MAINTAIN AN EXEMPLARY LIFESTYLE AMONG THE NON-CHRISTIANS
Sakkie Parsons
Vertaal van Afrikaans: ‘Handhaaf ‘n voorbeeldige leefstyl onder die nie-Christene”
Someone, and I’ll name the person Frances, wrote and asked me the following:
“How and when should one ‘shake the dust off one’s feet’, or should one just keep talking?”
This following how Frances often continued to share the Gospel with someone,and the person then later started to get angry with Frances and asked Frances to stop talking about Jesus with them and their friends.
First, we read the following example from the Word/Bible that Frances refers to:
Matt 10:11-15
11Whatever city or village you enter, ask who in it is worthy [who welcomes you and your message], and stay at his house until you leave [that city]. 12As you go into the house, give it your greeting [that is, ‘Peace be to this house’]. 13If [the family living in] the house is worthy [welcoming you and your message], give it your [blessing of] peace [that is, a blessing of well-being and prosperity, the favor of God]. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. 14Whoever does not welcome you, nor listen to your message, as you leave that house or city, shake the dust [of it] off your feet [in contempt, breaking all ties]. 15I assure you and most solemnly say to you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city [since it rejected the Messiah’s messenger].
This command to the disciples of Jesus, in other words also to you and me, appear four times in the four gospels, namely the part you have just read, as well as in Mark 6:10 as well as in Luke 9:5 and further also from Luke 10:10.
A practical example of the kind of circumstances under which we must do this, we see in the actions of, for example, my great hero Paul, when people did not want to listen to his preaching of the Gospel, and were even aggressively hostile towards them:
ACTS 13:50-51
50But the Jews incited the devout, prominent women and the leading men of the city, and instigated persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them forcibly out of their district. 51But they shook its dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.
Before I share with you how I understand that we must live out this command in our own lives, I want to share with you a case where Jesus’ actions give me guidelines for when I can, to put it this way, say:
“Here I am not going to get anything done and because I only have so much time here on earth, I must now go further and use the time I have to preach the Gospel to others.”
You can read the case that I want to share with you in Mark 5:1-20.
I am highlighting here only the part that I consider to be very important, as far as this writing is concerned.
Jesus go to the land of the Gadarenes, to preach His gospel.
Then there is the encounter and consequences with the possessed man and the people ask Jesus, despite everything they have heard about Him and what they themselves have now experienced, to leave them. In other words, to give way and leave them alone and not share His Gospel with them.
We read:
Mark 5:17-18
17So the people began to beg with Jesus to leave their region. 18As He was stepping into the boat, the [Gentile] man who had been demon-possessed was begging with Him [asking] that he might go with Him [as a disciple].
Do you see it?
Jesus do not argue with them. Nor do Jesus threaten them with this or that. Jesus get into the boat, and He left.
Because you see, this is how I understand it –
Whatever Jesus would have said, it would have caused the people to act wrongly against Him, and it would of course have been a sin on their part – and Jesus would never have caused a person to sin.
If I share the Gospel with people, friends or family and they are willing to listen and even reason, naturally, constructively, I will go on and on and on.
If the person starts getting nasty to me personally, that’s a sign to stop. Because you see, now the person sin and I, to put it this way, incite him.
Therefore, as Jesus – and now I speak spiritually – I get into my boat, and I move on – but for me things do not end there. Just as it did not end there for our Lord either:
Read the following:
Mark 5:18-20
18As He was stepping into the boat, the [Gentile] man who had been demon-possessed was begging with Him [asking] that he might go with Him [as a disciple]. 19Jesus did not let him [come], but [instead] He said to him, “Go home to your family and tell them all the great things that the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.” 20So he [obeyed and] went away and began to publicly proclaim in Decapolis [the region of the ten Hellenistic cities] all the great things that Jesus had done for him; and all the people were astonished.
Jesus get into the boat and sail away, but Jesus make sure that there is someone who is a living witness, so that the people, to put it this way, can see firsthand the wonderfulness of being a child of God. Yes, and even to a certain extent can experience it.
So, if they say bad things to me, and before I make them constantly angry or something – and make them sin like that – I get, so to speak, ‘in my boat and I sail away’ – but I keep praying for them and every next time those people, friends, or my family see me, I must try to the best of my human ability, that they see and experience in my life, that they are dealing with a living witness of Christ. They must see in my actions and in my walk the love of Christ.
Yes, they must see in my life, what great things our Lord has done for me and that He has been merciful to me.
Mark 5:19 ]. 19Jesus did not let him [come], but [instead] He said to him, “Go home to your family and tell them all the great things that the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.”
So, if the words and actions of the people with whom you share become of such a nature, that according to the Holy Spirit that is in you, it now becomes a sin, then you get into your boat and sail away, but while you do not stop to to pray them, you also remember that every time in the future when you meet each other –
1PET 2:12 12Keep your behavior excellent among the [unsaved] Gentiles [conduct yourself honorably, with graciousness and integrity], so that for whatever reason they may slander you as evildoers, yet by observing your good deeds they may [instead come to] glorify God in the day of visitation [when He looks upon them with mercy].
Sakkie
Email: bediening@sakkieparsons.co.za
Website: www.sakkieparsons.co.za
Cell: 083 457 6669
Jude 1:24-25 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
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