Nothing But the Truth E-Book

John MacArthur

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 1999

Seitenzahl: 299

Beschreibung

"Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." -1 Peter 3:15 Scripture is clear about the fact that we must be prepared to communicate the truth of the Gospel when given the opportunity—and do it with the right attitude. But even when your tone is gentle and respectful, what, specifically, should you say when asked or confronted about your faith? And what is your overall responsibility to unbelievers as a disciple of Christ? Pastor John MacArthur responds to these very questions and more—with solid, biblical answers focused in four particular areas:     * your attitude     * your preparedness     * the content of your answers     * your priority in witnessing Combining a biblical study of evangelism, a rational defense of Christian beliefs, and a practical approach to evangelism, this book offers a well-rounded perspective that can help you gently and confidently give an answer for the hope you have in Christ.

Leseprobe

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

Nothing but the Truth

Copyright © 1999 by John F. MacArthur

Published by Crossway

                     1300 Crescent Street                      Wheaton, Illinois 60187.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation and used by permission.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple

First printing, 1999

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publlcation Data

MacArthur, John, 1939-

Nothing but the truth : upholding the Gospel in a doubting age / John F. MacArthur, Jr.

        p.     cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-090-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 10: 1-58134-090-7

1. Witness bearing (Christianity) 2. Evangelistic work.

3. Apologetics. I. Title.

  BV4520.M23       1999 

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. 1 Peter 3:15

CONTENTS

Introduction9

Part I: The Attitude for Evangelism

1 The Christian’s Duty in a Hostile World152 Our Testimony as Salt and Light253 Praying for the Lost35

Part II: What We Proclaim and Defend

4 Who Is God?495 The Reliability of Scripture636 Amazing Prophecies777 The Reality of Sin898 The Virgin Birth and Deity of Jesus Christ1019 The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ115

Part III: Taking It to the Streets

10 The Great Commission13311 How to Witness147Appendix: “Who Do You Say That I Am?”165Study Guide171Scripture Index 193General Index201

INTRODUCTION

Being a witness to the Gospel in our day and age is becoming increasingly difficult. As the world rushes into and enters a new millennium, evangelical Christianity has reached a crossroads, especially here in the United States. After being influenced for some 150 years with strong biblical Christianity, our country has been rapidly declining, especially during the last half of the twentieth century and moving into the twenty-first. Practical atheism and moral relativism have dominated our society in recent decades. For the most part the few vestiges of Christianity still reflected in our culture are weak and compromising. Although many parts of our culture still wear some sort of religious mask, in reality it is largely pagan.

For a brief period, the spiritual revival of the 1970s that swept across the campuses of many colleges and universities seemed to promise a new day of blessing. Mass baptisms were conducted in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Several new versions of the English Bible were released. Christian publishing and broadcasting experienced remarkable growth. Certainly an undeniable wind of the Spirit was blowing.

But that evangelical revival soon slowed and was overshadowed by the greed and debauchery of the eighties and nineties. From government leaders and celebrities right on down to average people, much of society became openly disparaging of biblical standards of morality and of Christianity as a whole. As a result, America adopted not only a non-Christian but a distinctly anti-Christian stance and agenda, with the state often encroaching on religious freedoms, instituting policies that are blatantly anti-Christian.

Understandably, evangelicals became resentful of this secular trend, appalled that biblical standards of ethics could be so blatantly rejected while vulgarity, profanity, and blasphemy were not only condoned but admired. In reaction, many well-meaning Christian leaders founded organizations to counteract such anti-Christian inroads. They declared war on the prevailing secular culture, especially on the liberal national media. This culture war has been essentially an effort to moralize the unconverted. But the end result of such an approach is that many Christians became hostile to unbelievers—the very ones God called them to love and reach with the Gospel.

At the beginning of 1999, a major battle in the culture war took place. The Bill Clinton impeachment hearings, conducted by the highest level of leadership in our nation, were in reality a referendum on the culture war. But what began as outrage against immorality, deception, and abuse of power ended rather abruptly without any punishment or even censure.

