Scripture and the Church

God-Given Opportunities for Witness: How to 'Always Be Ready'

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
The spread of opposition to Christ and the Bible around the world means the multiplication of God-given opportunities for witness. What are the keys to making the fullest use of them?

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

The spread of opposition to Christ and the Bible around the world means the multiplication of God-given opportunities for witness. What are the keys to making the fullest use of them?

 

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15).

The early church suffered persecution and intense opposition, but this also opened many opportunities for witness. In our day we also experience opposition to the Gospel and to our stand as believers, but likewise it brings opportunities. In the verse above, the Holy Spirit through Peter gives us a three-fold key to making the fullest use of such occasions.

First, we are to "sanctify the Lord God" in our hearts. The Greek is hagiasate - to set apart as holy. We must recognize and rest upon the holiness - the complete "otherness" - of our Lord. He is above, outside of, unmoved by, and in complete control of, all the circumstances we face, all the situations in which we find ourselves, and all the people we encounter in life. He is sovereign in salvation.

Sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts also demands our personal sanctification. That is likewise crucial to our witness for Christ, since we are the temples of the Holy Spirit in this world. As the Spirit through Peter said earlier in the same epistle,

Therefore [that is, because of your salvation] gird up the loins of your mind [more literally, "prepare your mind for action"], be sober [this signifies being free from the spiritually intoxicating influences of sin], and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation [the return] of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:13-16).

Second, "always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you." The Greek word translated "ready" is hetoimoi - a readiness that is based upon the necessary preparations having been done. We prepare ourselves for action, as Paul writes to the Ephesians, by taking up "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (6:17). It is that Word that has supernatural power - "living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

Third, we must witness to the unbelieving world "with meekness and fear" - more literally, with humility and respect. Such humility is born out of an understanding of the holiness of our God, that we are the undeserving objects of His saving grace, and that the power is not in us, not in our flesh or intellect, but in His Word. Such respect is born out of an understanding that the unbeliever who is still in the bondage of sin and spiritually blind to these things is nevertheless one who was created in the image of God - an image marred both inwardly and outwardly by the curse, as our own presently is. As Paul recalled his coming among the pagans of Corinth, many of them deep sinners, who later became the first Christians in that city, he wrote,

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

A friend of this ministry works in an office of one of the state governments. She became aware that another woman in the office is also a Christian, and was witnessing to a coworker who is a Jehovah's Witness. In conversation she discovered that some of the Bible teaching resources her fellow Christian was using to witness to their unsaved coworker were from the Bible Knowledgebase of TeachingTheWord Ministries.

When we heard about this, we provided both our friend and her coworker copies of our book, The Truth About the Jehovah's Witnesses: How Do the Watchtower Society's Teachings Compare With Authentic Scripture? Please pray that these ladies will have wisdom from above as they witness, and that the seed of the Word may fall on good ground and bring a saving harvest.

One of the main reasons many people find TTW's resources useful in "being ready to give an answer" is that they do just what this book title says: we hold the teachings and philosophies of the unbelieving world up to the light of Holy Scripture. As we say in the preface to this book,

The principal weapon of our spiritual warfare is, as Paul declares in Ephesians 6:17, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" - unchanging and unchangeable...

[T]his book is not an attempt answer every variable teaching of the Jehovah's Witnesses in detail. We focus, rather, on the heart of the matter: the life-and-death differences between Watchtower Society teachings and authentic Scripture on the key issues of eternity - about the nature of Scripture itself; about the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit; about man, life, and death; and about salvation, Heaven, and Hell.

We take this stand upon Scripture alone with the confident prayer that the Holy Spirit will honor His Word. He has promised that it will not return to Him without fruit, but will accomplish the purpose for which He has sent it (Isaiah 55:11).

Thank you for standing with us in prayer and financial support so that we are able, by God's grace, to produce and publish resources to prepare Christians to stand upon the authority and power of the Word in their living and witness. Please pray for God's use of these resources around the world, that many Christians may "sanctify the Lord God in [their] hearts" and be "ready to give a defense" - and that through their witness many may be brought into the kingdom of Christ.

We rest on His provision and daily seek His wisdom. We are nothing; He is everything.

 

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