Humor has always been a part of my personality. My wife may call it sarcasm; I call it humor. I use humor to ease tensions or create connections. Dad jokes are prevalent on our social platforms, and I have a friend who sends them to me. A dad joke is so corny, it is funny. These jokes are usually a play on words. My wife said I had no sense of direction, to which I replied, “Wow, where did that come from?” Or there is this one: “I used to have a job at a calendar factory, but I got fired for taking a few days off.” Come on, that’s funny.
A friend reminded me of our time change in the form of a meme that read: “Clocks go back this weekend. I hope mine goes back to when people had morals, values, loyalty, appreciation, and respect.” This wasn’t a joke more than it’s a statement. I did nod my head to the idea, but on further reflection, I realized there is a much deeper issue for us as disciple makers.
My friend was lamenting a time when our society made our moral standards based on the biblical foundation of truth. So, what has changed? It certainly isn’t sinful man; we still want our own selfish way. It isn’t God’s Word, for his truth endures forever. We as Christ-followers quit speaking the truth of God and his standard in our homes and the marketplace. We are the carriers of truth in a world searching for it, but it has to be a part of us to be shown and spoken. We also have to be bold.
I am not talking about a boldness that rails against our culture; instead, it engages it with the truth. Jesus made several statements as to why he came to earth. He came to fulfill the law, save the lost, and call sinners to himself. The most powerful message for his coming is found in John 18:37, when Jesus is before Pilate:
“Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this purpose I have been born, and for this I have come into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”
Let that sink in for a moment. Jesus is hours away from his crucifixion, and he clearly defined his reason for being on this earth was to testify to the truth. Pilate’s response in verse 38 is the same response we get from our world today: “What is truth?”
Our world is desperately looking for truth. Society wants to know where to find it and how you can trust this truth’s source. There are so many counterfeit sources being spoken, how can we know and communicate what is true?
Jesus had to come to earth and lived out the truth of the promises of God for us, so we could trust his word. Every promise, every prophecy has come according to what Jesus said would happen. The Bible says that God has a perfect plan for our life, how can we trust these words and his plan. We can trust them because Jesus testified to their truth until his last breath, and beyond in his resurrection.
Our skeptical culture and postmodern society will say, “That is truth for you.” How do we engage this type of argument? In Paul Gould’s writings on cultural apologetics, he describes it this way:
“Our job in seeking a missionary encounter with modern beings is to reawaken the rational faculties of the soul to the reality of God, and a God-bathed world. We want to help people see the truth clearly. One way to do this is to use the deliverance of philosophy, history, and science (prominent among other sources) to show there is such a thing as truth and that Christianity is the embodiment of that truth. How do we reawaken the rational sensibilities if they lie dormant today? Familiarity with evidence for belief in God, the historicity of the Gospels, and the resurrection of Jesus are key. In ably articulating the truth of Christianity, we demonstrate intellectual credibility, humility, and our God-given call to love God with our minds.”
Our goal as a disciple maker is to get the next conversation to share more of God’s truth, not win an argument. It takes a bold belief in God and his Holy Spirit to trust him to use truth spoken intelligently to draw others to come and hear more of His goodness and truth.
Those sinners Jesus came to call to himself, are called to him through hearing the truth. Truth boldly and thoughtfully spoken in love reawakens a longing to know the creator. We learned this truth and how to show others the truth of the gospel by discipleship. My boldest move for the kingdom of God was to submit myself to be discipled to follow Jesus. It was not about salvation, baptism or the promise of a perfect life. It was learning about the truth of God and the truth of who I was and who I could be. My salvation resulted from learning the truth that Jesus testified to with His life. I learned a disciple follows Christ and teaches others to follow his truth, but it took someone speaking boldly to me.
Your boldness can begin today by exploring how a cohort can reawaken the need for true discipleship in you. I would welcome the conversation.
This post originally appeared at: Speaking Bold Truth in Love — The Bonhoeffer Project