The last few weeks we have overviewed scriptural
methods to recognize true and non-true believers in the church (tares).
Importantly, it may be someone close to you: your friends,
your family or perhaps even someone on the church staff. Last week we began by
considering why helping a tare towards salvation can be difficult. It can be a
tough sell!
This week we cautiously present some suggestions
about how to share your faith with a tare (assuming an adult age group),
realizing the difficulty at hand.
Here are some hopefully helpful suggestions:
Friends - The first step
is to befriend your potentially unbelieving acquaintance or increase the depth
of your relationship. Ask them peripheral questions over issues related to
Christianity and the church, for example: likes and dislikes about their church
such as the preaching, choir, Sunday school, leadership, etc. Then listen! People
love to talk about themselves and their opinions.
Listening is vital because it shows your respect and
acceptance of the person. Further, it allows you to analyze their scriptural needs
as you learn about them. Every individual is important. After you listen for a
while, follow up with more specific questions, eliciting more detail.
Advance the depth of questions - Ultimately, when they trust you then you can progress the
conversation to what they believe about Christ specifically; who He is, why He came,
favorite Scripture about Christ, or what they thought about what the pastor
said about Christ in his sermon.
These questions should be asked in a
conversational, non-threatening manner. Again, just mostly listen! These types of questions
will teach you more about your friend and especially help you assess if they
understand the nature of salvation through Christ.
Advance the conversation to the Gospel - At some point you need specifically to express the Gospel to your
potential tare (Romans 10:9-10) without helping them answer. How to do this? This
task is a 100X easier after you have shown your respect and affection by
building the relationship and listening to them. Every person is
different. Here are some ideas:
Should the elders’ preparation class ask the
attendees to state how to express the Gospel, what would you want them to say?
An alternative, if your friend asked you how to be saved, what would you tell
them?
If your friend confesses a need to learn
scripture knowledge, ask them to do a one-on-one study with you where you can discuss
the Gospel and who Christ is from scripture itself. Warning, they rarely will
mention doing a Bible study themselves, you will need to propose to them
directly a study based on the needs they express when you are listing to them.
For example, if they have mentioned in prior
conversations they do not know much Scripture then propose a verse by verse
study from Colossians or Ephesians. A Bible study is a great tool as it brings
your friend and you to a neutral ground where they can observe the Gospel
themselves.
Ask them during the study, at an appropriate
verse, what they believe is important in expressing the Gospel to someone. They
will need to learn it with your teaching, probably over several Bible study
sessions.
St. Peter’s question - If all else fails I describe a scenario in which one day tey stand
before St. Peter and he asks ‘What
gives you the right to enter heaven?’ or ‘Why should I let you in here?’
This question cuts to the fundamental basis of a
person's true faith. They must express exactly what qualifies them for heaven.
Try this question with even long-standing church believers and you will get
amazing answers.
In my wife, Jeanette’s and my own experience in
teaching the Bible to churched adults, at the beginning of the study probably ⅓ to ½ of our students did not understand the grace of salvation, even
on prompting; not even close!
Once your friend knows the Gospel, do not indicate
they just became a Christian as this may cause discord, but just be joyful that
they can express it confidently and can tell someone else. If you think they may
not believe what they say, then ask directly if they believe the plan of
salvation to hopefully address any questions or doubts.
Have mercy on your friends and your family!
Consider carefully if they truly understand their salvation which is so carefully
laid out in Scripture.
That is all for today. Thanks for joining me as
always.
WC Stewart
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