Proving We’re Genuine By ‘Show and Tell’

When I was a boy in what we called ‘grammar school’ – we know it today as elementary school – one of the popular weekly activities was “Show and Tell.” We’d take turns bringing in favorite items from home, show them to our fellow classmates, and tell what they meant to us. They included things like favorite toys, dolls, dinosaur models, pet guinea pigs, and art projects.

 

I don’t know whether they still do “Show and Tell” in schools today – I haven’t had a chance to ask my grandkids – but it was always fun to see what my classmates were so excited about and hear them talk about it. The visual component added a lot to what they were telling us. Full disclosure: As a boy I was very shy, so when my turn came at showing-and-telling, I was terrified, but it was part of my growing experience.

 

Why do I bring this up? Because as followers of Jesus, we’ve been commanded to “be My witnesses” wherever we are and wherever we go (Acts 1:8), and an important part of being witnesses for Christ is showing – living out our faith and demonstrating its genuineness.

Years ago, a non-believing friend was telling me one of the reasons he had no use for Christianity. People he worked with would be very bold and vocal in their expressions of faith, but how they conducted themselves on the job seemed to contradict the principles they espoused. My friend’s attitude was, "If that’s a Christian, I don’t want to be one.”

 

I know there are many valid responses to that: No one’s perfect. It’s unfair to judge Christ by the behavior of His sinful followers. We’re saved by faith, not by works. All that is true. But my friend had a point: If professed followers of Jesus basically don’t appear to act any differently than non-believers, what’s the big deal?

 

It is a big deal in so many ways, as I tried to explain to my friend. But even the Scriptures teach that true faith is really a show-and-tell experience. One of my favorite passages about sharing our faith with others makes this very clear:

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. 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, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Peter 3:15-16).

 

There are three important parts to this exhortation. The first is to “set apart” (other translations say, “sanctify”) Jesus in our hearts as Lord. If we’re to live effectively and fruitfully for Him, we need to make sure He’s given the highest priority in our lives.

 

The second part is to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who ask…the reason for the hope that you have.” Another translation puts it this way: “…always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account….” Either way, we’re speaking about our faith in response to someone else’s initiative. If they ask us to ‘give an answer,’ this implies something about our lives has prompted them to ask about what we believe. ‘Making a defense’ similarly indicates someone else has taken the offensive, perhaps asking, “What makes you so sure about what you believe?” Or, "Why are you different?"

 

And the third part goes back to the ‘show-and-tell’ aspect of evangelism. We’re to be keeping a “clear conscience” and demonstrating “good behavior in Christ” so that those who speak against us will have no legitimate grounds for criticism. They will see us working hard for our employers, operating honestly and with integrity, and showing true interest in and compassion for others.

 

Even Timothy, the apostle Paul’s young protégé, was instructed to ensure that he not only knew and understood God’s truth but also lived it out consistently. Paul urged him to “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

 

Without question we’re to be always be prepared to speak about our love for Christ and trust in Him. But as someone has wisely observed, “If your walk doesn’t equal your talk, the less said the better.”

The Mythical ‘Separation of Church and State’

Our founding fathers did a remarkable job in writing the U.S. Constitution. Not only in building the framework for a new, independent nation, but also in anticipating what needs and circumstances would confront the United States of America in the future, both near and far. 

 

Most of us remember the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, but did you know the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were ratified on Dec. 15, 1791? That’s nearly 230 years ago, yet in many respects these amendments make as much sense now as they did then.

 

These days there’s considerable debate about the meaning and application of several of the amendments, including Amendment I, which encompasses the rights to worship freely and speak freely, as well as freedom of the press and the right to assemble. What I’d like to look at is the beginning of the 1^st amendment, which states very simply, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”

 

This was specified because the United States was in part the byproduct of people fleeing from Great Britain, where the state had established the official religion, restricting the practice of other faiths. As a result, today in America we have a cornucopia of religions and belief systems from which to choose. And most would agree that is as it should be; no one should be coerced into what they should or should not believe.

 

Somewhere along the line, however, the intent of this amendment was turned on its head. Instead of restraining the government from dictating a specific religion, it’s become interpreted by many as a taboo for exercising one’s faith in the public square. There are those who would argue that faith – or religion – has no place in politics, education, science, or any other discipline.

 

This isn’t a new development. It’s a growing trend that started gaining traction in the 1960s and has been building momentum ever since. But I find it hard to comprehend how someone devoted to their beliefs, especially followers of Jesus Christ, could hang their faith at the door no matter which sphere they enter. As the apostle Paul wrote, “For in him [Jesus] we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

 

Some folks seem to compartmentalize their faith, putting on their religious masks on designated worship days but acting as if God does not exist the rest of the time. For born-again disciples of Christ, however, that's not an option. They can’t help but bring his or her beliefs into whatever they do, whether it’s working, going to school, passing laws, or even in adopting worldviews for help in sorting through the complexities of everyday life.

 

As the brilliant writer, theologian and apologist C.S. Lewis wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." In the life of faith, there is no separation. It’s not like a hat or coat we can conveniently put on and remove whenever it serves our purposes. 

 

We’re admonished in Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” In essence, we’re there to serve Him and His purposes.

 

Whether in the halls of Congress or a schoolhouse, the Oval Office or an office cubicle, when we as Jesus’ followers are there, He’s right there with us. The Lord doesn’t reside in the sanctuary, but in our hearts, as Galatians 2:20 declares: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

 

Years ago I heard the following quotation that’s generally attributed to George MacLeod, a Scottish clergyman. It encapsulates the importance of diligently avoiding any separating of church and state, church and workplace, or church and classroom:

 

“I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap; at a crossroad so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek...at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where he died. And that is what he died about. And that is where churchmen ought to be, and what churchmen should be about.”

 

The building we typically call “the church” may be the place we congregate on a regular basis, to worship and be reminded of the Lord’s call on our lives as members of His eternal body. But we’re to exercise that call in the world around us, wherever He chooses to place us. “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9).