The Danger of fearing human disapproval that cripples bold evangelism

Fearing man instead of God is a trap and will hinder faithful evangelism. It is also a trap to have zeal without knowledge that keeps us grounded and effective. Thus, we should keep in mind two traps to avoid in evangelism.

1. Fearing Man more than God.

2. Zeal without knowledge and wisdom. 

1. Fearing man:

How can you tell if you “fear man” more than God? When you start saying things like…

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“I’m afraid of what they will say if I tell them what I believe…”

"you can't share the gospel with a stranger until you EARN the right to share with them" (false) 

“I don’t want to leave my family to go to church on sunday. What if they feel judged because they stayed home. So, I won’t go and maybe I’ll win them by just being nice.” 

“I’m afraid that if I have too much passion and conviction it will turn them off. So, I’m just going to stay silent and wait for them to ask me.”

“I don’t want to bother people by bringing up Jesus. They might be annoyed with me and it could get awkward…so I’ll just pray and not talk to people and wait for them to talk to me. 

“You should just be more subtle and not ask such direct questions about what someone thinks about Jesus, sin, the afterlife. Why do you have to be so open about your faith? Just let people be!”

“I don’t want to disengage from participating in this sin with these friends cause I don’t want them to think Christians are judgy.” 

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Key fruit of the fear of man: Paralysis by analysis. You are always worried if you said something wrong or turned them off to the gospel by being direct.

Thus, you end up justifying your rebellion by cloaking it in fine sounding (Colossians 2:4) arguments that look righteous (Matt 23) but really are not. It’s just rebellion to Jesus. 

You can also end up justifying your disobedience of Hebrews 10:25 to gather with the saints on Sunday and to make it a priority and end up hurting your witness by fearing human approval more than anything. 

What’s more, the arguments above may in fact be a cloak for someone secretly being a universalist or postmodern with their view of truth (denial of objective truth claims in preference for “whatever works” for people/makes them happy). Yet it’s self refuting cause you still are “evangelistic” with YOUR VIEW that no one should tell others to follow Christ and they should just follow their heart or whatever religion they want. (how much do you have to hate someone NOT to share the gospel with them though?!)

Also, if you are over-analyzing whether or not speaking plainly about the gospel without manipulation (2 Corinthians 4:2) is wrong, remind yourself of the the reality of the unbeliever’s heart before regeneration (the new birth; John 3:3). It is always the right thing to obey God rather than man (Acts 4:19). It is always the right and most loving thing to share the only message that can save sinners, the gospel, from eternal judgmeent. It's the most loving thing to do.

Furthermore, according to God’s Word, the unbeliever is already at war with God and “turned off” until God changes their heart (John 6:44; Eph 2).

In fact John 3:19-21 says they love the darkness rather than the light:

 “ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

1 Corinthians 1:22-25 says, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

The cross of Jesus is a stumbling block to modern sensibilities because it exposes human pride by saying: You are not (nor ever will be) good enough to stand before a thrice Holy God. You are guilty of cosmic treason and God the Son, Jesus, was crushed on the cross under the wrath of God the Father for guilty transgressors who have broke His Holy Law. Only those that turn from their rebellion and trust in Christ’s saving sacrifice will move from death to life (John 5:24) and be reconciled to the God they once hated when they were in the darkness (Ephesians 5:8). God makes his enemies children of (John 1:12), takes away their guilt (1 Peter 3:18) so that may have his Holy Spirit dwell within us (Colossians 1:27) and redeem us to a new humanity (Ephesians 2:15).

Imagine someone standing in a burning building and you are urging them to flee the building to safety. Then the PERSON in the building yells at you: “dude! Chill…maybe stop talking about the building on fire and subtly tell them they are in danger.”

Sounds weird, right? It is bizarre. People have no idea of the judgement coming when our Lord returns. Just as it was in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:34), people acted scandalized and didn’t listen to Noah and then all but 8 people plus the animals died in the flood (Gen 6-7). 

What’s even more weird is when professing Christians hinder evangelism by telling people to not share the gospel and bring up the state of someone's soul. I can’t tell you how many times people ended up regretting that and never even got into the gospel because they were afraid of offending someone or “waiting for the right time.” Then they died or lost contact with that person and never were able to bring it up again.  

