READ: Matthew 10:16-22
I have a friend who was invited to a dinner party where he was seated next to a belligerent unbeliever who delighted in taunting Christians.
Throughout the evening, the man baited Matt mercilessly about the evils of Christendom throughout the ages. With each insult, my friend calmly replied, “That’s an interesting point of view.” And then he asked a question that revealed genuine interest in the man and deflected the discussion away from the issue that divided them.
As the two were walking out the door at the end of the evening, the man fired a final jab, at which point Matt put his arm around the other man’s shoulders and chuckled. “My friend,” he said, “all night long you’ve been trying to talk to me about religion. Are you a religious nut?”
The man’s animosity dissolved in a burst of laughter and then in sobriety, for he was indeed a religious nut. All human beings are. We’re insatiably and incurably religious—hounded by the relentless love of God, though we may try to keep Him away. Matt’s kindness and deft humor awakened this man’s heart so that he could be receptive to the gospel.
We are to be “wise as serpents” (Matt. 10:16) when dealing with non-Christians, speaking to them “with grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6).
Called to speak the truth in love;
O how much we need Your guidance
And Your wisdom from above. —D. De Haan
Bible in One Year: Ezra 1-2; John 19:23-42
