On fishing for people

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The T-shirt I'm wearing in the photo above is one of my favourites. Made for me, and given to me, by my pal David (he's the big guy next to me) when I was visiting him in the USA in 2013, it bears the legend "Go Fish", followed by the reference from Luke's Gospel that records Jesus' famous words as he called his first disciples to leave their life of commercial fishing and follow him on an adventure of evangelism. 

I (like Izaak Walton) have always rather liked the fact that it was to fishing that Jesus turned when he wanted to call and commission his first followers, but a fellow member of Christian Anglers made me stop and think a couple of weeks ago when we were talking over a pint. 

He'd always slightly struggled to come to terms with Jesus' "evangelism as fishing" metaphor, because, as my friend pointed out, fishing is all about deception - tricking a fish into thinking something with a hook in it is natural food, and sharing our faith isn't about trickery. Of course, the answer lies in the fact that the first disciples were fishermen, but not anglers. For them it was nets not rods, with no false promise of an attractive worm or maggot wriggling on the hook or a lure made of plastic or wood to bring the fish false hope.

But my friend's question was a good reminder about the true nature of our witnessing. It is to be faultlessly honest. Honest to the realities of life, and honest to the message revealed in Scripture. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians "we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." (2 Cor 4:2) It can be tempting to only tell the "good bits" of the Christian message (grace without judgement, or discipleship without cost), but we're to lead others to Jesus by telling "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" as revealed in Scripture. Let's avoid the temptation to alter, dilute or "sugar coat" the gospel, and let's be the type of "fishers of men" that Jesus intended.



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