Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Just preach Christ

The Orthodox Christian does not proselytize; he evangelizes.
He does not preach Church,
he preaches Christ.
In this he follows His Master, who in the gospels does not seek converts, but seeks that which is lost.

Never do we find that Jesus in His earthly ministry went after people. Never do we see Him arguing a philosophical point to win over an opponent. Never does He proselytize, but He does have words for those who do.

Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι περιάγετε τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ τὴν ξηρὰν ποιῆσαι ἕνα προσήλυτον, καὶ ὅταν γένηται, ποιεῖτε αὐτὸν υἱὸν γεέννης διπλότερον ὑμῶν.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. (Matthew 23:25 NIV)

What do we find instead? Two disciples of a Jewish prophet, John the Forerunner, are directed by him, pointing to Jesus walking by and saying, “That is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

What did the two disciples do? They followed after Jesus. Why? Because they believed the word of the prophet. How did they approach Jesus? They asked, “Rabbi, where do you live?” How does Jesus respond? He says, “Come, and see!”

The encounter with the Truth is gentle. There is no compulsion exerted from the outside. Everything is accomplished inwardly. All movement is internal first, in the heart. Then, it is manifested by the feet, running after the Lord.

This is why the Orthodox Christian does not argue semantically to win over an opponent. He does not preach Apollos. He doesn’t preach Paul. He doesn’t preach himself. No, he preaches Christ, and Him crucified, and risen from the dead.

People want to draw us into arguments, wrangling over words, but it is precisely this tactic that the evil one used when he wanted to entrap Christ. To every argument, Jesus responded not with human reason, but with the plain words of scripture.

The Word of God does not need to defend Himself.
He simply is what He is.

In the same way, brethren, all who follow Jesus, all who believe and stand on the Word, who preach, like the angel of the last days, the eternal gospel, just preach Christ, to yourself by submitting all your thoughts to the Word of God, to others by proving on the battlefield of your body that you follow Christ the Victor over sin, and to all those whom the Lord places in your path by your courtesy and generosity, and by always having a spirit of welcome, for men have welcomed angels without knowing it (Hebrews 13:2).

4 comments:

Liz said...

Very interesting. I have been reaching some of the same conclusions.
I have probably been influenced more by twelve step philosophy than the Orthodox church, but I am coming to see that there is a HUGE difference between being outspoken and talking about what you believe and turning everything into an argument and a debate. I think more Christians of all persuasians would do well to closely examine the scriptures to glean some perspective on exactly "how" the disciples went about evangelizing. They were hardly closed mouthed individuals hoping for someone to know how nice they were and ask them about it...but they also did not engage in the type of ugliness that has far too often become associated with Christianity today....

Ρωμανός ~ Romanós said...

Very good points, sis, and I'm always happy to read your comments here. As you have said, it wasn't by the apostles being nice guys that made the gospel spread in ancient times, nor is it being nice guys now. But there are ways to evangelize with a minimum of talk and a maximum of act, without guile or artifice, and the scriptures themselves show us the pattern of how to evangelize. Yes, if we follow Jesus and the holy apostles, even now, we let our neighbors make their decision in complete freedom, because we are not fighting them, and they know it.

Jim Swindle said...

It's fine to learn methods of sharing Jesus, but it's far better to share him...

with earnestness, not with pressure

with confidence in God, not in ourselves

with a desire for the Lord's glory, not our own

Thank you for this essay, and for the previous one about the danger of worship.

Liz said...

This is one of the things I find most frustrating about "the emerging church" is that these people seem to have gotten the idea that Jesus kept his mouth shut and led only by example and dropped hints.
Its infuriating because it just plain isn't biblical. However, at the same time, Jesus did not engage in manipulation, did not constantly threaten people with hell and flames and belittle them in an attempt to browbeat them into the kingdom.