A Gentle Answer: Our 'Secret Weapon' in an Age of Us Against Them

by Scott Sauls

But make no mistake: Jesus’ gentle answer was bold and costly. His gentle answer included pouring out his lifeblood and dying on the cross. Our gentle answer will be costly as well. We must die to ourselves, to our self-righteousness, to our indignation, and to our outrage. For “whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 10:39).

Because Jesus has covered all of our offenses, we can be among the least offensive and least offended people in the world. This is the way of the gentle answer.

Jesus and Christianity do not discriminate between good people and bad people. Instead, Jesus and Christianity discriminate between humble people and proud people. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Jesus did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive.