A man who had felt he was being pressured by a friend to accept Christ and to join a church once said to me, “I don’t think people ought to do that. They ought to live such happy and contented lives so that just by watching them, other people would want to be like them and have what they have.”
He’s right. People do not need pressure but they do need examples. They need to see in flesh and blood that following Christ brings happiness, contentment, peace, and stability to life. All about us are people who are desperately seeking those things but they haven’t the slightest interest in Christ, church, or the Bible. If they can know people who have these things, they will be eager to know where they found them. Our good life then becomes our pulpit from which we bear testimony to Christ’s power.
A good life by itself is never enough, however. Somewhere along the way there must also be a verbal witness. We must tell people what makes our life different. No person by the life he lives can proclaim the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day. This is the heart of the Gospel, and a good life alone cannot proclaim that. It can only reinforce that. People also need to be told.
Actually, people need both—a sample and a sales talk. They need to see what Christ can do and hear how he can do it. If the life and the witness are both there, people will likely accept Christ without pressure.