The Militant Evangelist
We ought to be uncompromising regarding the Gospel, right? Agreed. We have the obligation to the Lord to fight the good fight of faith to defend it, right? Indeed. We may even need to debate it, as believers, to ensure we do not drift from the Truth, right? Absolutely!
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
– Galatians 1:6-10
Paul was fighting against false gospel teachers in the early Church. It was the true Gospel of Jesus Christ that he was defending.
There is no doubt that we believers ought to fight to keep the Gospel pure and undefiled so that when we spread it, we are spreading the Truth. Amongst believers, it’s good to be militant in our sense of protecting this precious news. However, the Bible proposes a different type of relationship with those whom we are sent to evangelize.
Are we to be as militant with unbelievers as we are with believers? The answer is “no”. That’s not to say we compromise the Gospel; rather, it’s to say “pick your battles”, soldier.
I often get asked about whether or not a believer should cut all ties with unbelievers. I typically answer with Holy Scripture.
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
– Matthew 9:10-13
Apparently, Jesus spent time with unbelievers in order to evangelize them. We can learn a lot from Him.
Paul, likewise, would spend time with those whom he personally disagreed with for the sake of evangelizing them.
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.
I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
– 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
During Paul’s time, the Jews were still very much tied to the Mosaic Law, including its prohibitions regarding food. For example, Jews would not eat animals that were used as sacrifices. However, since Paul knew that believers would often find themselves dining with unbelievers whose consciences were telling them that to eat certain foods was a sin, he proposed that believers ought not make an issue out of it. Instead, he suggested they pass over their host’s errant thinking in order to maintain a useful relationship with them (hoping to gain enough fellowship and trust, ultimately, to be able to give them the Gospel of Jesus Christ).
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”
If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
– 1 Corinthians 10:23-33
Food prohibitions weren’t the only things that Paul avoided confrontations over. For example, he had Timothy circumcised (knowing that such an act was not necessary) so as to alleviate any angst the Jews might have harbored against Timothy otherwise.
The Gospel mission is more important than the details. We can’t ever hope to evangelize someone if all we do is offend their consciences.
Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.
Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
– Acts 16:1-5
It takes a certain level of spiritual maturity to bite our tongues in the face of errant beliefs, does it not? Furthermore, food and religious rituals are hardly the only opportunities for us to behave as mature believers in the faith.
But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
– Titus 3:9
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is about sowing the good seed among a variety of soils (Matthew 13:1-9). The details that truly matter are the ones that allow you to reach your hand into your seed bag unfettered and freely plant the good seed in others. All other details tend to be distractions and opportunities for Satan and the kingdom of darkness to thwart otherwise fruitful evangelism.
We aren’t called to be militant evangelists. We are called to be compassionate, understanding, and loving. Instead of wasting our time condemning unbelievers over lifestyle differences, let’s expend our energy on the forward progress of the Gospel. Drawing hard lines between ourselves and the lost preclude us from penetrating their darkness with the Light of Truth. Militant judging in the faces of the lost effectively alienates us from them for good. Could there be a worse outcome?
Time is short. What matters is the Gospel. You can always hash out the finer details pertaining to being a child of God after someone is saved.
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
– Romans 14:1
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins