The fact of the matter is that facts might not care about your feelings, but Christians should. This will not alter our message in any way, but it should alter our delivery. The fruit of the Spirit, the list found in Galatians 5:22-23, literally affects our speech. Every single one of them will be reflected in how we talk. It is evil, and perhaps evidence of an unconverted heart, to say that our words don’t matter. A quarrelsome person, someone who gets angry, an impatient man, or one who does not have self-control when he is speaking to an unbeliever should be really concerned for his own soul.

The great debate in Evangelism right now seems to be over one word:  tone.

On one side you have the non-compromisers. They are fed up with what they would call “sissies” who, in their minds, compromise the truth by not calling sin, sin. Who are unwilling to declare the truths clearly laid out in Scripture, and who are way too easily offended. On the other side is a group of people who say that the way we communicate the truth matters, and would tend to be very careful when explaining the Gospel. They tip-toe around sin and hell, and would rather focus on “listening rather than condemning.” Most people probably fall somewhere in between. But there is a question that I believe is a valid one, and one that we must consider. Does tone matter? Because, of course, truth does.

My favorite passage right now as it pertains to evangelism is 2 Timothy 2:24-26.

“The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”

Here’s four things to remember when we discuss the tone of the believer in evangelism.

First, we must declare without hesitation that man is dead. 

What I mean by this is that you can’t make someone more dead. You have to grasp this theologically. 2 Timothy 2:26 describes man as ensnared by the devil. They need God to grant them repentance. On their own they are incapable of coming to the truth. Ephesians 2describes human beings as being spiritual zombies. No amount of hypocrisy in the life of a Christian can drive someone further away from salvation. I despise the idea that what you say or what you do can make a difference in this area. Now your hypocrisy, can make a difference in whether someone will ever lend their ear to the Gospel again, as well as give people an opportunity to blaspheme the Lord. That said, I think that if we are not careful, we can exalt our importance in evangelism and severely undermine the sovereignty of God.

Too many people are stressed out when it comes to evangelism. They are paralyzed. A contributing reason for this must be the overemphasis on man’s role in evangelism. Your demeanor and words aren’t what saves people. It is simply–and only–the Holy Spirit who opens the eyes of the blind, or who gives life to the dead. You must grasp this. Stop exalting yourself into believing that if you “mess up,” then you are driving someone further away from Christ.  It is simply not so;  there is no basis in Scripture for this. People do not believe the Gospel, and no amount of kind works towards them, and no amount of evil works towards them can either make them more dead or less dead.

Second, we must preach the full Gospel without fear. 

It’s not loving to withhold truth.  At least it isn’t when it comes to life-altering truths. In fact, in dealing with salvation we are dealing with eternity-altering truths. No one will be tricked into loving Jesus. Hugs and kisses might convince someone to do something for a short time, but they will never be able to cause regeneration of a soul. The Mormons love to withhold “truth”. They wait to talk about their hard-to-believe doctrines until they have convinced people through hugs and kisses, and then unload on them the planets and archeological nonsense.

We must be different. Sometimes truth is difficult to deliver, but it is the most loving thing to do. Just as a doctor who must tell a patient about his cancer, we must tell people about their spiritual situation, because that is the means by which God has ordained to save people. We can’t cut corners, nor can we withhold information; if we do, we might be making false converts.

Read More