Witness

A court of law is the most obvious place to find a witness. When a crime has been committed, the prosecution bases its case on the evidence of those who witnessed it. The defense then probes the truthfulness and reliability of those witnesses, while also providing its own—usually people who did not see the alleged incident but who testify to the generally good character of the accused person. Authentic witness is essential for the judicial process (see Justice). The judge and jury discover the truth by listening to the evidence of the witnesses and deciding who can be believed.

Witness in the Bible

The Bible frequently uses the term witness for a person or thing giving testimony to the actions of God and for the truth claims of faith. In the Old Testament the ark of the covenant is also called “the ark of the Testimony” (Exodus 25:22), while the structure that sheltered it is “the Tent of the Testimony” (Numbers 17:7). Together they bore witness to the special relationship between God and the people of Israel. When Joshua renewed that relationship, he placed a large stone in a prominent place to be a witness to the commitments that had been made by both God and people (Joshua 24:27). This was a regular part of the legal process (see Law) in the ancient world, and the function of such artifacts was not only to remind people of the solemn vows that had been made but also to serve as witnesses in the legal sense should those promises be broken.

In the New Testament John’s Gospel uses similar terminology to emphasize that what Jesus was saying and claiming was true. John the Baptist (John 1:7), the Hebrew Scriptures (John 5:39), Jesus’ own deeds (John 5:36), even God (John 5:37) and the Holy Spirit (John 15:26)—all bore witness to the truth of Jesus’ message. Later the apostles were commissioned to be witnesses to the gospel (Acts 1:8)—a mandate that they fulfilled, on the one hand, by reporting the words and deeds of Jesus and, on the other, by sharing their own personal stories of faith. They, in turn, encouraged all other Christians to be witnesses as well.

Christian Witness Today

The Greek word used in the New Testament for “witness” is martys, from which the word martyr is derived, reminding us that bearing witness can be a costly business. Bearing witness to Christ can take many forms, but it always incorporates two major elements.

First, there is the truth of the gospel. In the postmodern world Christian witness must begin by reaffirming the truth of the gospel (see Evangelism). Ever since the Enlightenment, the concept of absolute truth has been played down. What is true for one person is his or her “private truth,” but it does not need to impinge on anyone else’s life. Life has been divided into two spheres: the public world, dominated and directed by the scientific “truths” of mathematics, economics, politics and so on, and the private world, within which values, morality and faith have been confined. Those things that dominate the public world were generally believed to be true in some absolute sense (though even that is questioned today), but what went on in the private world was always a matter of individual choice and preference.

Dissatisfaction with this dualistic understanding of human experience is a major factor contributing to the collapse of modernity and, in the religious sphere, the rise of movements such as the New Age and the search for a new holistic paradigm of understanding. Historically, Christianity has accepted, if not actively promoted, the separation of public and private worlds. To regain credibility, Christians will need to return to their roots and rediscover the importance of bearing witness to the fact that if Christianity is “true,” then its values and standards must impinge on the whole of life and must be just as true for economics and politics as for personal morality.

Second, there is the truth of Christian experience. Witnessing is not limited to claiming the high ground of intellectual debate. Indeed, because of today’s widespread cynicism about the possibility of objective knowledge, a purely intellectual apologetic is unlikely to be particularly effective or relevant to Christian witness today. In the Old Testament both landscape and lifestyle embodied features that were specifically intended to provide an opportunity for subsequent generations to share the story of faith, as children and others asked about their meaning (for example, Exodus 12:26-27; Joshua 4:1-7; 1 Samuel 7:12).

Christian Lifestyle

The Christian lifestyle should also be a witness by creating occasions for sharing personal stories of faith. The following aspects of Christian lifestyle are especially relevant in the postmodern situation.

