Why Sharing is Mandated
The weight of scripture makes it abundantly clear that the sharing of your faith is not an option. This begs the question, Why? Why does God view the sharing of your faith as the dominant task of your walk with Him?
There’s a phrase that says, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” which applies to everything in life, including your walk with the Lord. When you cease talking about the life-changing scriptures and experiences that brought you to Christ, their emotional impact on your life goes progressively downhill. This is a natural process known as atrophy, and it’s inescapable when you’re not actively using those scriptures and experiences to lead other people to Jesus.
This is where the American Church is today — overwhelmed by Spiritual Atrophy. Everywhere you look, the joy of the Lord has been replaced by a complaining church that registers just as much anger and anxiety, and consumes just as many pills, as the unchurched. Incredibly, 85% of all our pastors have actually considered quitting the ministry in the last 12 months because of the apathy of people in their pews. On a personal basis, this is a serious issue that can be easily reversed by having the joy of your Salvation restored by the sharing of your faith.
God’s given you a story to tell with the two-fold purpose of leading others to Christ, and keeping your own walk with the Lord alive and fresh. Some would actually argue that God’s top priority in making the sharing of your faith His primary purpose for your life, is to guard your own heart and keep your eyes focused on Him.
In I Corinthians 13, Paul said, even if we have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and have faith and give all our goods to the poor, it profits nothing if we don’t have love. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of doing and supporting great things, and being greatly respected for doing so, without doing the only thing that has Eternal Significance — loving people into Heaven. You need to keep this in mind: Once you’re in Heaven, the only thing that will matter is how many people are in Heaven or on their way to Heaven because of your influence…and great will be your reward.
God is calling you to live a Holy Life because it’s the first step in “loving your neighbors into Heaven.” As mentioned earlier, your actions don’t speak louder than your words, but they do speak before your words, and should give your words the power and authority to move everyone you directly influence closer to Jesus.
Jesus spoke directly to this issue when He said in John 17:19, And for their sakes, I sanctify Myself, that they might also be sanctified through the Truth. He didn’t need to earn extra brownie points with His Father by sanctifying His life. He was doing it so that those around Him might also be sanctified through the Truth. Your level of commitment to live a Holy Life is wholly driven by your level of commitment to lead everyone you influence closer to Jesus
Leading people to Jesus is not just another thing to do, it’s the only thing to do! And when you do that, when you live your life for His Purpose (Romans 8:28), He promises to make everything, even the bad stuff in your life work for good. It doesn’t get any better than that!