May I suggest that the culture war, at least as we know it, is now over. The impeachment process gave us a clear indication of where our culture stands—and we have discovered that it refuses to follow a biblical morality. The culture war is over—and we’ve lost. That was the inevitable end because this world is the domain of darkness, whether it’s portrayed as moral or immoral. Our responsibility has never been to moralize the unconverted; it’s to convert the immoral. Our responsibility is redemptive, not political. We do not have a moral agenda; we have a redemptive agenda. We can’t reform the kingdom of darkness that Satan rules.

The cause of Christ cannot be protected or expanded by social intimidation any more than by government decree or military conquest. Ours is a spiritual warfare against human ideologies and beliefs that are set up against God, and those can be successfully conquered only with the weapon of the Word of God (see 2 Cor. 10:3-5). We can change society only by faithfully proclaiming the Gospel, which changes lives from the inside out.

The single divine calling of the church is to bring sinful people to salvation through Christ. If we do not lead the lost to salvation, nothing else we do for them, no matter how beneficial at the time, is of any eternal consequence. How to go about doing that is what this book is about.

In the first century, Christians faced a much more antagonistic culture than ours. They lived in a world of murderous tyrants, gross inequality and injustice, and sexual looseness and perversion. The apostle Peter knew how difficult it was for believers, especially new converts who were being persecuted for their faith, to face such a culture. That’s why he described them as “aliens and strangers” (1 Pet. 2:11). They were like foreigners living without a permanent home or citizenship. That is also our standing, and we need to have that perspective when interacting with a culture that will become increasingly hostile to our faith.

To encourage all believers in such circumstances, Peter wrote, “Keep your behavior excellent among the [unsaved], so that . . . they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation” (v. 12), and so “by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (v. 15). We silence our adversaries by disproving their accusations and doing right—by living godly lives. That’s our most effective tool for evangelism. Scandalous conduct fuels the fires of criticism, but godly living extinguishes them.

But along with that, Peter also encourages believers to always be “ready to make a defense to every one who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pet. 3:15). When society attacks, we need to be prepared to “make a defense.”

The Greek term translated “defense” often speaks of a formal defense in a court of law. But the apostle Paul also used the word in the informal sense of being able to answer anyone who questioned him (Phil. 1:16-17)—not just a judge, magistrate, or governor. Furthermore, “always” in 1 Peter 3:15 indicates that a believer should be prepared to answer in all situations, not just in the legal sphere.

So Peter’s use of “defense” is general. Whether formally in an official setting or informally to anyone who might inquire, we must be ready to provide an answer about “the hope that is in [us].” And that hope refers to the Christian faith. Thus we should be able to give a rational explanation of our salvation and Christian faith.

We are to explain our faith “with gentleness and reverence.” We should maintain a tender and gracious attitude in speaking. “Gentleness” speaks of meekness or humility and refers to power under control. “Reverence” refers to a kind of fear that involves a healthy devotion to God, a healthy regard for truth, and a healthy respect for the person being spoken to.

When a witness takes the stand in an American courtroom, he is asked to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Similarly, believers in this evil culture must bear witness to God’s truth. My goal in this book is to show you how to do that—how to uphold our precious Gospel in the midst of this doubting age.

The first part will discuss the attitude and preparedness we need to have before we can communicate our faith. You will learn how to live effectively in our hostile world, how to live as salt and light, and how to pray for the lost.

The second part will then focus on the major themes that are essential to our proclamation and defense of the faith. I have included chapters on God, Scripture, sin, and the deity, death, and resurrection of Christ. Those are the crucial elements of our faith—what we need to know and be certain of in order to be effective witnesses to the lost.

In the final section you’ll learn how to take what we’ve studied to the streets, as it were. Here we’ll examine our priority to be obedient to Christ’s command to go and make disciples. We’ll also take a practical look at how to be effective in witnessing for Christ. Finally, I will provide you a sample gospel presentation you can use in your evangelism efforts.

We are living in unprecedented times. The time of Christ’s return is closer now than it has ever been. May you become a champion for His truth, His whole truth, and nothing but His truth in our doubting world.

