Jim Broomhall had only three minutes to speak. He was the second speaker at a mission weekend at Cambridge University some years ago. The first speaker went on and on, leaving little time for Broomhall.
He stood and read his text. “There are some who are ignorant of God, and I say this to your shame. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 34.” He looked at the clock and then said, “I have just got time to read this to you again, ‘There are some who are ignorant of God, and I say this to your shame.’” He then sat down.
One young man listening was so struck by the words of that verse that he committed his life to telling others about Jesus. His name was David Wheatley-Price. He eventually went to Kenya as a missionary.1
A deep responsibility
“There are some who are ignorant of God, and I say this to your shame.” 1 Cor 15:34.
In the Bible there are all sorts of motivations to mission:
God is worthy of the honour and glory and praise of all of his creation. As John Piper put it, “Mission exists because worship doesn’t.”2
Or, we can be motivated by compassion. Having demonstrated his constant compassion, Jesus calls his disciples to a similar heart concern for the lost, Matthew 9. People are lost like sheep without a shepherd, longing for life and hope and peace, yet looking in all the wrong places.
A further motivation for mission is a simple obedience to the command of Jesus to go into all the world, making disciples of all nations.
Yet here in 1 Cor 15, the motivation is one of deep, deep responsibility.
We’ve got to be careful here. It’s unhealthy and unbiblical to only be motivated for mission by a sense of shame or guilt. We believe in a God full of grace and truth, he doesn’t depend on us, we’ve got nothing to prove.
And yet this verse shows us that we do hold a deep sense of responsibility when it comes to reaching the lost. “For there are some who are ignorant of God and I say this to your shame,” 1 Cor 15:34.
As God’s people we are witnesses. The gospel must be shared if lives are to be changed.
A global responsibility
There are lost people everywhere of course. Thousands in our UK cities don’t know the Lord: there could be many more churches. Yet we praise God for the many believers and gospel churches shining for Jesus in each city. We praise God for those who can faithfully share his word with seekers.
Among the least reached, these realities simply do not exist. Millions live in places where there is little or no opportunity to hear the gospel, no church, few or no believers and at times limited or no access to the Bible in a heart language.
There are many reasons such peoples still exist. Many places are hard to enter. In others the cost is high – persecution is a reality. It’s for reasons like this that mission leader Dick Brogden calls such people the “inconvenient lost.”3
It will never be easy and it might look mad to try to reach people like this. It certainly won’t be convenient. Yet reach such people we must. ‘For there are some who are ignorant of God and I say this to your shame.’
But let’s also be encouraged, God is at work! He is opening doors through professions, tourism and digital media. He is raising up non-Western workers who can often access places with more freedom. And he is urging his church to continue to pray, ‘Lord, send out workers into your harvest field.’
Let’s pray for gospel opportunities wherever we are and for God to move hearts for these least reached peoples. ‘There are some who are ignorant of God and I say this to your shame.’
Micheal Prest, Director UFM Worldwide
1. Bernard Palmer, The Duty of a Disciple
2. John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad!
3. Dick Brogden, “The Inconvenient Lost,” 18 www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT71nFhG-uM.
“For there are some who are ignorant of God and I say this to your shame.” (1 Cor 15:34)