Modern man is so extremely prideful. He deceives himself thinking he has more time before he will stand before God in judgmeent (Heb 9:27). He deceives himself thinking that He is a “good” person and can be good enough to get into heaven (contra Romans 3). Sadly, he has no idea of the sinfulness of the sin in his heart and how the mind of his flesh is hostile to God and can’t submit to God (Romans 8), apart from God opening his eyes (Ephesians 1:18).

With all that said above, it should be noted that a REFUSAL to share the gospel that is rooted in the fear of man, is disobedience to the Lord. We need to behold our God, repent of idolizing human approval and remember Proverbs 29:25 that says,

“The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”

Likewise, we must learn to regularly engage with people with wisdom as well.

2. Zeal without knowledge is dangerous:

Proverbs 19:2 put it this way:

“Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.”

We need to pair together our zeal and desire to make the gospel known with knowledge and wisdom on how to engage with others. 

This is why our Worldview Academy encourages the Ambassador’s Creed that Stand To Reason shared on their website here:

https://www.str.org/ambassadors-creed

In each of our unique personalities, we must learn how to genuinely, lovingly, boldly share the gospel with others as we depend upon the Holy Spirit. The Spirit dwells in us to glorify the Lord Jesus. The Lord will give you the strength and wisdom to engage with each person.

While I made the case above to be bold and regular in your evangelism and not let the fear of man hinder you, that does not mean that I am against being wise as well. 

Wisdom and boldness go hand in hand. 

Boldness sometimes may lead you to fumble over your words or say something a little off. It can be street preaching and it can be an old lady sharing the gospel through a shaky voice to a rebellious young adult about the hope of the gospel. 

Wisdom will show you how to KEEP MOVING forward and when to apologize if necessary if you came across rudely. However, we should NEVER apologize for the rough edges of the gospel. Never apologize for the truth that ONLY Jesus (Acts 4:12; John 14:6) answers humanity’s greatest problem. Only Jesus can take away our guilt before a Holy God!  

People may disagree with the gospel, but hopefully we don’t say it in a sinful way. Yet if they do reject the gospel and persecute you for it, remember that it’s not ultimately about you. They are rejecting Jesus and that’s their greatest issue (Luke 10:16). The world WILL persecute Christians for proclaiming Jesus and living righteously because they love the darkness and want to push away the painful truth of the light (Matt 5:10; 2 Timothy 3:12). 

If you have never faced ANY form of persecution or opposition because of your faith, repent of your idolatry of the fear of man, bring it to Jesus and he will cleanse you (1 John 1:9) for your cowardice and give you boldness (2 Tim 1:7) to proclaim your new life in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 I couldn’t put it better than how Greg Koukl phrases it when he says, “let's make sure that the gospel, and not the messenger, is what offends people.” 

Also, I should note that with each individual person they have different strongholds of false ideas (2 Cor 10:3-5) that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. We need to intentionally bring the gospel to bear on their false view about God, truth, the sinfulness of man, the sufficiency of Christ, their need to repent and trust in Christ alone and the urgency of eternity. 

Godly Wisdom (applying scriptural truths in the context of a relationship and conversation).

 Godly wisdom will often  tell us to sometimes ask more questions to leave a rock in their shoe.

Godly wisdom will lead us to share and discuss scripture with others asking if they understand it.

Godly wisdom will take serious believers and unbelievers genuine questions and will not merely brush them off (1 Peter 3:15). 

Godly wisdom will always lead us to pray, genuinely love people, adorn the gospel with our service and integrity  (Titus 2:10), and faithfully and patiently share the gospel with others and entrust God alone to change hearts (1 Corinthians 3:6-8; 4:2).

The MOST LOVING thing you can do this week is share the gospel with someone!

Stop listening to lies from the enemy that keep you from sharing the gospel with people. Satan has deceived millions to think that sharing the gospel boldly, clearly and lovingly is mean. 

Those that are echoing that line of thinking are doing what Jesus said in John 8:44

“ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Yet Jesus is about the TRUTH and ONLY the truth will set people FREE from the deceitfulness of sin:

“34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave[b] to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36