Yesterday at church, the sermons (regular and children) preached were both on the Parable of the Sower and the Soils. Many of us are probably familar with this story: a sower went out to sow his seed, and scattered accross the ground. some of the seed fell on the path, where it was eaten by animals. Some of the seeds fell on rocky ground, where it was able to grow at first, but then withered up from lack of nutrients. Other seeds fell on a third type of ground--soil with preexisting weeds. There, even though the seeds were able to spring up, the weeds choked the budding seeds to death. Finally, some of the seeds landed on good soil, where it was able to grow and multiply by a hundredfold.
Now, almost a week earlier, I had heard someone else quote the old saying, "You win them to what you win them with." That made me start to wonder; after all, the problem with some means of witnessing now is that some rely on emotion to win converts to Christ. But if you win people to Christ with emotions, then you aren't winning them to Christ--you're winning them to emotions. And those people are the rocky or weed-filled soil; they are won to faith with emotion, but the emotion gradually fades. When faced with trials and temptations, or the pleasures of this world, those who have been won by emotion cannot stand up against them, because emotions are not strong enough--they will fade away, and the hard work of the Christian life suddenly becomes too much of a challenge for the one of little faith--assuming they had faith in the first place. Ultimately, to "win" someone to Christ through emotions is to win the battle, but lose the war.
I'm not saying that every person who has ever been "won" to Christ through emotion was actually a self-deluded pseudo-heretic who went to hell when they died. I'm simply saying that if you win a person to Christ through emotion, then that person will probably feed on emotion in their spiritual life, and rely on emotions to help them grow closer to God--and that doesn't usually work.
Some people might instead suggest to win others to Christ with conviction, or possibly logic. Bah!--really, you should win non-believers to Christ with Christ. That should make sense; if you were trying to convince people to come your new restaurant, then of course you would not try to convince them to come because of how pretty the outside of your building looks. Nor would you try to convince others to come because of how easy it is to come to the restaurant. You would emphasize how high-quality the food is, the gentle and polite attitude and behaviour of the servers, and back it up with the testimony of real servers and customers. That is how we shoud witness to others.
We shouldn't tell the atheist about how he can get popularity in his neighborhood by being Christian. Nor should we tell others to become a Christian simply because of how easy it is to become one. No! Of course not! We witness to others by telling them of the Christian life, how we can be set free from sin, from a guilty conscience, and from separation from God. We tell others about how now we can be at peace with God and with man, and that even though things might be rough, that it will be worth it because of Christ. Even if they don't agree with us, they can still see our life, how we behave ourselves--and that can be either a powerful testimony for or against you.
If a person is won to Christ by Christ, then that same person will rely on Christ to help them grow closer to God. They will depend on Christ to lead them, and feed off of Christ's words in their spiritual walk. Using anything less than Christ to win people to Christ is almost idolatry. Yes, you can use emotions, but sinners persuade others to do stuff by using emotions. And who gave mankind emotions in the first place? Yes, you can use logic or conviction in witnessing, but sinners also use logic and conviction to persuade others. Plus, who gave man his logical abilities--who convicts us of our need for Christ? Sinners won't use Christ to persuade a crowd of people. Christians should first and foremost use Christ to win others to Christ!
So--how were you won to Christ? And how will you try to win others to Christ?
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