Go into All the World

Recently,* I was talking with a 20-year-old Christiancollege student. In the conversation, I asked him if he talked to unbelieversabout the gospel. He replied that he did know any unbelievers.

I live in the Northwest, which is probably the leastchurched part of the country. But there are a lot of Christians here. I haveasked this question to many of them, and they come up with similar answers.Generally, they do know some unbelievers, but they do not talk to them aboutthe gospel.

One of the reasons they give is that they don’t have thegift of evangelism. Evangelism is not restricted to those who have agift. It is a command to believers—go into all the world and make disciplesof all nations. This has nothing to do with gifts. It has to do withknowing the Father through the Son. It has to do with believing that the gospelis true and that unbelievers are lost.

I ask these Christians if it is true that unbelievers arelost. They say yes. The next question is, “Do you care?” Apparently, notenough.

Do you find that hard? The truth is that Christians do notlove unbelievers enough to talk to them about the gospel.

It’s not that difficult to do. Just read the book of Acts tothem. Acts 9, 22, and 26 are three accounts of Paul’s conversion. Two of themare his testimony.

Paul didn’t hesitate to tell the gospel. It didn’t make anydifference to him whether anyone wanted to know. In fact, the Jews sent peoplefrom town to town to keep him from talking about the Lord Jesus. Paul did notpreach the gospel just because he had an open door. In fact, in Troas, he hadan open door, but he didn’t preach there because he wanted Titus to be withhim. That is understandable. Jesus sent His disciples out two by two. Paul andBarnabas went together. Barnabas and Mark went together. You don’t have to doit alone. You can get a companion to go with you.

Please go through the book of Acts. See what is happeningthere with the Christians and imitate them.

 

*Written April 2019.

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