Casting the Gospel Net: The Biblical Mandate for Soul-Winning

Brothers and sisters in Christ, please stop making unreasonable alibis for not evangelizing! Instead, establish better habits of talking to others about Jesus regularly. Start in “Jerusalem” (in your home). Maybe one of your children is not yet saved, or perhaps your father or mother is not yet a believer. Then, from “Jerusalem” move to “Judea” and “Samaria” (your neighborhood and community), and from there, as the Holy Spirit calls and enables you, go “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). My point is that you present the gospel to those who are lost in sin wherever you are and whenever God gives you an opportunity to do so.

      Ask your fellow believers to pray for you that God may open a door for you to share the gospel with your unbelieving relatives, friends, and neighbors, as Paul did in Colossians 4:3–4: “[Pray] also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” Ask them, too, to pray for you that God may not just open a door for you but open your mouth to speak boldly the message of gospel. This was Paul’s request from his fellow believers in Ephesus: “[Pray] for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Eph. 6:19–20).

      Be honest with God about your fears in evangelizing. Are you afraid of being rejected? Jesus was rejected (John 1:11); thus, the experience of rejection is normal in evangelism. Are you afraid of offending your unbelieving relatives and neighbors? Well, expect them to be offended because the gospel is indeed offensive to the unbelievers (1 Peter 2:7–8). Paul says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).

      Are you a shy or introverted person? Ask God to give you courage and zeal to share the glorious gospel with those who desperately need it (even in the form of a gospel tract).

In his book Soul-Winner: How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour, Charles Spurgeon expresses his similar passion to win souls for Christ. He insists that soul-winning, which he calls the “most royal employment,” “should be the main pursuit of every true believer.”^[1] Interestingly, although Spurgeon understood well that ultimately only God can save or win souls, he did not hesitate to use the expression soul-winning to describe the work of evangelism. He argued that all believers “should each say with Simon Peter, ‘I go a fishing,’ and with Paul our aim should be, ‘That I might by all means save some’ [1 Cor. 9:22].”^[2] In other words, in Spurgeon’s mind, a soul-winner is much like a fisher of men.

      In Matthew 4:19, Jesus calls Peter and Andrew and says to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” As Christ’s followers, we are to fish sinners or win them for Christ by casting the net of the gospel over them, fully aware that only God can take them out of water or darkness of sin. In his work The Art of Man-Fishing, the Puritan pastor Thomas Boston (1676–1732) explains why the unconverted are compared to fish in the water. He says, “Among other reasons, they are so, because as the water is the natural element of fish, so sin is the proper and natural element of an unconverted soul. Take the fish out of the water, it cannot live; and take from a natural man his idols, he is ready to say with Micah. ‘Ye have taken away my good, and what have I more?’”^[3] When was the last time you cast the gospel net over a fellow sinner? In case you have not yet done it, do it not only for others’ sake but also for your own sake. You may not realize this, but evangelism is a spiritual discipline, and by spiritual discipline I mean a practice designed to deepen our relationship with God. Sadly, few Christians today view evangelism as a means by which they can grow in faith. When believers think of spiritual disciplines, they often think only of bible study, prayer, worship, fellowship, and others (excluding evangelism). In my own experience, evangelism helps me grow more in my understanding of the gospel I share with others. It also teaches me to become more dependent on God because I know unless He opens the spiritual eyes of the person I evangelize, this individual will not see the beauty and glory of Christ. Indeed, evangelism has many spiritual benefits for Christians. Therefore, I encourage you to participate in the work of evangelism for your own spiritual growth.

^[1] Charles Spurgeon, Soul-Winner: How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour (New York/Chicago/Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1895), 7, 9.

^[2] Spurgeon, Soul-Winner, 9.

^[3] Thomas Boston, The Art of Man-Fishing (Glasgow, 1796), 9.

This article is an excerpt from Brian G. Najapfour, Every Christian Is an Evangelist (Ontario: Paideia Press, 2024), 44–53.