As today’s world makes the transition to living in the twenty-first century, many people still have as one of their mottos, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Although there is an element of truth in that adage, we need to understand that many things are changing much faster than we may have realized and that man’s sinfulness is more acute than ever (2 Tim. 3:13). The spiralling downward described in Romans 1:18-32 has occurred in our culture and we have reached the lowest level—“the reprobate mind.” The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), however, remains unchanged, as does the truth of our Lord’s words, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (9:37-38).

But the church’s focus on Christ’s commands to evangelize has become more and more blurry, and many professing believers have not been faithful in witnessing to a hostile world. Instead, many believers’ attitudes have increasingly reflected those of some of the churches in Asia Minor, including the one in Ephesus, to whom Christ said, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev. 2:4). He also severely admonished the church in Laodicea, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (3:15-16). As a fast-changing society becomes more hostile and more sinful, and as the church becomes weaker and more like the world rather than distinct from the world, we could well adopt this revised slogan: “The more things in

the world change, the more intently and urgently we need to proclaim the unchanging truths of the Gospel to the unsaved.”

THE CHURCH’S GREAT NEED

What then does the church, and all who profess membership in it, need in order to be faithful to the God-given mandate of evangelism? The answer is, a spiritual revival and renewal in which individual believers, enabled, freshly motivated, and reenergized by the Holy Spirit, focus their attention on the glory and majesty of God, and out of love for and delight in Him eagerly fulfill their spiritual duties and conscientiously follow the divine blueprint for the church. This means reversing the trends that have made the evangelical church a popularized institution that continues to eliminate every offense from its message. It means not ministering on the basis of pragmatism, psychology, or simply what feels right but rather according to biblical principles. It means opposing the trend toward a “seeker sensitive” ministry that employs all the most useful secular marketing strategies in attempting to reach the “felt needs” of today’s culture, and, thereby, affirms the culture.

The contemporary church has grown content with a user-friendly, problem-solving approach that allows people to remain in their comfort zones without seriously being challenged to live righteously. Such an environment encourages “easy believism” (the view that says becoming a Christian is “easy”—simply give mental assent to who Jesus was and what He did for you, and don’t necessarily be concerned about repentance from sin or obedience to Christ). Therefore many men and women who identify themselves as evangelical Christians are not really believers at all. They know little or nothing of God-honoring worship, holy aspirations, biblical obedience, or careful expository preaching, and have little expectancy for the Christian’s future hope, which is the return of Jesus Christ. Absent is the Christ-centered faith and God-centered life that enable us to endure the difficulties and opposition of a hostile world and proclaim the Gospel effectively to it.

THE BELIEVER’S INCENTIVE

One of the ways the church can recapture a zeal for evangelism is by a serious focus on the reality of Christ’s return—one that fosters an expectancy that at any moment of any day we could “be caught up . . . in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). Prominent church leaders throughout history have had a profound sense of awe and expectancy when contemplating Jesus’ second coming. Here is what John Newton (author of “Amazing Grace”) wrote in the first two verses of a 1774 hymn:

Day of judgment! day of wonders! Hark! The trumpet’s awful sound, Louder than a thousand thunders, Shakes the vast creation round. How the summons will the sinner’s heart confound!

See the Judge, our nature wearing,Clothed in majesty divine; You who long for his appearing Then shall say, This God is mine!Gracious Saviour, own me in that day as thine.

The apostle Peter, in his first letter to believers in Asia Minor who were struggling to live for Christ in the midst of much persecution, reminds them and us that the end of the age and the glorious return of Christ are imminent. Peter then uses the incentive of that twofold truth to exhort believers to live faithfully, no matter how difficult the circumstances: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (4:7-8).

The End Times Are Already Here

For members of the early church, such as Peter’s audience, who were scattered around the Mediterranean world in the first century, the realization was emerging that, since the arrival of Messiah, they had already entered the last days. In addition to Peter’s assertion, other Spirit-inspired New Testament letters make that fact clear. The apostle Paul stated such when he warned Timothy with a detailed description of the apostates who were then beginning to threaten the church: “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these” (2 Tim. 3:1-5; cf. 1 Tim. 4:1). The apostle John told his readers, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18).

