A recent Lifeway Research study confirmed what pastors and church leaders already know to be true: “Most Christians say they’re ready, willing, and praying to have conversations about their faith with others, but many admit they haven’t gotten around to actually having those conversations recently.”
More specifically, the survey revealed that while over 80% of believers expressed an openness to discussing their faith with others, fewer than 40% actually explained the gospel to someone at any point in the preceding six months. The reasons for this discrepancy are not entirely clear, but speaking anecdotally, I know many believers struggle to share the gospel because of fear of rejection, fear of sounding ignorant, or simply lack of intentionality. These sorts of impediments are nothing new, however, nor do they affect only laypeople.
Perhaps no passage better illustrates this challenge than Colossians 4:2-6, where the Apostle Paul requested prayer for his own evangelistic work before offering pointers for the Colossians. Both Paul’s prayer requests and pointers are instructive for believers today and can help close the gap between those open to sharing the gospel and those who do so.
Praying in Preparation for Evangelism
Before Paul requested prayer for his own evangelistic work, he instructed believers, “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (4:2). Prayer is vital for Christian disciples because it acknowledges our total dependence upon God and expresses our gratitude for all He has done for us.
In consideration of Paul’s evangelistic prayer requests that follow, his general exhortation to pray ought to remind us evangelism does not begin in our own strength but in God’s (Acts 1:8). Indeed, Paul’s three prayer requests acknowledged all evangelism begins and ends in the power of God, which is instructive for us as we prayerfully prepare ourselves for evangelism.
First, Paul asked the Colossians to pray for open doors: “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ” (4:3). In other words, he requested prayer for opportunities to share the gospel effectively with others.
When was the last time you prayed for the Lord to give you or others an opportunity to share the gospel? If we begin praying for the Lord to open these doors, He will open them. In fact, it could be that when our hearts are attuned to His in this manner, we will start seeing the opportunities He has already placed before us when our hearts were unprepared to take advantage of them. The Lord even opened opportunities for Paul to share the gospel with his captors and fellow captives during his imprisonment (Philippians 1:12-14).
Second, Paul requested prayer for open hearts. Paul asked God to open not only doorways of physical opportunity but also people’s hearts to receive the gospel just as He had prepared Lydia’s heart during one of his missionary journeys (Acts 16:14). John Calvin drew attention to an implicit prayer for the Greater Preacher’s work here, explaining our words apart from the Spirit’s power in both us and the hearer are as effective as trying “to break through a door that is barred and bolted. For [conversion] is truly a divine work.” [1] The Lord opens hearts — not us. Therefore, we should pray for His gracious work in us and in the hearts of those to whom we speak. We should trust He is always working ahead of us.
Third, Paul requested prayer for an open mouth. Specifically, he asked the Colossians to pray he would make the message of Christ “manifest, as I ought to speak” (4:3-4). Eugene Peterson paraphrases Paul’s request this way: “Pray that every time I open my mouth, I’ll be able to make Christ plain as day to them” (The Message).
How many people fail to share the gospel with others because they are afraid they will say the wrong thing? Yet how few pray God will give them the right words to say? We would do well
to pray that, when God provides opportunities to share the gospel, our mouths might be opened to speak clear, true words about Jesus.
Having given the Colossians direction about how to pray for his evangelistic efforts, Paul shared direction regarding their own evangelism.
Principles for the Practice of Evangelism
First, Paul pointed to the importance of one’s walk in evangelism: “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without” (4:5). Paul employed the verb walk here and many other places in his writings as a metaphor for one’s conduct. Here, however, he specifically described one’s conduct with reference to unbelievers. We all know stories of people who have negative opinions of Christ and the church because of hypocritical Christians. Paul called believers to be people of integrity before one another and before outsiders. Christians ought to be known as honest, hardworking, and loving people; we ought to be known for our compassion and our good works. As Matthew Henry puts it, we must “not hurt [unbelievers] or increase their prejudices against religion.” Rather, we must “do them all the good [we] can…by all the means [we] can, and in the proper seasons recommend religion to them.” [2] Our conduct is our chief credential to speak to unbelievers.
I know all of us make mistakes. We say things we wish we had not said, and we do things we wish we had not done. However, I have found apologizing to those wronged and telling them you are doing so because of Jesus is an effective way to communicate the gospel. Part of following Jesus is being humble enough to say, “I’m sorry,” and seek forgiveness for the sake of Christ’s name among those we have wronged.
Next, Paul reminded the Galatians the clock is crucial when it comes to evangelism. He encouraged them to “redeem” the time or to “make the most of every opportunity.” Given its entire evangelistic thrust, the passage certainly seems to indicate Paul was still speaking about making the most of every opportunity to do good and share the good news. When the Lord answers our prayers for gospel-sharing opportunities, we must not let those opportunities slip by us. Life is too short and eternity too long for us to drag our feet about sharing the gospel.
Finally, Paul wanted these believers to know their talk was important. In Colossians, he said: “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (4:6). You have likely heard the quote attributed to Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” The point of the quotation is obviously to realize your Christian conduct is important.
However, it is ultimately impossible to share the gospel without words. Bad deeds can destroy the credibility of our gospel witness, but good deeds will never be sufficient to introduce someone to saving faith in Christ. Elsewhere, Paul made this point clear when he wrote, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?...So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:14, 17). The gospel must be communicated with words.
People might notice something is different about our lives by our conduct, but they will know why it is different only by our words.
Still, we must not be harsh or flippant. We must speak with grace, even when the one we are evangelizing mocks the Lord or brings up ridiculous objections. “Grace,” writes Matthew Henry, “is the salt which seasons our discourse, makes it savoury, and keeps it from corrupting.” [3] Just as salt preserves meat from corruption and makes it appealing to the taste, grace preserves our speech from corruption and makes it appealing to those who hear. In other words, gracious speech keeps conversations going; malicious speech shuts them down.
Moreover, we ought to answer people with loving wisdom. “If we are to deal with people where they are (whether they can express their position in a sophisticated way or not), we have got to have enough genuine love for them and concern, as a human being, that we would take seriously what they are preoccupied with,” wrote Francis A. Schaeffer. “We tend to give a person a prepackaged answer instead of having the compassion of Christ, which is to take the person where they are and actually step into their world in order to talk in a meaningful way to them.” [4]
Our speech should meet people where they are, answer their objections seriously, and lovingly point them to Christ. Of course, we have been praying for this sort of speech all along. We ought to trust God to hear our prayers and help us to act wisely, speak graciously, and make the most of the opportunities He presents for us.
[1] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, trans. John Pringle (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1851), 224.
[2] Matthew Henry, Acts to Revelation, vol. 6, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1990), 618.
[3] Henry, Acts to Revelation, 618.
[4] Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1968), in The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy: Three Essential Books in One Volume (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1990), 177.
About the Writer: Joshua R. Colson pastors Angelville Community
Church (IL) and teaches as an adjunct instructor at Welch College.
