My Father was a man who had great respect for other people's beliefs. He frowned on proselytizing. He didn't want anyone telling him what to believe, nor did he want to tell others what to believe. How do we reconcile such a respectful attitude toward others with ... the Bible's injunction in a letter to the young man Timothy? "Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." II Tim. 4:5
What is an evangelist? In the early Church, the term was used to describe one who brought the good news of the gospel to others, one who preached the news of Christ Jesus' life and teachings. Those teachings are based on God's goodness and man's likeness to God as His spiritual idea.
What Jesus taught, he proved. His life and his work were inseparable. When he met a woman from Samaria at a well one day, his conversation with her had not a scintilla of proselytizing about it. See John 4:5-30 But in this case as in others, he did not let an opportunity go by when he could lift the thought of the listener above his or her ordinary human experience to a more spiritual outlook.
