“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. This life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” These are the introductory words of the apostle John in his first epistle. A witness for Jesus Christ is simply one who tells the truth about Him. The early church was so effective in doing this that it was said of them that “they turned the world upside down.” So many of these disciples sealed their witness to Christ with their own lives that martureo, the Greek word for “witness” came to mean “martyrs.”
To testify to the truth of the risen Christ is our great commission and our “grand occupation.” If we are to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, we must as the apostle Peter tells us, “set apart Christ as lord of our lives, and always be ready to give a reason to anyone of the hope that is in us.”