1 Timothy 6:13a -- Making the good confession--part 1

To catch up on our adventure through 1 Timothy, click here and read from the bottom post up.

1 Timothy 6:13a (NIV) :

"In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession."

In our last 1 Timothy post we began looking at this verse and asking how Christ "made the good confession" while "testifying before Pontius Pilate."

And that leads to the bigger question for us: How do we make a good confession before a watching world?

Or to make it even more personal: How do I share my faith with those who don't know Christ?

So let's go back to the interaction between Christ and Pilate as recorded in John 18:33-38 and 19:9-11 and break it apart. Let's look at each interaction one by one over the next few posts.

First we'll look at John 18:33-34.

• Pilate: "Are you the king of the Jews?"
• Jesus: "Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?"

From this first interaction we can come up with our first point about our "good confession":

1. Make it personal.

Shift the focus from what others say about Jesus (or how others live the Christian life) to: "What do you say about Jesus?"

People will base their opinion of Jesus on what they've seen or heard from others. They'll talk about Christians who are hypocritical. They'll talk about child-molesting priests and greedy televangelists and megachurch pastors who see male prostitutes. They'll talk about the Crusades and slavery and many other topics.

But Jesus turns Pilate's question around and says: But who do you say that I am?

We would do well to follow Jesus' example here. He is not antagonistic. But He gently turns the question around and makes it personal. He basically says: Yes, I now what everyone else is saying about me. I know what's been done "in my name" that isn't right. But what about you? Who do you say I am?

I don't want to make this too simplistic, but I do think we can argue all day with people about these issues and it gets us nowhere. There are many people in the world smarter than me who can argue better than me. But you cannot argue with my personal experience.

Avoid the arguments and bring the conversation back to what God has done in your life and what God can do in the other person's life. Make it personal.