Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
It's meaning is fairly straightforward and I tend to take it straightforwardly as a call to think about how I will respond to those occasions when admitting a faith in Christ or putting in a good word for God is a reasonable possibility. I say 'reasonable possibility' because I don't think that this is meant to be a carte blanche to religiously or spiritually abuse others, and some witnessing is certainly that: all about 'my' need to think that I have commended my faith and very little about what would make sense and help along the work of the Spirit in that other person's life. The word 'commended' is important to me; surely when we do acknowledge Christ before others, it should be done in a way that is winsome, likely to encourage further thought and leave a positive impression. So I don't hear this as promoting crude, insensitive or aggressive witness or preaching. Quite the reverse.
On the other hand, I have found that I can become over-sensitive about it and so miss the chance to acknowledge Christ before others. I get to assuming that they won't want to hear or will just be embarrassed and I bottle it. This couple of verses brings me up short. I pray that I wil find the wisdom in forthcoming situations to commend Christ winsomely and in ways that stand a chance of provoking further thought. I'm not looking for chances to sock 'em with everything I've got, just to lay down a few hints or gentle teasing challenges that people could take further or not. I see Jesus doing this; asking questions or making statements that invite further responses.
Generally, as I've tried to do this, I've found that people are not as disrespectful as I fear they may be.
Next passage (5.5)
Last passage...
Crosswalk.com - Matthew 10:32-33: Filed in: Christian, prayer, paternoster, prayerbeads, Anglican, Praying_the_Pattern
No comments:
Post a Comment