The more astute Jewish Christians in the early church also would have known that technically the last days began with Christ’s first coming because His coming marked the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant and the ratification of the New Covenant, the key to God’s plan of redemption. The Lord’s death, which ratified the New Covenant, necessarily signified the end of the Jewish sacrificial system. The Old Testament system of priests, rituals, sacrifices, and offerings was swept away when the Lord Jesus offered the full and final sacrifice for sin and all believers became priests with access to God. This privilege was symbolized when the temple veil between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies was miraculously torn in two from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 10:14-22; cf. Matt. 24:2; Heb. 9:26-28).

The Imminence of the Second Coming

When Peter wrote of “the end” (Greek, telos) being near (1 Pet. 4:7), he was not just referring to a cessation or to chronological termination. The word actually means consummation, an objective that is fulfilled or attained. In this context the apostle is alluding to the return of Jesus Christ when “all things” will be consummated. Earlier in the epistle, the apostle refers to this great event when he assures Christians they are protected by God’s power “for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:5), “at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (v. 7).

Peter identifies the climax of history as being “at hand” (1 Pet. 4:7). The Greek verb tense denotes a process consummated, with a resulting nearness. In this case it means Christ’s return is imminent, which implies that believers should live and minister with expectancy because the Lord’s Second Coming could occur at any moment. Such an attitude is a sign of faithfulness, as various New Testament passages underscore.

An eagerness for Christ’s return was part of the good report Paul received about the church in Thessalonica: “For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:9-10).

James encouraged believers to persevere in light of the certainty that Christ could return sooner than they realized: “Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (Jas. 5:7-8). The expression “is at hand” reminds us again that Jesus’ coming for the church is to be anticipated by all believers in every age. That reality ought to be the focus of our hearts and minds as we serve Him daily. Just because He did not return during James’ time does not invalidate the apostle’s exhortation to the early Christians or to us.

God in His sovereign wisdom has chosen not to reveal to us the time of the Second Coming. During His incarnation, even Jesus did not know the time set for His return: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matt. 24:36). He reminded the disciples just prior to His ascension that it was not God’s will for them to know when He will come back to establish His kingdom: “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:7).

It is best we don’t know the precise time of Jesus’ return; otherwise our motivation might be compromised. We could either become complacent, knowing it might be centuries before His return, or panicky, knowing He’s coming back tomorrow. But living with a scriptural sense of imminence eliminates both extremes and allows us to live and minister with an attitude of expectancy.

How Should Christ’s Imminent Return Affect Our Living?

The truth of our Lord’s imminent coming should motivate us to be godly, watchful pursuers of righteousness. Such a desire to please Him is the mark of every genuine believer. One important incentive to obey Him is the realization that someday we will stand before His judgment seat and give an account for what we’ve done: “Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:9-10). Our sins won’t be judged at that time—that judgment already occurred at the cross. However, Christ will assess the effectiveness, dedication, devotion, and usefulness of our service (including evangelism) for Him. Therefore, we should want to meet the Lord with joyful assurance (1 John 2:28), knowing that a divine reward awaits those who look forward to His second coming (2 Tim. 4:8; cf. Phil. 3:14; 1 John 3:2-3).

A second incentive is that our Lord Himself warned His followers to be ready. You don’t know the moment of His appearance, and therefore it is prudent for you to “be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you must be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will” (Matt. 24:42-44).

But Jesus did balance that sober warning with the promise that He will serve those disciples who have been watchful and ready for His return: “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them” (Luke 12:37). And that ought to be incentive enough for us to live righteously and tell others about Him.

PRIMARY DIMENSIONS TO CHRISTIAN LIVING

As vital as it is, the expectant hope that Jesus Christ will soon return cannot be our only motivation for testifying of our faith. We also need to exercise the day-to-day spiritual disciplines that build strength, courage, boldness, and spiritual maturity—that which makes the Gospel believable. Prayer and the intake of Scripture by reading, studying, meditating, and memorizing enable us to obey the revealed principles in God’s Word. Only then will we demonstrate the power of Christ in our lives and be prepared to apply the truth in any situation when we have opportunities to witness.

