You can testify for God with gentleness

“Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” (1 Peter 3:15 NASB)

My first chance to “testify for God”

Shortly after receiving Christ as my personal Savior, I went to an evening service at the small church the family I was living with attended. It was a brand new experience for me. I didn't know what they did at evening church services and was excited to find out. The family I was living with didn't attend this evening, so I was on my own. After singing a few hymns, the preacher invited people to come to the front and “testify for God”. Wow! That sounded so exciting. I had never heard of testifying for God before. I immediately assumed it meant you were supposed to do what they do in a courtroom. I had watched old TV shows like Perry Mason, where people were sworn in to “testify” and told to take the stand and “tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” So, I jumped up and volunteered to “testify for God!” The pastor called me to the front and handed me the microphone. He said, “Go to it Mike”, and I did! I looked over the people in the congregation and immediately recognized a few of them that I had seen recently at parties, bars, dances and nightclubs. And I started testifying about them. “There is Billy. He pretends to be a Christian, but he's not! He gets drunk on Friday nights and curses like a drunken sailer!” I went on, “And, Mary Lou, sitting three rows back in that red dress, is cheating on Charlie with some guy named Frank! And not only that, one of the ushers this evening, tells dirty jokes!” I pointed at him. “Then, there’s Betty, sitting next to Ted, she’s also at a lot of bars with different guys.”

People suddenly rose to their feet

People started shouting at me from the congregation. “Mike, who do you think you are!”, someone yelled! “Shut up and sit down!”, cried another. “How dare you accuse us of such things!”, said someone else. People from every part of the room were suddenly on their feet yelling at me all at once. Then they began to lurch forward like a lynch mob!

I ran out the door, jumped into my car and fled the scene!

I drove around for awhile thinking about all the people who were angry at me for testifying. I wondered if this was a normal reaction to testifying services. Or, if maybe I had misunderstood somehow and had gotten it all wrong. I now wished I hadn't been the first one to jump up and testify. Maybe I should have waited for a couple of others to testify first and then watched how they did it. Perhaps I would have known how to do it better when it was my turn to testify for God? I was totally confused. I drove home but didn't stop when I saw cars in our driveway, probably belonging to church people waiting for me to get home. I continued to drive around for hours until they had all left. Then I went home and found the family waiting up for me. They said, “Mike! Mike! Mike! What did you do?” “I testified for Jesus,” I said.

The pastor came to visit me

The pastor and I had a very long chat the next day. I told him what I had thought I was supposed to do last evening, and that everything I had said about people in the congregation was absolutely true, and that I was only trying to “testify for God.” He then explained to me what testifying for God was really about. He said, even though what I said may have been true, I shouldn’t have said it, especially in front of the entire church!

I was embarrassed!

I told the pastor I was very sorry for what I had done and promised to never show my face in his church again. But, he told me he wanted me to come back to the church. He said that he had been speaking with everyone involved personally, and they were now dealing with lots of “sinful behavior” they needed to take care of as a result of what I had done. And some good was coming out of it. He then pointed his finger at me and said, “But, don't you ever do that again!”

A gentle tongue is a tree of life!

“From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:10 ESV)

“A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” (Prov. 15:4 ESV)