Balancing Boldness and Knowledge

(Scripture verses in this post are from the ESV unless otherwise specified.)

Boldness

 A word that I've heard in Scripture from time to time is "boldness".  The most common verse I know concerning boldness is the following:

Eph 6:20  for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. 

In this verse, Paul, while in prison, is asking his hearers for prayers that he may boldly declare the Gospel.  v. 19 also contains the word "boldly".

First, let's define the word "bold":

The American Heritage Dictionary defines "bold" as "fearless and daring, courageous".  

So, what does it mean to be bold in your witness for Christ?  Well, being courageous to speak the Truth is one form of boldness.  Believe me, courage is especially required when speaking an unpleasant truth, such as warning someone that they are on the way to Hell.

There are too many instances of churches that guzzy up the plain warnings of Hell.  Jesus certainly guzzy it up when He said the following:

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

(Mat 5:29-30)

Jesus is being serious about this.  He never said, "You know, you ought to not let that so and so thing lead you into sin, it's not going to be good for you if you keep going where you're going."  NO!  He said, "If ANYTHING causes you to sin, get rid of it permanently!  It's better if you go to Heaven missing body parts than to have a whole body burning in Hell!"

A side note:  This is why whenever there's anything that causes me to sin, I start with anything that's not a body part before I even consider a body part, because I believe that if all else fails, Jesus is COMMANDING me to literally, physically and permanently remove a body part that is the source of temptation.

Now, I don't yet know an example off the top of my head a sermon that was wishy-washy on the Lake of Fire.

Knowledge

I titled this piece "Balancing Boldness and Knowledge" for a reason.  Look at this Bible verse:

Rom 10:2  For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 

In this verse, Paul is speaking of the unbelieving Jews, who, while they were quite zealous for God (how can someone be zealous and not also bold?), they didn't know what they were talking about:

1Ti 1:7  desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. 

It's similar to what Ronald Reagan said of liberals (and no, I am NOT comparing liberals or leftists to unbelieving Jews, just the liberals of that moment in time):

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

Let me also say this:  I am NOT at all saying that liberals by simple reason of their politics, are unsaved, nor am I saying that conservatives are righteous.  If anything, it's Ronald Reagan who compares the liberals of that moment in time to the unbelieving Jews of that time.

Another example of how knowledge is essential in one's boldness, and again, I apologize again to liberals, not every liberal rejects objectivism over subjective morality, and not every conservative accepts objective truth:  

In this instance, "morals" are subjective.  I call it subjective because Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez doesn't even define the standards by which something is moral.

When it comes to the Word of God, we must aim to be OBJECTIVELY accurate.  The Word of God defines morality.

The point is this:  We must be bold in our witness for Christ, but what we do say must be correct.