Community. Writing in the late second century, the Christian Tertullian observed, “It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. `See,’ they say, `how they love one another’” (Apology 39). Jesus also made this central for Christian witness (John 13:34). Anyone can make grandiose truth claims, but if they do not match personal behavior, then a witness is judged unreliable. The earliest Christians were always publicly on show. In the great cities of the Roman Empire, the life of the Christian community, with no church buildings, centered on the home (see Church in the Home). But a Roman villa was not private space. It provided a home, not only for its owner’s family, but also for the family’s employees; it was as well a place of business. In today’s world those who are not yet Christians will need to feel they belong within the Christian community before they begin to consider what might be worth believing. When Christians offer a space in which people feel accepted for who they are, that is a significant witness to the gospel. Actions speak louder than words, and effective witness can only take place when there is a consistency between how Christians behave and what they claim to be true.

Honesty. An untruthful witness is of no value at all, and the Christian lifestyle should always be characterized by truthfulness and honesty. Such virtues are often regarded as old-fashioned and outmoded today, but without them no legal process would make sense, and there would be no justice in the world. “Say only yes if you mean yes, and no if you mean no,” Jesus counseled his disciples (Matthew 5:37 NCV). Lies and dishonesty have no part in the work of God (John 8:44; Titus 1:2; Rev. 21:8). If Christians are not truthful about things in everyday life, then why should they expect anyone to believe them on matters of faith? When church leaders are engaged in corruption and scandal, it is not merely a personal tragedy: it is a denial of the gospel.

The home. Home and family life are an area of major concern throughout the world today (see Family Values). In the West increasing numbers of people experience home life as a source of tension, stress and breakdown. There are many reasons for this, most of them connected to the collapse of modernity and the emergence of new forms of family. In particular, the disintegration of patriarchy as women and children are given their proper value is leading to a backlash of domestic violence and abuse almost unparalleled at any other time in history. The first page of the Bible affirms that both women and men are made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), while Jesus himself attached enormous significance to children, even inviting adults to learn from them (Mark 9:33-37). Christians are not perfect, of course, but they should always strive to aspire to those ideals in their own home relationships. Anything less—particularly an unbiblical perpetuation of patriarchy—will hinder any effective witness to the gospel.

The environment. This is another area in which, historically, Christians have often denied their own heritage. Wise stewardship of the earth and a recognition of humankind as part of creation were always foundational in the Bible, but during the Industrial Revolution Christians, motivated by the Protestant work ethic, lost sight of this. As a consequence, many people blame Christianity for all the ills of the environment. Of course, Christians are not the only ones who have polluted the planet. But when Christians allow and even encourage it as blatantly as some previous generations did, they do great harm to the witness to the gospel and make it much more difficult for genuine spiritual seekers to identify truth in the Christian way of life (see Creation; Ecology).

The Christian Difference

The gospel is distinctive, and our being noticeably different from other people is part of Christian witness. But being different does not mean being weird, or old-fashioned or withdrawn from the rest of the world. Jesus was often criticized for going to too many parties, and he encouraged his disciples to engage fully with the whole of the life of the world, just as he did himself. But in the process, he told them to be “salt” and “light,” by bearing witness to the values of God’s kingdom (Matthew 5:13-16). Witnessing in this sense means channeling God’s blessing into areas of life that otherwise might seem to be secular.

For instance, much modern art is pessimistic in outlook; some of it even celebrates things that are depraved and inhumane. The mass media can be the same. Being made in God’s image involves sharing in the first of God’s acts, which was creativity. Christian witness here is not about denouncing art and the media but about recognizing that everyone is made in God’s image and about encouraging the expression of different values, of hope and optimism and celebration: “We should give up the foolish task of trying to be saints, and get on with the more important task of trying to be human” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer). “Always be ready to answer everyone who asks you to explain about the hope you have, but answer in a gentle way and with respect” (1 Peter 3:15-16 NCV). Bonhoeffer and Peter both understood what Christian witness is all about.

» See also: Evangelism

» See also: Ministry

» See also: Mission

References and Resources

J. Drane, Faith in a Changing Culture: Creating Churches for the Next Century (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1997); M. Green, Evangelism Through the Local Church (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990); B. Hanks Jr., Everyday Evangelism: Evangelism as a Way of Life (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1986); D. Innes, I Hate Witnessing (Ventura, Calif.: Regal, 1985); A. G. M. McPhee, Friendship Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978); R. M. Pippert, Out of the Saltshaker and into the World (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1979).

—John Drane