Know the Full and Balanced Gospel

Do you know the gospel?

If you had to sum up the gospel in just a few words, could you?

Could you get in an elevator with someone and communicate the gist of the good news of Jesus Christ in the time it took to reach your floor?

The pace of modern life is intense, and this pace brings with it a ruthless pressure to communicate quickly, to get to the point. People are rushed. The world is rushed. We are anxious not to abuse other people’s time. And we know that people today rapidly filter out information they don’t feel they need. People dismiss ideas that they find suspect almost instantly because they don’t think they have time to deliberate over them.

Many people who want to bring others to Jesus respond to this high-pressure reality by trying to reduce the gospel to its absolute minimum. Probably the best-known example of this is the sign held up at sporting events displaying just a word and some numbers: “John 3:16.” Or a line drawing of a fish on a car bumper.

These brief communications are great. They are important. They encourage other Christians, and they might well lead to conversations with non-Christians. But they are only reminders of the gospel. They point to it rather than present it.

More is needed. Evangelization requires an explicit presentation of the gospel, leading, if all goes as one hopes, to an invitation to accept the Lord.

If we truly want others to come to Jesus, we must learn to share the whole gospel with all its essential parts. Having done so, we can then openly and honestly invite others to accept what Jesus offers in his Church. Certainly, the gospel can be expressed in a succinct and inviting way, but we must guard against the temptation to make our presentation so short, or—what is worse—so tame, that it loses crucial parts of its content.

Here, it is vital to have faith in the working of the Holy Spirit, who opens hearts and enlightens minds. It is the job of the Spirit to make converts. Our job is much, much simpler: to make sure that others are told and invited. Without question, we should try to be as effective as we can, employing the very best stylistic and conversational skills. And, indeed, there will be times when we can only present a fraction of the gospel either because of time constraints or because we intuit that the other person is only ready for part of the message. But in every case, we must be faithful to the fullness of the message.

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