“Do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5).
His first name is Adam, and from all appearances he looks to be a bright, clean-cut, neatly dressed young man. He’s spending the next several months of his life as a missionary—not evangelizing in some faraway land, but doing his work right here in the midwestern United States.
The following is a copy of the schedule he follows each weekday:
6:30 Arise
7:00 Personal time
8:00 Breakfast
8:30 Personal meditation
9:30 Evangelizing, visiting
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Evangelizing, visiting
5:00 Dinner
6:00 Evangelizing, visiting
9:30 Planning for next day’s work
10:30 Bedtime
Along with this busy schedule, Adam also offers to perform community service in whatever town he is working as a missionary.
It was personally very humbling to read of such zeal and dedication—even more humbling, because Adam has made a commitment to this missionary service for the next two years of his young life. However, what was most humbling and sobering of all was to find out that this young man is one of over 60,000 missionaries of a huge U.S.-based cult which is actively and energetically propagating its wicked and false doctrines throughout the world.
In view of the vast amount of resources and energy expended by the enemy of our souls to disseminate such deceitful, unholy teaching, believers do well to ask, “What am I doing to spread the precious gospel of God to lost, needy souls?” We have the Apostle’s exhortation in 2 Timothy 4:5, “Do the work of an evangelist.” Even more, we have the words of our Lord Jesus which can certainly be applied in principle to each believer, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
We are also told in Psalm 68:11, “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.” We have, by the grace of God, “the Scripture of truth” (Dan. 10:21). It is His divine, life-giving, eternal Word—God’s complete and only recorded communication for man. Are we—those eternally blessed by it—faithfully doing the work of publishing this wonderful truth of God to the lost?
God’s estimation of those who spread the gospel is found in Romans 10:15: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
As the time of our Lord’s promised return grows rapidly nearer, the world is increasingly being flooded with false religions and wicked, Christ-dishonoring doctrines. Oh! that we believers might be stirred up to fresh evangelical vigor—first, through earnest prayer, born of love for Christ and by love for lost souls, and, second, through gospel activities as the Lord may direct each one in personal evangelization.
Of course, devoting the same amount of time to evangelizing as our youthful disseminator of falsehood can is not an option for most. Yet any believer who desires to do the work of an evangelist will find countless ways to proclaim the truth—good news from a far country. For instance, consider how often the gospel can be silently preached by attaching a Bible verse to each envelope mailed. Who can tell how many souls will see that divine message as the letter travels through the mail.
We are reminded of the four lepers in the day of Elisha (2 Kings 6-7) who, at the height of that horrible famine in Israel, found an abundance of food and riches in the enemy’s deserted camp. While they enjoyed these wonderful and unexpected blessings, keeping the good news to themselves, the city of Samaria (the capital of Israel when Ahab reigned) suffered the agonies of starvation (2 Kings 6:25).
Finally, knowing the vital importance of their discovery to the starving masses, they repented, saying, “We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace” (2 Kings 7:9). What a day of good tidings is the day in which we live!
A Saviour—Christ the Lord—has come into this world, has died, has risen again, and is seated at the Father’s right hand in glory. Eternal life is now offered freely to whosoever will. Let us not hold our peace, but proclaim the news of a free and full pardon to those spiritually starving. “Preach the word . . . in season [and] out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2).
Ed.