Communicating Our Faith, Effectively

Have you ever tried to tell people about God, and it has no effect on them whatsoever at all? It's so frustrating! All that time and effort for nothing.

I will pause for a moment to point out that God says His Word will never return to Him void, but today's post is about being an effectual sharer of the faith. Or in more modern terms, a good communicator.

For that we'll look at Philemon.

That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Philemon 6 KJV

When I first read this verse, I was struck. Hang on a second, Paul just gave us a 'formula' (if you want to call it that) about how to make sure that when we share our faith it actually does something. A secret if you will.

Only, I was scratching my head a little bit trying to figure out what Paul had been trying to communicate (slightly ironic now I think on it). So, I thought about it for a bit then looked up the verse in Matthew Henry's commentary.

First, the whole book of Philemon is about making sure we effectively share our faith. Had Philemon punished his runaway slave, the world would have said, "See, Christians are just like us. He didn't forgive."

If we bicker amongst ourselves, backstabbing and backbiting, our testimony before the world is not just tarnished. It's ineffectual. We have become a stumbling block.

God didn't leave us on this mortal earth just to live out our days. We are here to be a light, and what we do in life must be about making sure that light radiates the pureness of Jesus.

Second, let's look at verse six in particular. Matthew Henry said sharing our faith becomes effective when the world looks at all the good things we have and attributes it to the Lord's doing.

Which is a valid and important thing to note. If all the world sees is a hard worker or a lucky duck, our faith has no impact on them. But if they look at us and know that it was God's Hand which led us through, then it plants a seed of faith in their heart.

But I think there is one more lesson we can get from this.

Until we look at the good things in our life and attribute them to God, the world won't either.

It all starts in your heart. Do you see the good in your life? Do you praise God for it? Do you truly believe it was only because of Christ Jesus that you have what you have right now?