Are all Christians commanded to evangelize?

I believe the Church holds some widespread misassumptions about evangelism, which can be summed up under one basic (and incorrect) idea: that all Christians are commanded to do it. Now, I have to be honest. I often see churches—in college and young-adult ministries, especially, as well as some hardcore charismatic circles—constantly pushing for their members to share the gospel with others. Often, from the very moment someone is born again, they are met with the fierce demand that they evangelize, lest they fail to obey the Great Commission. (We’ll get to that scripture in a second.)

The evangelical types are trained with pithy gospel presentations that they can easily share with whoever will listen, despite having very little understanding of the gospel themselves. Then they’re sent to the beach to evangelize drunk spring-breakers for a week. The charismatic types are taught to rely on the Holy Spirit for words of knowledge, for healing, for signs and wonders, etc., as they hit the streets to go pray over strangers and share Christ. In many cases, they themselves are barely rooted in the gospel (i.e., resisting temptation, loving one another, etc.), and the vast majority of their ministry is devoid of the manifest power of God. But since they believe that evangelism is a great and holy commandment, then they must obey it from day one, just as they must learn to obey all the rest of God’s commands.

As I have maintained throughout the book, I’m not saying the Lord doesn’t use these kinds of activities. I am well aware that testimonies abound of people being saved through such evangelistic efforts. Praise God for that! Moreover, I encourage every Christian to share the gospel as freely as they desire—whenever, wherever, with whomever. The Lord knows, deep down, we all want to evangelize effectively; most of us just don’t know how.

With that in mind, I do not believe that evangelism—in the strict sense of verbally and proactively sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with unbelievers—is a commandment. Therefore, the belief that it is a commandment has many Christians straining to do something that God isn’t doing in them, which results in heavy burdens and vain striving. We’d be far better off to remain at rest, learning to do only what God is doing in us, prioritizing our love for one another, and praying earnestly for God to raise up laborers who evangelize effectively. This, to me, appears to be the most biblical stance on the issue, which I’ll demonstrate below.

Some Must Evangelize, and Some May Evangelize

For starters, I’d like to point out a fact that may shock you. In the New Testament letters (that is, everything after the Gospel of John), there is not one single instance where the saints, in general, are explicitly commanded or even encouraged to evangelize.

Not one.

By and large, you’ll find that the people who push really hard for evangelism within the Church today will rely exclusively on text in the four Gospels, so we’ll address those in a minute. But the absence of evangelistic instruction or exhortation in the NT letters should itself tell us something very important.

Think of it like this. Imagine you are a pastor or church-planter who has been sent to a different city, away from the people you brought to Christ and shepherded for some time. Like any good parent, you are concerned about them, so you decide to write a letter to remind them of all the most important things that you taught them—the things most pertinent to their faith, to the kingdom, to the health of the Church, etc. You don’t have a New Testament to refer to. You only have the Old Testament, the teachings of Christ (which have been circulating verbally for some time), and revelations given to you and others via the Spirit. What would you include in the letter?

I think if you ask almost any pastor/church-planter in the world today what they would include in this letter, they would feel the need to include at least something about evangelism. And therein lies the disparity. The writers of the New Testament didn’t include anything about it, despite the fact that they were some of the greatest evangelists of their time, and despite being themselves commanded by Jesus to evangelize. If this tells us anything, it’s simply that training the saints to evangelize was not at the forefront of their minds. They obviously cared about evangelism, as it was part of their own ministry, but they did not see it as a fundamental part of the Christian life to be passed on to everyone, nor as pertaining to everyone’s obedience. Had they seen it like this, it would surely have made its way into at least one of the letters we have. But it didn’t.

The closest we get to anything like it is found here:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

Yes, we are to “proclaim” God’s excellencies, but this, I imagine, we can do in multiple ways other than strictly evangelism. For example, I will tell unbelievers about God’s goodness when I am given the opportunity, when it seems to come up organically in conversation. But I will not typically go out of my way to tell people about something they’re not asking about, nor to approach strangers for this purpose. I would also argue that I proclaim God’s excellencies all the time to other believers in my life. This is no small thing; we are constantly building each other up by talking about what he’s doing, rejoicing over how good he is, reminding each other of the truths of the gospel, etc.

The point here is that if Peter meant to make a point that all believers should be evangelizing, then he didn’t do a very good job at making his point. And just a couple of sentences later, when he specifically addresses our relationship with unbelievers, he says merely this:

I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12)

In similar fashion, he says later (in the context of enduring through persecution) that they should “always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks [them] for a reason for the hope that is in [them]” (1 Peter 3:15). This clearly is not a call to proactive evangelism, but merely to a readiness to share Christ when the opportunity presents itself as a result of our faithful living. This is what some have referred to as “lifestyle evangelism,” and it captures my position in a nutshell: Those who do not have an evangelistic gifting are to evangelize by living their lives faithfully and sharing about their hope when the opportunity arises, but not necessarily to “go and preach the gospel to everyone” as a gifted evangelist is sent to do. This places the priority in the Church on faithful living, on discipleship, on loving one another, which itself will draw unbelievers to the light and provide opportunity to lead people to Christ.

There are two other scriptures which some may view as contradictory to my assertion that evangelistic exhortation is not found in the NT letters. The first is this:

I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. (Philemon 6)

Here, the word “sharing” is actually koinonia, the Greek word for “fellowship.” In context, it’s pretty obvious that Paul is talking to the Church about their sharing of the faith with one another, not with unbelievers with whom they have no fellowship.

And here is the second:

As for you [Timothy], always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist , fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:5)

This one is simple in that the letter is addressed to Timothy, who is an evangelist, not to the whole church.

Thus, we may conclude that there are, indeed, individuals whom God has commanded (and therefore gifted) to evangelize. But that is a specific appointment given to them, not to everyone. Paul said the following about himself:

[I]f I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. (1 Corinthians 9:16-17)

And so, there are two types of Christians: (1) those who must evangelize because necessity is laid upon them by God; (2) those who may evangelize because they desire to. The former are the evangelists, specifically appointed to the task like Paul was (see Acts 26:16-18; 9:15). The latter are everyone else.

Let us recognize, then, that the job of an evangelist is not to place the necessity of evangelism on others; it’s simply to evangelize. It’s not to teach others how to evangelize; it’s to teach others to obey the commands of Jesus.