How to Share
Biblical Truth
COPYRIGHT ©2017 -
James M. Frye
All scripture
quotations are taken from the Authorized King James Bible. Any deviations are
not intentional. All underlines, bold and words within brackets are the
author's.
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The Bible tells us how we are to go about
sharing Biblical truth with those who are in false doctrine. I have at times,
in my own personal life, fallen short of doing these things perfectly as they
ought to be done. May this serve as a reminder to both myself, and to others,
how God would have us to do these things.
2 Timothy 2:24-26 And the servant of the Lord must not strive;
but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing
those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the
snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
This passage lists a number of things that we
need to know and do when reaching out to those in false doctrine. Let's look at
them one at a time.
1. Do not strive (get into a fight).
If we are not careful when we are trying to
reach out to others with the truth, it can degenerate into a outright argument. We must be careful to speak the
truth "in love" (Eph. 4:15). Speaking the truth in love involves two
things. 1. Speaking the truth and, 2. doing it in
love. If we know someone who is into false doctrine, it is "unloving"
to sit by and not tell them. But we must also communicate that truth in a
loving fashion. Put yourself in the place of the other person and share the
truth with them as you would want someone to share it with you. If someone is
going to reject the truth, you want to make sure that it is the truth they are
rejecting and not the way you are communicating it.
2. Be Gentle Unto All Men.
We are to be gentle unto all men. This, as I
stated in our last point, requires speaking the truth in love. Notice that it
says "All Men". There will undoubtedly be people who just rub us the
wrong way, or who's personality seems to clash with
ours. It is in these situations that we must be careful to "Be gentle unto
all men".
It is easy to be gentle unto those who are
gentle unto us, but to be gentle unto "all" men is a different matter
entirely. Have you found yourself becoming stern, hateful, or otherwise harsh
to those whom you are trying to reach with the truth? When this happens, you
may need to ask that person’s forgiveness before you will have any chance of
winning them to the truth.
3. We Must Be Apt to Teach.
We must make sure that we have studied an
issue ourselves and understand it thoroughly before trying to reach out to
others. There are two implications in this.
A. We must understand the truth ourselves. The Bible only teaches "one" truth,
yet Christians hold to many differing beliefs. Surely this means that we cannot
"all" be correct on each of the various beliefs that we hold. Two
contradictory beliefs cannot both be right at the same time.
Given the above statement, we should earnestly
seek to examine our beliefs one-by-one with an open Bible and an open mind. We
should allow others to "test" what we believe to see if it is in fact
biblical. After all, if a belief that we hold to can be proven wrong by the
Bible, why would we want to keep it? Perhaps we may turn out to be the one who
needs to be reached out to.
B. We must be able to properly communicate the
truth to others. I once had someone
tell me that they were trying to reach a friend who was in a cult. They said
that they were trying to show them that the doctrine of the Trinity was
Biblical. After speaking with this person further I came
to realize that they did not understand the doctrine themselves, nor were they
able to explain it. How can we possibly reach someone with the truth, if we
cannot even explain that truth?
4. Be Patient.
We must also be patiently persistent. Some
people have been taught things that are wrong repeatedly over a number of
years. If it took them a long time to become indoctrinated into false doctrine,
it may also take them some time to come out.
I have personally dealt with people who have
been into false doctrine for a long time. In some of these cases it has taken
months before the person was totally free. People are taught to view scripture
through the "rose colored glasses" of a particular false teaching. It
is then hard for them to see what scripture is actually saying. We, therefore,
need to be patiently persistent. As long as they are willing to listen we
should continue to share the truth with them.
5. We must instruct, in meekness, those that
oppose themselves.
There are two parts to this admonition.
A. We must instruct in meekness. The term meekness carries with it the idea of
a mild, gentle humility - which is very much needed in dealing with those in
false doctrine. We must not place ourselves above the one to whom we are
speaking, but beneath them.
B. We must realize that those in false
doctrine actually oppose themselves. People who believe false doctrine are in fact only opposing
(hurting) themselves. We must keep this in mind as we reach out to them with
the truth.
6. We must understand that only God can change
a persons heart.
Our text says "if God peradventure will
give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth". The word
peradventure means perhaps. After we have done all that we can do, we must wait
and see if God will grant the person repentance. We cannot change a persons heart, only God can.
There are two errors that people make in respect
to this. They either: 1. Think that they can bring everyone to the truth if
they can just explain it convincingly enough, or 2. Say that if God wants
someone to know the truth he will show them, and do nothing.
Although only God can change the heart, we
still have a responsibility to tell people the truth. The same Paul (the
apostle) who wrote this we are studying passage also said:
Acts 20:26-27 Wherefore I take you
to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
7. We must understand that it is the devil who
takes people captive through false doctrine.
Our text says "that they may recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are
taken captive by him at his will". We must keep in mind that it is Satan
who misleads people. Jesus said (speaking of the devil):
John 8:44 ... He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Was it not Satan who denied the truth of God's
Word in Genesis chapter 3? Was it not he who twisted the Word of God in
tempting Jesus in Matthew chapter 4? Is it not the devil and his fallen angels
who mislead people into departing from "the faith" in the latter
times (1 Tim. 4:1)?
Through-out scripture it is the devil with his
host of fallen angels who continually seek to mislead people. When we seek to
reach out to those who are in false doctrine we must keep this in mind.
Scripture says:
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Ephesians 6:11-12 Put on the whole armour
of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
We need to look back at this passage from time
to time in order to make sure that we are sharing Biblical truth God’s way and
not our own.