Testimony

There's only one testimony. And it's not first about our lives.

Even if our lives are genuinely blessed, personal testimony (whether it refers to material, earthly, or spiritual blessings from God) is still boasting, and it has the danger of obscuring the one testimony in which the bible itself has focus. In fact the Gospel itself, the good news of what God has done in history to accomplish salvation, can potentially get eclipsed when the triumphs of personal testimony are overemphasized.

Paul the apostle learned his lesson about this, and he wrote about it. He concluded that "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness."

"I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor. 12:1-10 ESV)

In the eyes of most, I don't think there could have been a more powerful personal testimony to others than an apostle like Paul describing his divine visions and revelations. But the great irony is that Paul's personal testimony in this case (his boast) is not the glory of the visions and revelations (which would tempt even Paul to obscure the power and grace of God with his own glory in boasting of his personal experiences). Rather, the testimony commited to writing was this honest and almost embarassing account of God's process of humbling of Paul, to portray the principle of the sufficiency of God's grace in human weakness.

There is a definite lesson here: Our life testimony of the work and power of God is the weaknesses, the insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamnities. Those are the things that testify to our blessed status before God. Remember the Beatitudes in Matthew 5: Jesus pronounces blessings for those who are rejected, weak, lowly, hungering and thirsting after a righteousness which they do not have. God's vision was broader than Paul's; against human expectations, it would be the written testimony of Paul being humbled by some sort of physical ailment (with demonic origins but ultimately by God's purpose), which has since then encouraged and built up countless Christians throughout the ages in the midst of their unvictorious Christian lives. Here we have a record of Paul's "boasting" in his weaknesses. Of course what he is really boasting in is Christ because Paul in his sufferings was partaking in Christ's sufferings. The kingdom of God is not to do with the outward and the trumpet blasts of human accomplishments, it is the invisible work of the Holy Spirit which transforms hearts and minds to be in fellowship with a sovereign God through Jesus Christ, who himself was humbled to the point of death so that the power of God to save would be made known.

As an aside, I suppose one could point to Paul's speeches in the book of Acts, as proof that personal testimony is essential to evangelism. But in Paul's case, his personal testimony (which was very unglorious by human standards) was very important because it linked his apostolic mission with Jesus' ministry. In fact it can be said that the main purpose of the book of Acts as a whole was to establish a bridge between Jesus and Paul, so the account of Paul's coming to faith was very important in the history of salvation. But Paul only uses his own conversion experience as a brief preamble to validate his right to preach the Gospel. His main point was always to proclaim the one testimony, of Jesus and the kingdom of God which had now come.