“22 Shun youthful lusts and flee from them, and aim at and pursue righteousness (all that is virtuous and good, right living, conformity to the will of God in thought, word, and deed); [and aim at and pursue] faith, love, [and] peace (harmony and concord with others) in fellowship with all [Christians], who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.
23 But refuse (shut your mind against, have nothing to do with) trifling (ill-informed, unedifying, stupid) controversies over ignorant questionings, for you know that they foster strife and breed quarrels.
24 And the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome (fighting and contending). Instead, he must be kindly to everyone and mild-tempered [preserving the bond of peace]; he must be a skilled and suitable teacher, patient and forbearing and willing to suffer wrong.
25 He must correct his opponents with courtesy and gentleness, in the hope that God may grant that they will repent and come to know the Truth [that they will perceive and recognize and become accurately acquainted with and acknowledge it],
26 And that they may come to their senses [and] escape out of the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him, [henceforth] to do His [God's] will.
Dear people of God, one of the most crucial matter at the very heart of God is Evangelism, where a Christian preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ to other Christians and non-Christians about Jesus Christ by word and by conduct wherever the Christian finds himself.
Three major challenges confront many Christians and usually discourages them from embarking on Evangelism:
(1) Does my current lifestyle preach the Gospel to others? What if someone I know as my sin partner sees me preaching? Wouldn’t he make mockery of me to embarrass me?
(2) Am I adequately equipped with information from the Word of God to attend to questions my listeners would ask? What if I am asked a question I cannot provide an answer to? Wouldn’t that make me look foolish and ill-prepared for the work of God?
(3) What if I am rebuffed and insulted by people unwilling to listen to what I have to say? What if I get into arguments with them and begin to quarrel? How would that portray me as a Christian?
Dear friend, in spite of these challenges, let it be known today that the Lord Jesus Christ has given a command to all who claim to be His followers to preach the Gospel to all creatures in every nation of this world and make disciples of them – Mark 16:15.
Today’s lead Holy Bible text gives us instruction on how to live as Christians and what to do in the face of opposition of non-Christians to God’s Word.
You must live right always in obedience to God’s commandment in the Holy Bible.
You must daily study God’s Word diligently with a regular schedule, meditate on it, pray with it asking God to open your spiritual eyes of understanding and then you must ensure to do what it says so that you are not just a hearer deceiving yourself but a doer of God’s Word.
Whilst having a haircut on Saturday August 8, 2020, one of the customers told of a minister who came with a group of Christians that morning to preach the Gospel in the area where he stays.
One of the non-Christians there told the minister off in a loud voice and the minister was visibly upset and wanted to react angrily.
The narrator of this event said he was the one who called the minister and told him to calm down because he was not supposed to react that way as a Christian if truly he was for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He said the other Christians who came with the minister abandoned him in his travail and went to sit somewhere far whilst waiting for him.
Dear friend, it took the intervention of a non-Christian to save the situation because the minister was almost losing his composure over the opposition.
Jesus Christ our Lord never promised us that Evangelism would be a pleasurable exercise always. There are times we meet non-Christians who are prepared to listen to what we have to say.
However, there would also be times we would encounter non-Christians who are unwilling and uninterested in whatever we have to offer, fortunately, the best information available for all human beings, the Gospel of Repentance and Salvation found only in Jesus Christ.
We must make up our minds to do the work of God whether it is pleasant or not and we must be mentally and spiritually disciplined and prepared for opposition as we have been admonished in the main Bible text of today.
We are told today that it is the devil that holds every non-Christian hostage in his spirit (even when he is unaware of this fact) to make him view and treat God’s Word with levity.
You must have this understanding, which is why before embarking on any Evangelism, you must always first of all, take authority in the Name of Jesus Christ over the area and break the power of the devil over anyone you would encounter.
Thereafter, you must follow up when you reach your home with prayer for everyone you ministered to whether by direct conversation or through Gospel tracts for God to complete the good work that He has started through you.
Always remember that our task as Christians is to plant the seed of God’s Word in the hearts of men through Evangelism. The work of the Holy Spirit is to convict the hearts of the listeners.
The listener then has the final decision to either accept or reject the Word of God preached to him.
It is in his own interest to accept because every single human who has ever rejected the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and died in that rejection is today suffering an eternal damnation in HELL.
In HELL, the person has finally accepted, unfortunately, it is too late for the person because he took a wrong decision while alive here on earth.
Dear friend, Jesus Christ is coming shortly to take ONLY those who are His children and who are qualified according to His righteous standards in the Holy Bible.
Are you living a genuine life as His disciple? Are you ready for Him? Come to Jesus today, for tomorrow may be too late for you.
May the good Lord bless you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most Righteous Name, Amen.
Gabriel Ama.
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