The Established Path of Discipleship

I recently spoke with someone who does not embrace historic, biblical Christianity. He has many progressive, liberal political views and is not sure about many things spiritual, yet he is open to many of Christianity’s teachings. The conversation went well, not because he embraced the Gospel and the historic Christian faith, but because it was civil, engaging, and respectful. In other words, I enjoyed the conversation.

Evaluating the conversation led me to the following conclusions. When you have conversations concerning spiritual things or the Gospel with people, remember:

• They are created in the image of God, which means they have dignity and value given to them by God.

Remembering this has many implications for how I approach the conversation. It means I must listen to what people say. I must not cut them off or interrupt them with a rhetorical jab to point out logical inconsistencies or the wrongness of their statement. I must listen intently to understand what they believe and why they believe it. I cannot engage someone with the Gospel unless I understand their worldview.

• Find common ground that allows you to share the Gospel or a key component of the Faith.

The person I spoke with commented that all ethical world religions have some form of loving their neighbor and treating them kindly. Although all religions differ significantly in their beliefs, I saw an opportunity to share something important about Christianity in his statement. I mentioned that all human beings are born with an intrinsic sense of right and wrong, and he agreed. Then I said, “In Christianity, we call that natural law.” I did not go into an entire discourse about natural law being a part of general revelation (Romans 1:19-20). Instead, I gave him something to think about. Greg Koukl calls this putting a rock in someone’s shoe.

• Gently challenge mistaken ideas in a nonconfrontational manner.

Debate and polemics have a place within Christianity, but I generally avoid that approach when talking to people about Christ. For example, the person I spoke with would voice a belief and immediately follow that statement with, “I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter.” After he said it doesn’t matter a few times, I responded, “Christianity is a religion grounded in historical events like the resurrection. A Christian must believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus as a historical reality, or they cannot be a Christian. They cannot say it does not matter.” I also mentioned other religions that hold some beliefs dogmatically and would not say those beliefs do not matter.

I care very much for the person I spoke with and pray for him often. I do not know if he will respond to the Gospel and embrace historic, biblical Christianity, but I know this: I gave him some things to think about. And I kept the door open for future conversations.