With a view toward effective witness, the apostle Peter wanted believers to understand some specific dimensions of Christian character, those that help us achieve daily excellence in our spiritual disciplines. That’s why he said, “Be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Pet. 4:7).

“Be of sound judgment” is translated from two Greek words that mean “to keep safe” and “the mind.” Believers must guard their minds and keep them clear and fixed on spiritual priorities. That’s why Paul said, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).

Because we act according to the way we think (Prov. 23:7), it’s crucial to guard our minds and focus them on God and what pleases Him. Otherwise, we easily lose our way and succumb to the various self-indulgent, deceptive, and demonic influences of the world.

Several well-known New Testament verses tell us, in effect, how we can avoid such a pitfall, protect our minds, and please the Lord (Phil. 4:8; Col. 3:16; Titus 2:11-12).

Making our minds captive to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5) and His Word (Josh. 1:8) keeps them safe and allows us to see things from God’s perspective. That’s how the Spirit gives us sanctified discernment and protects us from accepting doctrinal fads and errors or being foolishly indifferent toward the truth.

But Peter stresses that we need more than sound judgment—we also need to be of “sober spirit.” That means we must be alert and take spiritual matters seriously. Jesus used the same term elsewhere to urge His followers to “be on the alert” (Matt. 24:42) and “keep watching” (26:41).

The combination of godly thinking and spiritual alertness is essential in any believer’s life “for the purpose of prayer” (1 Pet. 4:7). We can’t have a full and effective prayer life if our thinking is cluttered, confused, self-centered, or preoccupied with temporal pursuits instead of God’s truth and His purposes. We will have a deep and satisfying communion with God only when we think biblically.

Continual communion with God that is informed by godly attitudes, which have been shaped by godly thinking, is therefore the foundation of a Christian’s useful ministry. When you are diligent to absorb God’s Word daily by reading, studying, and meditating, godly responses to all the challenges in your life will become second nature. When the three dimensions of sound judgment, spiritual alertness, and prayerful communion are present and working together in your life, you’ll have an overwhelming sense of God’s presence and will manifest spiritual power that will influence others for Christ and give integrity to your witness.

THE IMPACT OF REAL LOVE

A right relationship with God, as we have just described it, should result in a sincere love for other people. The apostle Peter makes that conclusion when he writes, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8). Here “love” mainly refers to believers’ relationships with one another, but it also has an important bearing on evangelism. Jesus taught His disciples, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Love is the substance of the Christian’s witness to the world.

Paul issued similar commands: “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Col. 3:14); “make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose” (Phil. 2:2).

The love Peter describes is called “fervent” and denotes the same kind of maximum effort a runner exerts in stretching and straining to win a race. Such intense love is sacrificial, not sentimental. It means believers must be prepared to love those whom it’s difficult to love, even when it might sometimes be costly and seem irrational. It requires stretching all our spiritual muscles, even when those we reach out to respond with insult, injury, and misunderstanding.

The second half of 1 Peter 4:8 plainly states the reason we are to love one another: “because love covers a multitude of sins.” This indicates a self-evident truth about love: by its very nature it tends to forgive all kinds of sins (cf. Prov. 10:12; Eph. 2:4). We need this reminder because as members of the Body of Christ we still sin against one another, which causes strife and division and harms our testimony to the world. Love is the only thing that can maintain or restore Christian unity because love forgives.

In the New Testament, love indicates volition in the spiritual and redemptive realm. God chose to love us when He saved us (John 3:16; 1 John 4:19). “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). God expects those He has loved to follow His example and show their love for Him and others—not only fellow believers, but also those they seek to reach with the Gospel.

Thus the first stage of developing a proper attitude for evangelism is to understand and carry out our responsibilities as Christians in a hostile society. That means realizing we are already in the last days and that our Lord and Savior could return at any time. With that as an incentive, we are to hold ourselves and other believers accountable for holy living that overflows in God-honoring evangelism of the lost. The apostle Peter summarized again in his second letter what our task is between now and Christ’s return: “Since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless . . . grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:14, 18).

