Take Every Opportunity

EVANGELISM ARTICLE | Jeff Carr | Lakeland, Florida

“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” – Col 4:5-6

This passage of Scripture is a marvelous passage where Paul talks about how we should teach the Gospel to those who are outsiders and how we should interact with others. This verse presupposes that we will be interacting with non-Christians about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Are we praying and looking for such opportunities? Are we praying to “make the most” of each opportunity that comes our way?  Since we are to “conduct ourselves with wisdom” we need to prepare for this and make sure our speech and actions are full of Godly wisdom. The Apostle Paul is telling each of us that we need to think about our opportunities and that we need to make sure we are doing the best we can in trying to reach out to others who are not Christians.

One example of this is Jesus in John 4 with his interaction with the woman at the well. Here is a situation where Jesus took advantage of an opportunity. Jesus began talking with this Samaritan woman about water and turned the discussion into “living water” that can quench thirst for spiritual things and she will never thirst again. Opportunities like this happen to each of us all the time. Are we looking for them? It might be the person at the grocery store, the convenience store, your neighbors, people you work with, people you live with, etc.  Jesus said in Matt 5:16 “Let your light shine so that others may see your good works.”  Jesus was NOT talking about being ostentatious like the Pharisees who had a “holier than thou” attitude to bring attention to themselves for selfish motives. When Jesus says to let your “light shine” He is saying to His disciples to let your life as a Christian be observed and not to hide that, don’t be fearful of allowing others to see how you live your life. Why? Ultimately this might lead to an opportunity to engage with another person in a meaningful spiritual conversation.

Consider 1 Pet 3:15, “… always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect.” Peter also talks about opportunities that will come our way and how we should be ready for these. If someone were to ask you ‘why are you a Christian’ could you give a quick answer? Or the question of ‘why do you worship the way you do’ (every Sunday with a weekly Lords Supper observance, why do you sing, why is there a collection, etc.), could you answer such questions?  This is part of the ‘always be ready’ command.  Exercises can be done by Christians to help us be ready for such opportunities. I keep a list of every question I have ever received from seekers. I take those questions and randomly ask Christians who are unaware of the question coming and make them give an answer. This is great training!  Remember that according to Peter we are “called to be ready to give a defense.” What are you doing to be ready?

Part of being ready means that we have short, concise, and succinct answers to questions that force the questioner to want more. If we aren’t careful we can try to cover ‘everything’ in one setting. Please don’t do that. If someone asks you what time it is you don’t tell them how to build a clock. Yes we can get excited and think we have to cover all the controversies about a passage but you will just drown your audience with details. If someone asks what Eph 2:8-10 means simply tell them what that means without going into how others get that passage wrong. If a person is versed in the Truth about that passage they will identify any false teachings about that passage.

As opportunities arise please keep this in mind: one thing you are trying to accomplish is to make the current conversation to not be the last conversation you are having. You want more discussion and more interactions. That means you have to be reasonable and approachable (Cf. Phil 4:5). You also have to be credible. If you start with a respect for God’s Word and His authority then you better stick to that.  As opportunities arise you will likely run into people who are from broken homes and they have trust issues. What you are regularly praying for is for barriers to be removed so this person feels comfortable talking with you. You need to set that table for them to want to come and feast on spiritual things.

Speaking of Biblical Authority this is a great place to start any Bible study. Either we are going to accept the Bible as the Word of God or we are not. Get that established early on in the conversation. The conversation will go much better if we start with the fact that the Bible is the Word of God and Jesus is our King and Savior. If a person believes in these principles then you won’t have many arguments over Bible study habits, prayer habits, attendance habits, how we worship, etc.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation.”  Do you believe that? If so why don’t you invite people to the Assemblies? Since there is great “power” in the Gospel why not try to expose more people to the Gospel. Our Assemblies are where we worship and we encourage others, and where visitors (outsiders) can be encouraged as well. Where else in the world do we focus intensely on spiritual matters?  The Gospel has great power when it is taught publicly. When an outsider is sitting in our Assemblies consider what they see. They see followers of Jesus Christ respecting the Word of God. Even the first time visitor can understand what is going on and understand generally what the message is. Think about a first time visitor who is looking to get right with God and how this makes a positive impression on them!  There is something powerful about this kind of setting, people of diverse backgrounds (social, economic, racial, education, etc.) united on one thing. There is something wonderful about people with differences coming together and working (uniting) towards one common goal. The visitor sees that and can be impressed with the many different kinds of people trying to serve Jesus Christ. We don’t have to do this alone. God gave us “one another” for a reason (this phrase, “one another” appears 149 times in the NASB20.  It is clear that God gave us “one another” for a reason!).

Colossians 3:5-6 reminds us to consider how we are to connect with outsiders and how we should use Godly wisdom in doing so. We need to think about our responsibility to be prepared in areas of evangelism. We need to think of ways where we can make the most of our regular opportunities. Think and pray about the best ways you can establish and continue to have conversations to talk about the Gospel. It may change lives forever as it has done with so many of us.

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October 2024 | GROW magazine