The Twofold Witness
Or, Can We Give and Can We Get a Witness?
The church, the followers of Jesus who center their lives around Jesus and live in his ways, exists as a contrast society to the fragmented world. As we live more and more into the communal life of the kingdom, we become peculiar to the world around us. In this way, we offer a mirror for the world to see themselves against. It is not that the church is better than the world. It is that we seek to show the world the kingdom reality they were made for in Jesus. In our living lives together, centered on the person of Jesus Christ, we both proclaim and embody a social witness that others hear and see. In a sense, we are the witness of the work of Christ and provide a witness of the work of Christ socially (inter-relationally) to which others bear witness. The church is those people who have, by faith, seen Jesus in a renewing way; we have witnessed Jesus and can tell the story of Jesus’ transformative life, death, and resurrection. Additionally, the church is those people called into a kingdom reality now while we wait for its fullness in the future.
Jesus told his disciples of the kind of sacrificial love with which he loved them, that as they loved one another that way, they would be known as his disciples (John 13:34-35). Moreover, Jesus promised that the way we live in unity is a demonstration to those around us that Jesus is the Messiah (John 17). We are called out to a shared life as the body of Christ in such a way that our shared lives demonstrate the way of the kingdom. The witness of the church is both a proclamation as witnesses and a demonstration of a social reality to which others will bear witness.
To witness or be a witness usually implies telling people about Jesus. We share what we have seen or experienced. We testify to what we have witnessed. However, this beautiful form of proclaiming the marvelous works of the gospel has often been individualized and, therefore, reduced to declaring answers to people who are not asking questions. To witness has largely turned into attempts to convince people of Jesus, disconnected from relationship with people. Truth proclaimed without relationship might still be truth, but it might also be an effort toward persuasion or coercion. In this, our witnessing also provides a bad witness to others. The more excellent way of love (1 Cor. 13) is the fullness of grace and truth in the way of Jesus, who is the fullness of grace and truth (John 1). Our standard practices of witnessing in American Christianity provide a poor witness to the way of Jesus. This incomplete witness is often made clearer to us (and corrected) by seeing the witness as twofold, both a witness proclaimed and a witness demonstrated. Or, imagined another way, I offer: “Can we give a witness?” and “Can we get a witness?”
Can we give a witness?
The first form of witness is what I will refer to as Can we give a witness? This is the witness I described above as the gospel proclamation as testimony. Like a witness in a courtroom is asked to tell what they saw, experienced, or know when asked, this form of witness seeks to declare the ways of Jesus through our testimony. We are people looking to give a witness. In this form of witness, we are the witnesses by sharing our testimony within relationships.
Can we get a witness?
The second form of witness is created through our shared life as Christians in the world. Our lives form a social testimony that others bear witness to. This witness is not so much a testimony that we give but the social reality we present, which others bear witness to, revealing a demonstration of the kingdom. In this meaning, we demonstrate a contrast society to the ways of the world that the world might witness this difference. In their witnessing this contrast, the new possibilities in Christ are brought into awareness. How the church lives as the church is (or at least ought to be) a social embodiment that displays a kingdom reality.
A Way Forward
If you think this sounds good but is impossible, take heart. Amidst all the failing and missing on being a social embodiment of the love of Jesus, the church still has an opportunity to bear witness to the kingdom through repentance. Perhaps, if the church in a local context took a posture not as those in charge but as guests in the world, we would begin to recognize the ways we have hurt our neighbors. Then, through presence and listening, we could meaningfully repent knowing that when we seek forgiveness, Jesus is ready to offer it to us. This would mean that even in our failings, we can become a better embodied reality for others to witness!
In considering these two forms of witness, we must reconsider what evangelism means. Perhaps it is not so much that we have been doing evangelism wrong (though that is true in many cases) but that we’ve settled for so much less than the fullness of the kingdom in our evangelism. We are satisfied with attempts to convince more than to embody. We pursue coercion rather than inclusion and demonstration.
What if our witness was twofold, including both giving witness and seeking to get a witness? What do you think? If you are considering how to provide this twofold witness in the church in your neighborhood, consider starting with a short book David Fitch and I wrote: Presence Based Witness: Six Steps to Power-Full Witness in Christ’s Kingdom. It releases on February 21, 2025.