A recent study by Lifeway Research confirmed what pastors and church leaders know to be true from experience: “Most Christians say they’re ready, willing and praying to have conversations about their faith with others, but many admit they haven’t gotten around to actually having those conversations recently.”[1] More specifically the survey revealed that while over 80% of believers expressed an openness to discussing their faith with others, fewer than 40% had actually explained the gospel to someone at any point in the preceding six months.[2] The reasons for this discrepancy are not entirely clear, but speaking anecdotally, I know that many believers struggle to share the gospel because of a fear of rejection, a fear of sounding ignorant, or simply a lack of intentionality. These sorts of impediments are nothing new, however; nor do they affect only laypeople.
Perhaps no passage better illustrates this challenge than Colossians 4:2–6 where the Apostle Paul requests prayer for his own evangelistic work before offering pointers for that of the Colossians. Both Paul’s prayer requests and pointers are instructive for believers today, and I hope they will help to close the gap between those who are open to sharing the gospel and those who are actually doing so.
Praying in Preparation for Evangelism
Before Paul requests prayer for his own evangelistic work, he simply instructs believers, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving” (4:2).[3] Prayer is vital for Christian disciples because by it we acknowledge our total dependence upon God and express our gratitude for all He has done for us. In consideration of Paul’s evangelistic prayer requests that follow, his general exhortation to pray ought to remind us that evangelism does not begin in our own strength but in God’s (cf. Acts 1:8). Indeed, Paul’s three prayer requests acknowledge that all evangelism begins and ends in the power of God, which is instructive for us as we prayerfully prepare ourselves for evangelism.
First of all, Paul asks the Colossians to pray for open doors: “[Pray] that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ” (4:3). In other words, he requests prayer for opportunities to share the gospel effectively with others. When was the last time you prayed for the Lord to give you or others an opportunity to share the gospel? If we begin praying for the Lord to open these doors, He will open them. In fact, it could be that when our hearts are attuned to His in this manner, we will start seeing the opportunities He has already placed before us even though our hearts were not previously in the right frame to take advantage of them. The Lord even opened opportunities for Paul to share the gospel with his captors and fellow captives during his imprisonment (cf. Philippians 1:12–14).
Secondly, Paul requests prayer for open hearts. Paul’s request is not merely for God to open doorways of physical opportunity but also for God to open people’s hearts to receive the gospel just as He “opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” during one of his missionary journeys (Acts 16:14, ESV). John Calvin draws attention to an implicit prayer for the Greater Preacher’s work here, explaining that our words apart from the Spirit’s power in us and in the hearer are as effective as trying “to break through a door that is barred and bolted. For [conversion] is truly a divine work.”[4] The Lord opens people’s hearts—not us. Therefore, we should pray for His gracious work in us and in the hearts of those to whom we speak, and we should trust that He is always working ahead of us.
Thirdly, Paul requests prayer for an open mouth. Specifically, he asks the Colossians to pray he might make the message of Christ “manifest, as I ought to speak” (4:3–4). Eugene Peterson aptly paraphrases Paul’s request this way: “Pray that every time I open my mouth, I’ll be able to make Christ plain as day to them” (The Message). How many people fail to share the gospel with others because they are afraid they will say the wrong thing? Yet how few pray that God will give them the words to say? We would do well to pray that when God gives us opportunities to share the gospel, our mouths might actually open, and clear, true words about Jesus would come out of them.
Having given the Colossians some direction about how they might pray for his evangelistic efforts, Paul now provides them with some direction regarding their own. Here is where the disciple’s feet hit the road paved by prayer.
