In Luke 10, Jesus is asked what a
person must do to inherit eternal life. The easy answer was
to follow Him and obey God’s commands. Instead, Jesus
responds in verse 26, "What is written in the Law?" he
replied. "How do you read it?" Jesus response was two sided.
He is getting the man to think about what he believes and
Jesus is also gauging the spiritual level of the man.
In this passage, the man answers
correctly and then asks a follow up question on who is his
neighbor. Jesus responds with the parable of the Good
Samaritan. Later on in Luke 18 Jesus is asked the same basic
question on how to inherit eternal life. Jesus response this
time is “Why do you call me good? Only God is good.” Jesus
then responds with a list of commands that the man should
already know to which the man replies that he has kept them
all since his birth.
Jesus makes a connection to the man in
Luke 10 as a dialogue is started with follow up questions.
The man in Luke 18 leaves unsatisfied however because he is
unwilling to truly think about what Jesus is talking about
and just wanted assurance of his salvation which he doesn’t
really even consider when he wrongly answers that he’s been
sinless since birth.
We when are asked questions while evangelizing, we should
keep Jesus’ method in mind. The technique may not work all
of the time as sometimes a person just has a simple
question. Often though, we can respond with a question such
as “What do you believe?” or “Why do you ask?” Not only will
it cause that person to think more about the question, it
will give you a better understanding of how to answer it.
It’s entirely possible that the person just has a simple
question and we’re getting ready for a full theological
discussion. Asking follow up questions allows us to get to
the heart of the matter without unnecessarily confusing a
person.
