Witnesses vs. salesmen
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
- Acts 1:8
We live in a time when many are feeling pressure to make the Gospel palatable and attractive. To make it appealing enough for someone to buy into it. But Jesus didn’t call us to be salesmen. He called us to be witnesses.
The responsibility of a witness has little to do with convincing. Instead, it has everything to do with testifying. The job of a witness is to recount the truth faithfully. To accurately communicate what they have seen, heard, and experienced. Bending facts to convince a jury is called perjury—which is a crime.
I spent five years of my life in technology sales. One of the best tactics to make a sale is to downplay the cost of what you're selling. Rather than giving the full price, you say, “You can break down this product into easy monthly payments. You can get cash back. Etc.”
The temptation as followers of Jesus is to hide the true cost. But the truth is there’s only one cost to following Jesus: complete and total surrender. No financing options. No cash back. It costs everything.
Now, you might say, ‘But isn’t there an urgency to get people to believe in Jesus?” To which I’d say, “Absolutely!” Every day we’re called to be witnesses in a trial that has enteral consequences. Which is all the more reason to play our role correctly.
It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict and convince. It is our job to testify faithfully to what’s true—not hiding the cost.
The cost of following Jesus is the total surrender of our rights, our opinions, our desires, our hearts, and our lives. But in return, though we give Him everything, we get much more than everything in return. We receive relationship with God, which is the very meaning of life itself.
My hope is that this truth frees you. You’re not responsible for convincing the jury. You’re responsible to testify faithfully. In this courtroom scenario, the Holy Spirit is the lawyer, not you and me.
Should we feel a responsibility to testify clearly and accurately? Of course. But our goal should never be to hide the cost or water down the Gospel. Instead, our goal ought to be to lovingly and faithfully testify to the truth.