Encouragement? or cop-out?

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?... 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect… 1 Peter 3:15

Just recently I was chatting with a group of fellow-ministers when we found ourselves sharing a common frustration about “evangelism” or “witness”: how can Christians (not just pastors) find a way to cross that invisible line between (a) being friendly, pleasant and helpful in any ways we can (of course!), and (b) actually talking about Jesus plainly and sharing the good news which has transformed our lives?

The two Bible passages above both came into our discussion.

On the surface, perhaps they don’t have a lot in common. But I think if we look briefly at them we can indeed see a link, and find that there is both a challenge and an encouragement, not to mention a warning…

In 1 Peter 3:15 Peter seems simply to be giving advice to his readers about the Christian duty of evangelism, how and how not to go about it. His advice can be summed up as: always be ready to make Christ known – but don’t push it inappropriately.

No doubt there have always been Christians who evangelise in off-putting ways. I think with some embarrassment of my early years as a teenage Christian. I was converted at 15 and went back to school determined to convert everybody in five minutes flat. I’ll never know how many people looked at me with a mixture of puzzlement (“What’s happened to him?”), contempt (“Oh, he’s become a religious nutter!”), and sheer incomprehension (“Doh!”). Had I inadvertently put anybody off for life? Oh to be able to turn the clock back!

Peter’s advice is simple: let the other person take the initiative, and when our turn comes to speak, to do so “with gentleness and respect”.

What about 2 Corinthians 2:14-16? What’s all this about beautiful smells “pleasing aromas”)? Paul is using the image of smell as a metaphor for the good news of Jesus (though perhaps he is mixing his metaphors a little in a slightly complex passage).

The first and most obvious comparison (we are “captives in Christ’s triumphal procession”) is to a Roman army victory parade. We have to imagine the victorious soldiers, having defeated the enemy, returning home to be greeted by great crowds of people. They bring with them, in chains, some of the enemy soldiers; sacrifices are made to the gods of Rome; incense is burnt along the route; the noise and sense of excitement are intense (imagine a football team who have just won the cup returning home on an open-top bus) – and the smell must have been overwhelming.

Why Christ’s followers should be depicted as playing the part of the defeated prisoners isn’t entirely clear, but, as I said, Paul is probably happy enough to mix his metaphors. What matters is the smell.

Not until you lose your sense of smell, perhaps through a heavy cold or some other illness, do you realise how precious and important it is. I used occasionally to walk past a quite up-market coffee shop, and the aroma of the freshly-ground beans was quite wonderful; it was tempting to stop for a few minutes just to have a few good sniffs. And probably all of us experience certain smells occasionally which have the power to transport us back to some scene or event from long ago.

It's hard to put into words exactly how “aromas” affect people, but the point is that they spread and linger, and somehow seem to burrow to somewhere deep in our minds. So an obvious application of Paul’s metaphor is that a Christlike manner and way of living – what we might call a “silent witness” – does have an impact, even if the name of Jesus is not spoken. It may then become the role of another Christian some time in the future – perhaps even years ahead – to evangelise more directly. To change the metaphor, we are all links in the chain of witness. And in this particular instance our place is to be wordless, but to pray and trust that, by the Holy Spirit, something of Jesus may be seen even in us.

So we can be encouraged! We may be frustrated that we have not succeeded in speaking explicitly of the gospel. But, to change the metaphor yet again, we have hopefully sown seeds of truth which will germinate under somebody else’s witness.

I spoke earlier of both a challenge and an encouragement. Let’s sum them up…

The challenge comes in Peter’s words, “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have”. Always be prepared. Yes! Surely there must have been opportunities to speak for Jesus - but we simply failed to see them. Lord, help me not to make that mistake again!

The encouragement comes in Paul’s use of the image of smell. A Christlike way of life may make a deeper impact on somebody’s life than we could begin to imagine. What, me, Lord? You even used me, a most imperfect follower of Jesus, to act as a link in the chain, to be a silent sower of the seed? That’s wonderful!

But I also suggested that our two passages should sound a warning for us. What might that be? Just this: let us not use them as a cop-out from the responsibility of direct evangelism. Let us not say, All right, I didn’t manage to explicitly speak of Jesus, but not to worry. After all, the person in question didn’t ask me to explain my faith; and anyway, by the grace of God something of the aroma of the gospel may have been passed on.

No! That may be true; but let’s not console ourselves with easy excuses.

Let’s allow Peter to have the final word regarding witness and evangelism: Christian, always be prepared…

Father, in our modern and godless world it can be very difficult to communicate the gospel of Jesus in plain words. So I take comfort from the words of Paul and Peter. But help me never to let them be an excuse for laziness, or cowardice, or sheer spiritual insensitivity. Help me always to be prepared for unexpected opportunities. Amen.