That Christians should be witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ is a fact that is made very clear in the Word of God. That many Christians have failed to be witnesses for our Lord is also a fact, and a very lamentable one. To be satisfied with the fact that one is saved and feels no responsibility beyond that is a sad situation, and may cast doubt about the reality of one’s faith. This should lead one to examine himself to make certain that his faith is not the kind described in James 2:26: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

It is not that every believer is expected to be an evangelist, but every believer should seek to do the work of an evangelist, though it may be on a very small scale. A believer cannot be totally silent about his faith, and especially where there is freedom of religion. “It is not merely that we are saved from hell,” wrote C. H. Mackintosh, “that is true. It is not merely that we are pardoned, justified, and accepted; all this is true; but we are called to the high and holy work of bearing through this world the name, the testimony, the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The apostle Paul quotes from Psalm 116, saying, “We have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak” (2 Cor. 4:13).

The apostles Peter and John were not standing before friendly interrogators when they said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). May we be such witnesses for the Lord!