To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 3:12 “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.”

If you are a Christian, do you share the gospel with others?  Is it something you struggle with?  Indeed, it is a rare thing if you don’t.  Even the apostle Paul struggled with this at times. Thus his request to the Ephesian church that they “pray . . . for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:19-20).  Notice how he says that it was his bold speaking that got him into such trouble with the Roman government. Thus, his chains, for he was writing these words from prison. 

Paul knew that sharing the gospel was sure to bring opposition. Ephesians 6 is a discussion of spiritual warfare, something that is part and parcel of living the Christian life.  That warfare often comes when a believer endeavors to obey Jesus’ command that we preach the gospel to every creature.  While we might not see prison in the USA for sharing God’s truth, we can be ridiculed, ostracized, or “encouraged” to “keep our beliefs to ourselves!”

So why keep at it?  Why create waves? Why upset the status quo with our friends and neighbors who are getting along fine, thank you, without hearing this message from us? Well, besides the fact that our Lord has told us to “preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), we know that what we have to share is the absolute truth. It’s the answer to life, and it’s the hope for all eternity for every person on the face of the earth.  We know that Jesus told us the truth in John 3 that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” We know that “Whoever believes in him is not condemned,” but we also know that “Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” 

These truths, this gospel of salvation and eternal life, this hope is our “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19).  And that’s why we can be, and indeed we must be bold.  No matter what the opposition, no matter that others may not want to hear, these truths are what everyone needs to hear and it is only the followers of Jesus that have the message and can tell it. 

May God help us to be very bold with the message of the gospel.  It’s the one thing we can say to others that we will never regret, but it is failure to tell others that will be our greatest regret in the end.