Lifestyle Evangelism

by Terry Wane Benton

A good way to live is by the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you. (Matthew 7:12) Would you want others to treat you as worthless? Don't treat others as worthless. Would you want to be ignored and never included? Shunned? Of course not! Those are things we all hate to experience from others! We know how it feels even from school days when children our age acted too good to be around us, snubbed us, or made us feel like a nobody! It created an atmosphere we hated to be in and avoided as much as we could. But, some grew out of such childish thinking and behavior, and some never did.

What if we all lived by the golden rule? Wouldn't things be much better and different? People want to feel that they are the object of goodwill (the biblical quality of love, agape, that values every human being made in the image of God). Draw your circle large enough to include the poor, the shy, and the different. In short, just show kindness and care, just like you would like to receive if you were in their shoes.

Lifestyle evangelism is letting your light shine so that others can see your good works and come to glorify the Father who influenced you so well! As a song says so well, "You are the only Bible the careless world will read."

What is the message they get from you?