear witness. And if that words sounds familiar, it’s root word for the English term martyr, someone who is persecuted or ostracized or even killed for a deeply held cause or ideal or relationship. Of course, that may not help you feel more inclined to become an evangelist, but hear me out. To be a witness forJesus, is to be a witness of Jesus. Being a Christian, having a relationship with the creator, is not about espousing the perfect two-minute soapbox speech, nor is it about dressing just right, nor is it about presenting yourself as the ideal specimen of Christian representation. And I can say this with assurance and conviction because all of that makes your faith about behaving, when it’s really all about beholding.