Learning to enjoy the world because it is God’s creation and tells us about Him, and then learning to use the creation in ways that honor Him can give joy and fruitfulness to our lives in a way that the “world” cannot.  But if we stop at this point, there is a gaping problem with our lives and the lives of those around us: sin.  Learning to find joy and engaging the culture is all pointless if the people enjoying and participating in the world are not following after the One who created the world!  So our third task in participating with the world is this:

Task 3: Evangelize the World

We live right now between Christ’s death/resurrection and the consummation of all things, when He will return to judge the living and the dead.  If we have had our hearts renewed by the Holy Spirit through the good news of Jesus the Christ, then we are given the responsibility to “engage” the world around us through living before them and speaking the gospel to them in a way that makes sense.  This task is called the Redemptive Mandate, and is found many places, but is particularly clear in Matthew 28:18-20 – “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”  

God created the world, gave man the role of filling and subduing it, and now He calls us to take the gospel to it.  This is where the Creation Mandate and Redemptive Mandate meet, and is where we find ourselves living if we are Christians.

This task of evangelism is not simply the job of the religious elite.  If the Holy Spirit has worked in your heart and pointed you toward the Savior, then you are to share that gospel in which you found the truth with others.  You are to testify of what Christ is doing and has been doing in the world and in yourself.  Purswell reminds us, “we don’t need to be brilliant, dynamic, or persuasive – we simply need to testify faithfully of what Jesus Christ has done to save sinners like us.”  It is each of our responsibility to share the good news, in our churches, in our homes, in our schools – in all realms of life.  It is only in this gospel-work that the Creation Mandate can be fulfilled.  

So, are you spreading the good news of Christ?  Are you taking the opportunities in which God has placed you to tell others of what Jesus has done for those who will trust in Him?