Testimonies

2 Corinthians 4:5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.


5 Οὐ γὰρ ἑαυτοὺς κηρύσσομεν ἀλλὰ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν κύριον, ἑαυτοὺς δὲ δούλους ὑμῶν διὰ Ἰησοῦν.

I was tempted to write on the verse before this that speak to how God is sovereign in election, but I decided to go with this because it is something that has been on my mind lately.  The name of my blog comes from my own journey out of habitual sin.  Roughly eight years ago I was a slave to pornography as well as gluttony and laziness.  God first set me free from sexual sin then about six months later He set me free from gluttony and laziness.  I am certainly not perfect with respect to either of these temptations, but I would call myself walking in freedom. 

That's my story in a nutshell.  I worked with the ministry that helped me find freedom for six years.  One part of that ministry is the testimonies.  Every lesson in every course ends with a testimony.  These testimonies are tremendous encouragements in the pursuit of freedom from habitual sin.  You begin to realize that God works in the lives of regular people and it is by His Spirit that one finds lasting freedom.

However, there is an element of proclaiming ourselves when we give a testimony.  No matter how much we try to give God all the glory, we are still telling the story of something that happened to us.  We want for God to be magnified and glorified in that story, but ultimately it is our story.

I do not think that testimonies are the best way to witness to someone about the gospel.  There are a myriad of ways to lose weight and stop surfing porn.  I could wear a rubber band and snap it on my wrist and I could change my behavior.  I could look to an amorphous "higher power" and find sobriety.  Ultimately my witness is based on the fact of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  If that was a true historical event then we can talk about testimonies.  If not, then it doesn't really matter what happened to me.

I think Paul certainly used his very powerful conversion story.  It's written in Scripture, after all.  But I think that was secondary to the story of Christ's resurrection.  That is the real story and that is what we must remember as we proclaim Him.