Principles for the Practice of Evangelism
To begin, Paul points to the importance of one’s walk in evangelism when he encourages the Colossian disciples to “walk in wisdom toward those who are outside” (4:5). Paul employs the verb “walk” here and many other places in his writings as a metaphor for one’s conduct in life. Here, however, he specifically speaks about one’s conduct with reference to unbelievers, those who are outside the church. We all know stories of people who have negative opinions of Christ and the church because of hypocritical Christians in their lives. But Paul calls believers to be people of integrity before one another and before outsiders. Christians ought to be known as honest, hardworking, and loving people; we ought to be known for our compassion and our good works. As Matthew Henry puts it, we must “not hurt [unbelievers] or increase their prejudices against religion.” Rather, we must “do them all the good [we] can . . . by all the means [we] can and in the proper seasons recommend religion to them.”[5] Our conduct before outsiders is our chief credential to speak to them.
I know that all of us make mistakes before insiders and outsiders alike. We say things we wish we did not say, and we do things we wish we did not do. However, I have found that apologizing to the one you have wronged and telling them that you are doing so because of Jesus is actually an effective way of gospel communication. Part of what it means to follow Jesus is being humble enough to say “sorry” and seek forgiveness for the sake of Christ’s name even among outsiders whom we have wronged.
Next, Paul reminds believers that theclock is important when it comes to evangelism. That is why Paul tells us in verse five to “redeem the time” (NKJV) or to “make the most of every opportunity” (NIV). Given its entire evangelistic thrust, the passage certainly seems to say that Paul is still speaking about making the most of every opportunity to do good and to share the good news with outsiders. When the Lord answers our prayers for gospel-sharing opportunities, we must not let those opportunities slip by us. Life is too short, and eternity is too long for us to drag our feet with respect to sharing the gospel with others.
Finally, Paul would have believers know that their talk is important. He says in Colossians: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (4:6). You have likely heard the quote that is often attributed to Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” The point of that quotation is obviously to realize that your Christian conduct is important (and we have already seen that it is).
However, the reality is that it is ultimately impossible to share the gospel without words. Bad deeds can destroy the credibility of our gospel witness, but good deeds will never be sufficient for anyone to come to saving faith in Christ. Elsewhere, Paul makes this point clear when he writes, “How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them ? . . . faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:14, 17). The gospel must be communicated with words. People might notice that something is different about our lives by our conduct, but they will know why it is different only by our words.
Still, we must not be harsh or flippant with our words. We are to speak with grace on our tongues, even when the one we are evangelizing mocks the Lord or brings up objections that seem to us ridiculous. “Grace,” writes Henry, “is the salt which seasons our discourse, makes it savoury, and keeps it from corrupting.”[6] Just as salt preserves meat from corruption and makes it appealing to the taste, so does grace preserve our speech from corruption and make it appealing to those who hear. In other words, gracious speech keeps conversations going; malicious speech shuts them down.
Moreover, we ought to answer people with loving wisdom. “If we are to deal with people where they are (whether they can express their position in a sophisticated way or not), we have got to have enough genuine love for them and concern, as a human being, that we would take seriously what they are preoccupied with,” writes Francis A. Schaeffer. “We tend to give a person a prepackaged answer instead of having the compassion of Christ, which is to take the person where they are and actually step into their world in order to talk in a meaningful way to them.”[7] Our speech should be such that it meets people where they are, answers their objections seriously, and lovingly points them to Christ. Of course, we have been praying for this sort of speech all along. We ought to trust that the Lord will hear our prayers and help us to act wisely, speak graciously, and make the most of the opportunities He presents for us.
[1]“Christians Say They’re Seeking but not Having Evangelistic Conversations,” Lifeway, May 24, 2022, https://research.lifeway.com/2022/05/24/christians-say-theyre-seeking-but-not-having-evangelistic-conversations/.
[2]“Christians Say They’re Seeking but not Having Evangelistic Conversations.”
[3]All Scripture references will be from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.
[4]John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, trans. John Pringle (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1851), 224.
[5]Matthew Henry, Acts to Revelation, vol. 6, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1990), 618.
[6]Henry, Acts to Revelation, 618.
[7]Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1968), in The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy: Three Essential Books in One Volume (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1990), 177.
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