Once upon a time, I was hanging out with a group of believers, and a fellow asked why we evangelize. According to his understanding of Scripture, one could develop a saving relationship with the Creator based on general revelation, so he wasn’t sure why we go tell people about Jesus.
Now, I didn’t know this guy (or a number of the other folks around) and didn’t want to get into a lengthy debate about general revelation and whether it can be salvific, so I skipped right over that part. My pastoral assessment was that being willing to obey is more important than one’s theology of general revelation, so I went straight for the commands.
The answer to “Why evangelize?” is “because Jesus said to.” We can talk about how it makes sense to do — and it does — but the first answer is simple obedience. Jesus said to go tell everybody, so we do. If it doesn’t quite make sense to us for whatever reason, we can safely assume that’s a defect in our understanding, and that by simply obeying in spite of our lack or understanding, we are doing better than we know.
That said, evangelism makes sense pretty readily. The goal is not just bodies in heaven, it’s disciples of Jesus on earth, and we can’t get that without special revelation. Jesus came in a particular place at a particular time to particular people, and gave us a gift we are meant to carry to the rest of the human race. Whatever people can know from general revelation, and however far they can get in relationship with the Creator (that’s a whole can of worms I’ll leave to another day), they aren’t going to know about Jesus and the things Jesus taught us unless somebody shows up and tells them. So we do.
I told him that, and he objected. God doesn’t want blind faith, he said; God wants people who will use their brains and understand what they’re doing.
Now, he’s not wrong that God aims for informed and mature sons and daughters who are about the family business. But he seemed to want to understand everything first, and then obey. That won’t work. If you’re not ready to follow orders from the Creator, reasoning it out won’t help you any. If you’re already obeying, then understanding is rocket fuel.
There’s no path to “informed and mature” except obedience. In James’ idiom, “Mature and complete, lacking nothing” comes from “let patience have its perfect work,” not the other way round. If you sit around waiting for a complete understanding before you obey, your talent will remain buried in the backyard until the Master returns. Good luck with that.
No, understanding comes through obedience. If you know enough to obey, you know enough to get started. Getting started is the path to wisdom. Let’s be about it.
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