Astounding Them

The following quote is taken from an excellent book given to me by my good friend, David Kennedy. The book is entitled Becoming Friends, written by Paul W. Wadell and published by Brazos Press, a division of Baker Books.

Chapter Six is entitled "Astounding Them by Our Way of Life...What Friends of God Can Offer the World".

Wadell writes, "In a homily based on 1 Corinthians, John Chrysostom, fourth-century theologian and renowned preacher, exhorts his congregation to win over the unbelievers in their midst not by the force of weapons, nor by wordy arguments, but by the overpowering witness of their lives."

Chrysostom said:

'Let this, I say, be our way of overpowering them, and of conducting our warfare against them, and let us, before all words, astound them by our way of life. For this is the main battle, this is the unanswerable argument, the argument from actions. For though we give them ten thousand precepts of philosophy in words, if we do not exhibit a life better than theirs, the gain is nothing. For it is not what is said that draws their attention, but their enquiry is, what we do...Let us win them therefore by our life.'

"This is one of the most insightful and challenging descriptions of how Christians should see themselves in the world." - Wadell

I agree wholeheartedly with Wadell! Let's astound the skeptics, the seekers, the non-believers by a holy, godly, authentic, compassionate way of life. It works!