Last week I was doing some visitation in the community and a man who I’ve shared with in the past walked up. He said “brother John I just want to make sure you aren’t mad at me.”
Now he was referring to a conversation that we had weeks before about the Lord…..
A conversation that I abruptly walked away from (which made him think I was angry).
We were talking about the teachings of Scripture and got onto the subject of Jesus. He immediately told me that Jesus could not have been the son of God, he was either a man, or never existed at all. This opinion was based on his belief that the King James Version Bible was written for white men, and removed the black man from the original Scriptures. It also added Jesus when He wasn’t originally there.
The truth is I wasn’t angry with the man because I’d heard much of that before. Of course there us no proof to this belief because copies of the original Hebrew and Greek documents were the foundation for the King James Version.
The problem is he wasn’t willing to listen…..so I walked away.
Jesus in Scripture tells us not to “cast our pearls before swine” (Matthew 7:6). This means to give the truths of Scripture to those who are completely unwilling to believe them. This gentleman was usually open to hearing and understanding the truths of Scripture, but in the moment he was violently opposed to the idea that Jesus could have ever existed. So instead of trying to force him to believe, I just walked away.
What interesting is my walking away stuck in his head. He even remembered me calmly saying “well then we have to agree to disagree” while putting my Bible back in my bag. And he was convicted about that experience enough to come back, and make sure I wasn’t angry at him.
The application here is simple. When someone is violently opposed to the Gospel, it’s best to walk away.
I could have tried to prove my point that morning to the man but it would have damaged my testimony with him, and created what could become a serious argument. So instead I came back when his heart was tender towards the truth.
Because hard hearts aren’t softened by arguments.
They are softened by the Gospel shared in love.
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