What hurts your testimony?

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"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid.  There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid" (John 5:31-32 New International Version).

For four years, I sat in the classrooms of the University of New Haven studying procedural evidence and witness testimony (in addition to other psycho-legal concepts).  I remember this one professor who was incredibly strict and would assign us case brief upon case brief.  He wanted to help us understand evidentiary procedure and knew that it was through painstaking review and study that we would understand how to avoid looking like a fool in a courtroom should we ever step into one.  At the time I was considering a career in law enforcement and the rules of evidence are significant for police officers.  Any illegally obtained evidence would not be presented in the courtroom.  One missing piece of evidence could permit the guilty to be declared innocent.  The onus of society's safety was placed in our hands in that classroom.  One evidence mistake could allow a killer the opportunity to kill again.

Part of evidence is a person's testimony.  There are various types of witnesses who can testify in a courtroom.  Expert witnesses can testify about topics ranging from psychology to entomology (the study of insects), offering their opinions about a specific topic based upon their professional study and experience.  Eyewitness testimony is presented by those who viewed the actual events and can tell of the details of the incident or date in question.  There are witnesses like police officers and investigators who tell of the process and results of their investigations.  There are so many rules as to what a witness can say and what a witness cannot say, who can offer opinions and who can offer only observations, and so on.

Jesus is no stranger to the courtroom of men.  Jesus makes a comment about testimony, a form of evidence.  He says there needs to be more than just His claim that He is God.  There must be corroborating evidence, evidence that supports His claim.  Jesus' agreement to the terms of human logic and evidence astound me.  Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, says that His testimony is not valid.  Think about that for a moment.  Jesus' primary concern is for the salvation of mankind.  He is willing to humble Himself to the position of needing corroborating evidence.  Jesus could very easily have said, "Hey listen, I'm God, you've seen my work around here, you know that I speak about things that you do not know and you've seen me do miracles.  Believe in me or experience condemnation."  Yet He didn't do that.  Instead He offered the testimony of John the Baptist into evidence to validate His claims.  Later on in his testimony, He presents the evidence of the Scriptures and the teachings of Moses.  Jesus was His own lawyer and presented a case to the courtroom of mankind for His position as King.  They still found Him guilty and sentenced Him to the death penalty, by the way.

All of this started me thinking about the Christianisation of the word "testimony."  So often when Christians desire to share their faith with a person who does not believe Jesus' teachings, Christians share their "testimony."  I think that sharing our story of learning about Jesus is great, though I do not have a lot of thoughts about the formula we use to share our faith with other people.  I suppose that's a blog for another time.  Nevertheless, sharing our story of knowing God is really great because it is an opportunity to be humble and "get personal" with someone else.  So often Christians start this conversation with, "Can I share my testimony with you?"  And I can only imagine the thoughts of nonbelievers.  "Am I a judge?  Why are we getting legal here?"  I think that's why so often non-believers say "sure" with this upward inflection at the end of it, conveying confusion mixed with hesitation and curiosity.  They are preparing themselves to hear some type of evidence.  The Christian testimony is not a story of how we came to know God, but a story of how God is alive and working.  It's evidence.  The story is only a means of presenting the evidence.

Yet even Jesus recognizes that the story is not enough.  "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid."  Jesus presented corroborating evidence of other witnesses as well as the Scriptures and common law teachings about Moses.  The question that we must ask ourselves in the context of our current time in history is if our personal testimony has corroborating evidence.  Without corroborating evidence, the Christian testimony of an individual is merely a nice story to be read in Guideposts and then easily dismissed by nonbelievers with a line like "I'm glad you have had the experience and that God works for your personal happiness."  What is our corroborating evidence?  Who are our eyewitnesses?  What piece of our lives could be permitted into the courtroom of man to support our claims?  Our claims are invalid without our corroborating evidence.  Jesus knew that.

Imagine a testimony coupled with a passionate life of service to others.  A story of faith in Jesus partnered with a change in lifestyle, compassion and justice for the poor and oppressed, and a life of humility and love.  Imagine a testimony without some other witness who can refute the integrity of the witness.  Satan, the lawyer of the nonbeliever, then could not say, "Yes, you claim you are a believer but we have another witness here who says you were intoxicated and then had sexual relations with her" or "Yes, you claim to love others but we have the teller at your bank who says you hoard your wealth and spend frivolously."

All of our testimonies, especially mine, are filled with others who can refute our claims and remind us of our mistakes.  Satan's job is to accuse and Jesus' job is to justify us before God.  Let's not beat ourselves up.  Still, Jesus' justification before God does not justify our lives before mankind.  And it is the hearts of men and women today that we seek to love and encourage into a pursuit of Jesus and eventually eternity with Him.

One of the flaws in my testimony is my pride.  I want to serve others and love humbly, but sometimes I cannot seem to get out of my own way.  I think about myself too much and do not think of others enough.  Sometimes when I think of others, I am really thinking about myself.  "I should help this person because that would make me feel better."  I admit that I am working on this issue and asking God to help my life be all about Him and His kingdom and not me about me.

What are the things in your life that hurt your testimony?  I would love to engage in discussion about this through email or through the comments section at the end of this blog.  What steps do you think you can take to have more corroborating evidence of your Christian testimony?  How solid is your testimony?

When I sat in those classrooms of University of New Haven, I felt pity for those in law school.  I didn't think they would one day point me to better understand the teachings of Jesus.  His truth is all around us if we listen.  True story.