People’s conduct, whether they are Christians or non-Christians, affects the lives of others with whom they live. Sometimes the influence is positive; at other times it is quite negative. The following two stories from Greek mythology aptly illustrate this basic principle. An invisible goddess once came to earth and left behind tangible blessings wherever she went. Charred trees she passed sprouted new leaves; flowers filled barren pathways after she walked through; stagnant pools became fresh and parched meadows green after she passed by.

Another account describes what happened when a princess was sent as a gift to a king. In appearance she was as beautiful as a goddess, and her breath smelled like fine perfume. But since infancy she had fed on nothing but poison, which permeated her being and contaminated the air around her. If she breathed on a swarm of bees, they would perish; if she picked a flower, it would wilt and die; if any bird flew too close, it would fall dead at her feet.

Obviously you and I should want our words, actions, and very presence automatically to produce positive results. In no way should believers ever want to have the kind of negative influence that accompanied the princess in the Greek myth. Even though we live, work, study, and play in this world, we are not supposed to reflect its values and attitudes (John 17:15-16, 18; 1 John 2:15). Because of who we are, we must influence the world toward salvation and God’s standards of righteousness, not toward more selfishness, amorality, and materialism. We are to be in the world but not of the world.

Once we develop a biblical attitude toward our responsibilities in a spiritually hostile, morally decaying world, that attitude will inevitably help shape our approach toward evangelism. Jesus’ own words in the Sermon on the Mount express for us in picturesque language the positive influence we will have on the world:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing any more, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

—Matt. 5:13-16

THE ESSENCE OF THE BELIEVER

Most of us realize that the contemporary world, with its increasingly corrupt culture and its darker and darker outlook, needs spiritual salt and light. Preacher and commentator G. Campbell Morgan reminded believers of an earlier generation: “Jesus, looking out over the multitudes of His day, saw the corruption, the disintegration of life at every point, its breakup, its spoilation; and, because of His love of the multitudes, He knew the thing that they needed most was salt in order that the corruption should be arrested. He saw them also wrapped in gloom, sitting in darkness, groping amid mists and fogs. He knew that they needed, above everything else . . . light” (The Gospel According to Matthew [New York: Revell, 1929], 46). If the people of Jesus’ time desperately needed salt and light, isn’t it obvious that people in our day need the moral preservative and spiritual illumination that Christians, by God’s help, can bring?

In Matthew 5:13-14 the Greek pronouns translated “you” are in both verses emphatic and plural. The emphatic form means that believers are the only persons in a culture who can truly be salt and light to it. Unless God’s people are salt and light, the work of retarding moral corruption and dispelling spiritual darkness will not get done.

The plural indicates that Christ wants His entire Body, the church, to be influencing the world. Isolated grains of salt and individual beams of light have little effect. But when many grains of salt and many beams of light are joined together and dispersed throughout the world, positive and significant change is on a much wider scale.

I saw the necessity of concerted teamwork portrayed well years ago by a magazine article and its accompanying series of pictures. The article explained how a four-year-old boy had wandered from his Kansas farmhouse and into an adjacent wheat field when no one was paying attention. The first picture showed how vast the field was. The second one highlighted the boy’s distressed mother sitting inside their house. His parents had searched for him all day, but he was too short to be seen in the midst of the shafts of wheat. A third photo depicted the dozens of friends and neighbors who had formed a human chain the following morning to continue the search through the wheat field. The final picture in the series showed the distraught father holding the lifeless boy who had not been found until after he had died of exposure. The caption under the fourth picture stated, “Oh God, if only we had joined hands sooner.”

Many people are spiritually lost due to the sinful preoccupations of this world, and they can’t find their way to the Father’s house unless believers sweep through the world, searching collectively to rescue them.

When Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13-14), He was simply stating a fact. The elements of salt and light symbolize what believers are. The only issue open to question is whether or not Christ’s own will act faithfully as pungent salt and penetrating light in a dying world.

Jesus is “the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9). And He later told the disciples, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). However, now that Christ has left the earth, it is the responsibility of believers to shine forth His reflected light: “You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8; cf. Col. 1:13).