According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a witness is someone that gives evidence or specifically, someone who testifies in a cause or before a judicial tribunal. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are called to be a witness.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth

Acts of the apostles 1:8 (NLt)

In recent times, I’ve been feeling convicted about this. I haven’t been telling people about Jesus as much as I’d like to or rather, as much as I should be. I thought about possible reasons for this and I came up with a few, but I am going to share two here. These reasons may apply to you as well.

The gospel isn’t considered as good news

Now, you may consider it good enough for yourself, but not up to the standard of the world which is why you don’t talk about it much. Look at this: In the book of John, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”. I would interpret this to mean that giving one’s life up for someone else (literally or figuratively) is the best possible type (or demonstration) of love that a human can have. I was intrigued to read Romans 5:8 in the same Bible: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. To me, this means that the Creator of the world loves you more than any human possibly can because He gave up His life (literally) while you weren’t friends (in fact while you hated Him). That is truly amazing news and worthy of being shared.

For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard

Acts 4:20 (NKJV)

We don’t care enough about others

This may be a difficult pill and I hope I don’t step on any toes. So I was reading some Bible verses (Jude 1:23 and James 5:20) and the references given were very serious. One talks about saving a soul from death and the other about a sense of urgency (similar to saving someone from a fire). I imagine someone drowning and you have a floatation device to help them, but you refuse to throw it to them because you are concerned that the person may reject it. Anyone around witnessing this will most likely urge you to give them the option at least. Your refusal to help after the urges may be considered a mean act and may even be likened to an act of hate. Add this image to the message in 1 John 4:20 and the consequence in Revelation 21:8. If you’re a believer, I bet it almost feels like you’ve been punched in the gut. At least, that’s how I felt when I read them.

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What other reasons can you think of?

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