Dear Conrad - Lately the question of how to evangelize (if I can use the word) has been coming to mind. I want to tell people of my faith just because it feels horrible not to. But I'm not the kind of personality where I'm a big talker or really out going. Can't I just show Jesus through the way I live, or does that not work since I still mess up? I'm not trying to keep my Christianity a secret, it just seems that way (I was going to try the t-shirt thing but it felt so fake). - LameisCool

Dear LameisCool,

This is a great question. Above all we are supposed to show Christ in the way we live. Because what use is it to preach Christ if we don’t live Christ and show the love of Christ?

1CO 13:1 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

That is why wearing those ‘evangelistic tee shirts’ might inherently seem goofy to you. They really don’t show love - and some are just down right abrasive. That’s also why getting in someone’s face about your faith just turns them off. It doesn’t show love. That is also why witnessing out of guilt gains you nothing, because it is not out of love.

But of course this brings us to the dilemma that you stated – how do we show Christ if we are but sinners?

And that is the solution right there in the question. We ARE sinners. Just like everybody else. But our faith in Christ finds us forgiveness.

To often Christians have told the world that we are better than they. That we sin less, that we are superior to them in some way. We are not. We sin everyday. And does that sin win favor with God? Of course not. We will not win favor with God by our sinful deeds. Only Christ’s work is perfect and holy enough. And only in our faith of Christ’s perfect work do we find forgiveness and redemption of our sins.

This is what has been lacking in showing our faith to others. We need to share that we also sin. But in our true faith in Christ we find forgiveness of that sin – and thus true peace for our hearts.

So you “messing up” still gives you a solid basis to share your faith, in love, to people you have relationships with.

(Caveat: Of course this is not a license to sin as much as you want. See Romans 6).