Your Testimony: Impacting others for Christ
By David Cox
[Salv08] v1 ©2008 www.coxtracts.com
This tract can be freely reproduced for non-profit purposes
1Pet 2:11-12 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
How is your testimony? How does the example of your life impact the lives of others around you? This is your testimony.
It is sad to see in our day that the majority of Christians never think in their testimony in any way, because they don’t care how their testimony impacts the lives of others, and many don’t even have a good concept of what is a “Christian testimony.” Each Christian has a testimony that is how that person impacts the world for Christ, and this important concept is the example that they leave with others. There are always others watching you, and how you live your life impacts them, and they imitate you, whether you be good or bad.
Our Confession of Christ.
Matt 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. We should understand that since the principle of salvation is a personal relationship with the Saviour, and to be saved is very strongly involved with giving a public confession or testimony of your Savior. Without this public expression of your faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus will not recognize you in heaven on judgment day.
1Pet 2:9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Moreover, confessing your faith in Jesus Christ, salvation is something explicit in that you proclaim the virtues of God to all. This announcing is by way of how you live your life. Because of this, the Bible speaks a lot about how we are to (morally) live our Christian life.
Matt 5:16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.The whole Bible focuses on this matter of true salvation. If our salvation “saves” us from sin, or in other words, is the remedy for sin, then it should function equally on judgment day as every other day of our lives. This is simply called sanctification. God slowly removes the grime of sin from our life, washing us and cleaning us of our sins every day we live. We will always have problems with temptations in this life, but the life of a Christian should be an example of the power of victory in Jesus Christ.
“Christian” = Being the Example of Christ
Acts 11:26
While the world lives as it wants, Christians live the example of Christ, as “small Christs”. To be called by the name of Christ means something important and it should manifest itself as spiritual victory in our daily life. Agrippa did not enter lightly into Christianity because he understood that it is algo important and very significative to identify yourself with Christ.Acts 26:28 “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” We should not follow Agrippa vacilating in identifying ourselves with Christ, but we should enter it with repentance, which is to change whatever is necessary as God indicates we need change. To be a Christian is to be constant war against sin, and to dedicate ourselves to fulfilling the will of God.
Phil 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Our spiritual lives and our moral character are the battle ground for us as Christians. Many Christians have given up the battle to Satan, and they have let Satan have the victory without much of any fight from them. God wants us to be irreprochable and without stain before the world. I see so many Christians have taken the attitude that they are never going to win over sin, so they don’t even try to fight. How sad that they do not choose to follow the biblical example of those who fight to the death for Christ!
The Sacrifice to Death
Rev 12:11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Exemplatory Christians of Scripture have chosen “to live for Christ in their personal life” such that they will fight until death, and they count not their own life in order to fulfill God’s will. In Hebrews 11, God exalts these men and women of the faith, who obtained a good report. (Heb 11:2). All the emphasis is on giving a good testimony of truth and of their Saviour by means of how they live before others.
With these examples so bright and spiritual before us, it is extreme hypocrisy and saddening that today’s Christians make so little of it, and take their Christian faith so lightly. For example, today’s Christians do not attend church and give any ridiculous reason for doing so. They simply do not see the things of God as being important, and they desesteem their testimony for Christ. The new converts see the lack of faithfulness in other Christians around them (supposedly good and mature Christians), they likewise don’t arrive on time to the house of God, or they don’t even come at all. These great heros of the faith gave their lives in testimony of what is good in their Savior. They were ransacked of clothing, they were punished, they died because they prayed, or because they attend church (under Nero). With a history and example so great before us to imitate, How can today’s Christians show a life so empty of desire and energy in serving God?
The Integrity of Moral Character
We see in the life of Job, a life of a believer that defended his integrity to the point of death. One of Job’s friends asked him, Job 4:6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
In other words, for Job, the sincerity of his faith before God was seen clearly by his faithfulness in walking in the way of God. Job said, Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. Job also prayed, Job 31:6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
To not be sincere with God is to deceive one’s self in thinking that he is saved when he really isn’t. All sincerity centers on the priority you put on God’s will and commandments, what place they actually have in your life. True faith is seen by how you daily pratice it in your life.
Faithfulness in All
We are stewards of the mysteries of God (1Cor 4:1-2), and having this charge from God to disseminate the Gospel and the truth of God, there is a great responsibility in how we do this what God has laid upon us to do. To have salvation implies that we carry that salvation to others (give a confession of that or witness or testimony to that salvation and Savior). To represent the King of kings, and Lord of lords, means to not take so lightly how we manage our lives, but rather that we apply great planning and use great energy in always presentign a good testimony of our Savior.
God requires faithfulness of us, 1Cor 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. There are few places where we can show spiritual faithfulness, so let us mention some of these: in praying daily, in reading and studying our Bible daily, in attending and participating in your church in every service that they have, in witnessing for Christ to the lost every opportunity that presents itself, working to sustain one’s own self and your family, to be faithful in finances, and no waste money so much on things of little or no eternal worth, sacrificing for the work of God, resisting temptation and fleeing from places and people of temptation, and seeking out brethren that build your spiritual life.
The Secret of a Good Testimony
The secret of having a good testimony is understanding that we cannot achieve it through our own efforts, but as we give the fight over to God so that God does a work in us, we can live victoriously. God gives us power because the promise of God for every believer is that he or she will have the promise and power of the Spirit, always indwelling in us from the moment we believe. Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me…
Paul found this secret when he stopped trying in the flesh, and let the Spirit of God manifest himself in Paul’s life.
2Cor 12:9
The secret of letting God take control of our lives, is to follow what God has commanded in His Word, and we stop controlling our own life. We simply obey God in everything. To do this we have to dedicate ourselves to studying the Word of God, understanding it, and living it always through our daily life.
Eph 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.6Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
This passage is very threatening because God clearly states that these worldly “Christians” are not even saved at all, and people with worldly testimonies are only deceiving themselves. According to 1John 1:8-10, every Christian will occasionally fall into sin, but people who make a regular practice of living in sin are not really saved. The true Christian cares greatly about his testimony and protects it jealously.
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 1John 3:8-9
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