Our Christian Witness

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

This letter is to Christians who outwardly profess their faith (myself included, as I am no better than anyone else).

How do we conduct ourselves? How do we come across? What do our mannerisms reflect? Where do we go? How do we speak? Who are our friends? How do we dress?

There are an innumerable amount of questions that we can ask ourselves. We, as Christians who profess our faith outwardly, are in a bright unceasing spotlight. The world is watching us. Other Christians, secularists, agnostics, and people from other religions have their eyes on us.

Christians watch each other, because we are all one in the body of Christ. We help each other, encourage each other, correct one another, and strive to live like someone “not of this world”. It’s hard. Without the Holy Spirit, without God, without the word of God, without each other, it would be impossible to do.

Non-Christians see us. If we conduct ourselves in a God-like matter, we may help to bring them to the gift of salvation, to Jesus Christ. We do not give them a reason to question the foundation of our faith, or give them a chance to mock us because of how we contradict the Scripture that we supposedly follow. I say this because Scripture commands us to repent of our sins, and if we conduct ourselves as unrepentant sinners, then we would be considered hypocrites and the things we say and do come into question.

If our conduct does not reflect Christ, we open ourselves (and ultimately, the Gospel message, as well as the Bible in it’s entirety) up to negative scrutiny. To live a Christian life takes a lot of effort, both outwardly and inwardly. A lot of prayer, Bible study, and encouragement from Christian friends and family help to keep us on track.

What sparked me to write this particular post is the hashtag #ThingsTheGodlySay. If you look that up on Twitter, you’ll see people who believe in God just say that most unGodly things. I am aware that not all people who believe in God are Christians, but the hashtag is not limited to just people who say they believe in God. There are quotes from people who claim to be actual Christians, which is quite upsetting. What makes it worse is that non-believers quote these "Christians", and use the hashtag as a form of mockery.

The bottom line is, if you say you’re a Christian, act like it. Talk like it. Be like it. Talk the talk and walk the walk. Don’t be a fraud. Don’t be a hypocrite. Be a true Christian. And take joy in doing so! There is no other way of living life to the fullest! 

It’s for so many more reasons other than our witness. But, our witness is so very important. Reaching non-believers is hard enough, but reaching them whilst displaying a worldly, unrepentant nature is even harder. It’s very heartbreaking to see a person believe that they are saved, and continue on living like they were, carelessly and unchanged.

So please, take my words to heart. Take a few minutes and look in the mirror, recall and examine the conversations you had today, and do a real once-over of how you are, and who people think you are. Pray about it, and read the Bible. The underlying message of this letter to you all is not my own, but God’s, according to His word.