Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever

Author:Mark Dever
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Crossway Books
Published: 2009-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

WHY SHOULD WE EVANGELIZE?

A final question—and this may seem a strange question to ask: What is the motivation for our evangelism?

To ask such a question may sound as silly as asking, “What is my motivation in loving my wife?” or, “What is my motivation in caring for my kids?” Does it really matter? If it is really a good thing to do, why worry about the motive?

Is there really a problem with having a wrong motivation for evangelism? I actually think there can be a problem. There can be such a thing as a selfish motive for evangelism. Do some churches perhaps have no concern for the salvation of the people around them while at the same time having a great concern that their church not have to close its doors? And what’s true of churches can be true of us as individuals. As grotesque as it may seem, you could evangelize out of wanting to be right, or wanting to win an argument with a friend, or wanting some kind of psychological reinforcement for your own beliefs, or wanting to look spiritual in front of your Christian friends or before God Himself, or to have a reputation as a successful evangelist. I could go on, but you get the idea.

What is the right reason to tell the Good News? According to the Bible, good motives for evangelism are:

a desire to be obedient to the Great Commission (see Matt. 28:18-20; 1 Cor. 9:16-17);

a love for the lost (e. g., Matt. 9:36; John 3:16; Rom. 10:1); and finally and preeminently,

a love for God.

In the final analysis, love for God must be our motive if we are to evangelize as God would have us to:

Love for God is the only sufficient motive for evangelism. Self-love will give way to self-centeredness; love for the lost will fail with those whom we cannot love, and when difficulties seem insurmountable. Only a deep love for God will keep us following his way, declaring his gospel, when human resources fail. Only our love for God—and, more important, his love for us—will keep us from the dangers which beset us. When the desire for popularity with men, or for success in human terms, tempts us to water down the gospel, to make it palatable, then only if we love God will we stand fast by his truth and his ways.11

Ultimately, this love for God leads to a desire to see Him glorified. Throughout the Bible, God makes Himself known to His creation. We share the Gospel to glorify God as the truth about Him is made known to His creation. The call to evangelism is a call to turn our lives outwards—from focusing on ourselves and our needs to focusing on God and the world that He has made. And that includes loving people who are made in God’s image and yet are at enmity with Him, alienated from Him and in need of salvation from sin and guilt. We bring God glory when we tell the great thing He has done in Christ for these creatures made in His image.

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