Continuing in our series (our much drawn out and often not posted series) on being Salt and Light, I wanted to approach what I believe is the common belief in most evangelical circles. It goes something like this, “If I invite someone to our worship service on Sunday, I have doe my job of evangelism.” I believe the Bible begs to differ.

We are all familiar with what has been coined the Great Commission found in the Gospels (Matt. 28:18-20), that we should go and make disciples, making disciples being the main thrust in the original language. We have often relegated this call to those who are known as “overseas missionaries”, but we must see that this is the call to all those who profess faith and trust in Christ.  Much in our evangelical world has taught the practice of evangelism equalling bringing someone into a church service that is “geared” for their liking so that they are not offended by the gospel. This is counter intuitive to what the Scriptures know, as it describes the cross as foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18).

In light of this we must change our thinking. We must be in the world and not of the world (John 17:14-19). So it seems we must therefor, proclaim Christ in word and deed. There is no salvation of men seeing Christ only in our lives, for they will not know it is Christ unless we tell them that He is who has made the difference in us. We must proclaim Christ with our tongues, but back it up with our lives (James 2:14-26). We must proclaim the gospel with our tongues. We must also of necessity back it up with what we do. Is there merit in not only being a good neighbor, but also asking for forgiveness when I am not? If the world looks at us and expects us to be perfect because we claim Christ, we must adjust their view to the right and proclaim, when we have sinned against them, that Christ is perfect and we are not and it is His righteousness that God counts as worthy for us to be received by God (2 Cor. 5:21).

I do not believe that St. Francis of Assisi has captured the whole of Scripture with the saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” I believe it is more biblically accurate to say, “Preach the Gospel at all times and it is necessary to use words and live what we preach (Romans 10:14-17; 1 Pet. 2:12).”