You would be much better off admitting you were wrong. This denial of obvious Scriptural references does great damage to your reputation as a Biblicist.
They did have to do with God being glorified in HIS people .
Close, but wrong. I would wager you wrestled with how to word this for a while to minimize the damage of heathens glorifying God. The fact is that in one of the passages that it is evildoers who end up glorifying God, which is not at all "God being glorified in HIS people."
Secondly, it obviously says that a wife can be a witness simply by how she lives her life and that the unbelieving husband can "without the word be won by conversation." Of course, conversation in the KJV means lifestyle. You know this very well, but will dodge it here as it does not fit your paradigm.
Then the negative example. There is clearly a statement that one can cause a person to stumble. See the OT usage of the word stumbling for more illumination on what this means. And then Paul follows this by saying that he tries to please everyone in every way so that everyone might be saved. Sounds positively seeker-sensitive, doesn't it? But again, doesn't fit the paradigm so out it goes.
And the last passage was in reference to the "light fellowshiping with darkness." But you knew that as well.
For a man to think one is saved by HIS walk is contrary to the word of God , that says clearly that it is the word of God , that brings one to faith , not our feeble works that bring a man to faith and salvation.
I agree that one is not saved by his/her walk. But the word of God is exemplified in action. If we give a glass of water in His name, if we feed the poor, if we visit the sick, etc. But you've read James and you know this as well.
God is jealous for His name
Sometimes your over-preaching comments drift into obscurity and it does so here. This is nice preaching as us Pentecostals say but I'm not sure how it relates to what we're discussing. Is someone who strives to live a Godly example and be kind to others not showing the proper respect due God's name? If not, then what on earth did you mean? I'm not quite sure you yourself know. But you believe whatever it is you mean, which is half the battle.
Finally, to clear up any misconception, I believe that preaching the Gospel is part of evangelism. In fact it will comprise the bulk of the "heavy lifting" of evangelism. Without the message of the Gospel, we are little more than penny-ante moralists. It is, however, not the only way that the Gospel, the good news of the Kingdom, is revealed, taught or preached. Clearly, our lives are a witness to others. To deny that is to deny sense and sanity. But that's never stopped anyone on this board.
I was in the Marines with a young Jew from Miami who decided to get circumcised, and believe me he was very, very, quiet for almost a week. :(
JH:)
One of them saints, maybe Francis, is famous for saying "preach constantly, use words if necessary."
SD