~ Casual Acquantances?

Friendship Evangelism is, by definition, about sharing the Good News of Jesus with our friends and, maybe, acquaintances.  Implicit in this statement is that there must be a relationship that is primarily one of positive regard.  The relationship is what undergirds the credibility of our message.

I read the story some time ago of an athlete who started to compete against another person.  Apparently after just a couple of meetings she started to introduce elements of her Christian experience in conversation, upon which after around two events the other competitor asked.  “Are you trying to make me a project or something?”

Although the term friendship evangelism is by general consensus a modern one, there is a Biblical equivalent in John Chapter 40 to 421. It goes like this.

“^40-42Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John's witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, "We've found the Messiah" (that is, "Christ"). He immediately led him to Jesus.”

Andrew the disciple of John the Baptist hear him describe Jesus as “Here he is, God's Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world! This is the man I've been talking about, 'the One who comes after me but is really ahead of me.”  Having spent the day listening to Jesus and deciding on the evidence he went straight away and brought his brother Simon to meet the “Messiah”.  Simon went because he believed what his brother told him, someone else who didn’t have the relationship credibility factor would possibly have got the equivalent response to our modern “Oh yeah, right pull the other one.”

Not everyone that we know, even by name, becomes a friend or, the lesser relationship, an acquaintance.  Between a friend and an enemy are a plethora of layers most of whom will be watching us, some will be aware of our faith relationship with Jesus and will be making their own assessment of the validity of the Jesus relationship based on the evidence of our lives.

This brings into play the question of “Casual Acquaintances” those who we come across on a semi-regular basis but with whom we share little or no relationship in common.  Instances of these people may include employees and customers/clients, such as in a supermarket, or even people who live in a reasonably close area like on the street where you live.  There may be no personal interaction, as in a friendship there is no requirement for them to treat us with anything more than courtesy, and sometimes even that seems absent.

The Biblical mandate is that we are to treat them as friends, Jesus answer to the greatest law being to “love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, and mind” to which He added that we should “love our neighbour as ourselves”.  Our neighbour as He used the word was the stranger we come across.  It was a stranger who cared for the man left for dead not one of his countrymen.  So to adapt the mandate to 2011 the young checkout person should be getting our courtesy, at least, and respect for the job she does.  What she should receive from us is the Love of the Lord expressed in our friendship toward her.   this should be our response regardless of how we are received.

Paul of Tarsus stated “I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life.” (1 Cor 9:2)  Can we do otherwise?