Lifestyle Evangelism

Matthew Crane’s Definition of Lifestyle Evangelism:

“Christians living such an amazing and sin free lifestyle that it causes all the non-christians to ponder why we are so different. As a result the non-christians searches for the answer and realizes that God is real and living al because of an amazing lifestyle of a Christian. ”

I am going to explain a few things before we dive into this passage, just a little history lesson is all, nothing big

Before we get started, a little history lesson: At this time when Peter is writing to Rome, the city of Rome was actually burned down. Some say king Nero burnt it down so he can rebuild it, but he redirected the hostility towards the Christians saying that they did it, so they suffered many persecution during this time.

1 Peter 2:11-12~

11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

 Peter’s audience in this text is obviously the Christians in Rome. I want to key in on the beginning of verse 12 as it says “Live such good lives among the pagans”, and in other translations the phrase ’such good’ is translated into ‘excellent’. This word came from a greek word meaning purest highest or noblest. Then he goes on to say later in verse 12

“though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Back to the history lesson: Even though the Christians didn’t start the fire in Rome which caused the city to be burned down, the gentiles accused them of doing it anyway. So Peter here is encouraging his fellow brothers in Christ that even though they didn’t do it, when God visits the non-christians, whether by saving faith or when they die and are judged, they will remember the Christians and how they acted. They will remember the testimony of the Christians. And why is all this going on? Why exactly do they want to keep their behavior excellent? It is so that the gentiles will “glorify God on the day He visits us.”

Now comes the application. Christians need to keep their lifestyle ‘excellent’ among everyone, whether  among Christians or not. We need to continually be living examples of Christ! We as Christians need to be living such good lives that we need to stand out amongst everyone around us. If you look at how Peter opens in verse 11 “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers” Have you ever seen an alien walking down the street??? If you have, you must have been pretty shocked right? This is how people need to look at us. We need to be acting so much like Christ that people look at us in a weird way. And how are we going to do this? How do we live such good examples? Take a look at the rest of the verse 11 

 11…to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your

The way we are going to live as examples of Christ is by abstaining from sin. Which is another way of saying you will voluntarily not sin. Because when we sin we will look like the rest of the world dead in our sins, but because we have the Holy Spirit in us and we claim to live for Christ, we need not to be a part of this world but to be a part of God’s nature.  

 So let us refrain ourselves from any sin, so that we may prove ourselves to be blameless and innocent! I am not sure if most people know this but we as followers of Christ are representing Christ’s Holy and Righteous name. So is we are repping a ‘Holy and ‘Righteous’ name, should we not be ‘Holy’ and ‘Righteous’ ourselves?? God calls us to be holy as He is holy. This is an awesome way to evangelize, to do it by our lifestyle and actions, sometimes this can be the best way to evangelize. We are God’s children and how with the Holy Spirit in us we are new creations as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17~ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

So lets do it Christians!!! Let us go out there and on our campuses lets show them how there is something different about us because we have the true living God with us. Lets represent Christ’s name like we mean it!!!