Be the One who Wins Soul! (1)

“… The wise person wins souls.” (Proverbs 11:30)

The slogan of Victory Presbyterian Church for the year 2006 is “Become a Soul Winner!” (Be a Soul Winner!). And the verse that supports this slogan is the second half of Proverbs 11:30: “The wise person wins souls.” (He who is wise wins souls). So, what does the phrase “winning souls” mean? The phrase “winning souls” means “doing good to people or influencing them in a wise manner” (MacArthur). In other words, a wise person has a “life-giving influence” on others.

So, what does the “life-giving influence” refer to? If we look at the first part of Proverbs 11:30, it says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” Then, the fruit of the wicked would be considered the fruit of a dead tree. In other words, when we find this lost tree that bears the fruit of the wicked and bring it to the Lord, leading them to believe in Jesus Christ and gain eternal life, we are doing good and exerting a life-giving influence. Therefore, it is our role to help others live a life as a tree of life, growing and bearing fruit. This is what the life of a wise person who wins souls looks like.

To exert this “life-giving influence” on others, what characteristics (or virtues) must we have? In his book The Soul Winner, Pastor Spurgeon listed seven qualities.

First, to become a soul winner, we must have a holy character.

Pastor Andy Stanley, in his book The Next Generation Leader, posed a question about the character of leaders: “Character development should always begin with the end in mind. How do you want to be remembered?” How would you and I answer this question? What do we think the end goal of our character development should be? To make this question more specific, how do we want to be remembered by everyone at Victory Presbyterian Church? Don’t we want to hear praise like, “Wow, that person really resembles Jesus (or seems to be becoming like Him)”?

However, “Today, many Christians fail to have a good influence in their homes, workplaces, and communities, and instead of the church exerting a holy influence on the world, it is being affected by ungodly influences from the world, because believers fail to live a holy life separated from the world.” What is the ultimate goal of character development? There is only one answer: to become more like Jesus. There is nothing else. Our goal must be to resemble Jesus, and to do so, we must pursue His holiness. So, how do we do this? The answer we find in John 17:14 and the following verses can be summarized in two points: First, we should not belong to the world (v. 14). To do this, we must ask God to protect us from falling into evil (v. 15). Second, we must be sanctified by the truth (v. 17, 19). Pastor Spurgeon said, “God will not use instruments (people) who compromise His own character.” Even if we invite someone to church or preach the gospel, if the inviter or preacher does not resemble the holy character of Jesus and does not reveal His holiness in life, they cannot win souls (Spurgeon). We must preach not only with our lips but with our lives. We must preach the gospel by resembling Jesus’ holy character.

Second, to become a soul winner, we must have a high level of spiritual life.

In a sermon by Pastor Ok Han-eum titled “If You Lower the Standard, You Will Fail” (August 22, 2001) at a church renewal pastors' meeting, he pointed out significant changes in the leadership of the church in Korea, noting that these changes were of a lower quality, meaning the trust in leadership has decreased. He said, “If a clay pot has no concerns, then it is not a clay pot.” What he meant was that in 2 Corinthians 4:7, God says He has placed “treasure in jars of clay.” The idea is that these clay pots are fragile and weak. If a leader doesn’t realize this, Pastor Ok said, “Then they are either a little strange, or they’ve received so much grace that they have become an angel.” So, how about us? Do we, as clay pots containing treasure, have concerns? We, who bear the precious name of Jesus Christ, how high have we set the level of our spiritual lives? For example, if one person prepares by using a local mountain as a standard, and another prepares to climb Mount Everest, would their attitudes toward preparation be the same? Can someone who uses the level of church office-bearers today as the standard truly have the same standard as someone who uses Jesus as their standard? Pastor Spurgeon said that some preachers are in a “state of half-death,” meaning they are angels in the pulpit but worms in daily life. If someone comes to church on Sunday as an angel but lives differently at home or work, that’s living in a “half-dead” state. Such a life cannot give a life-giving influence to others.

Here are two principles we must apply: First, we must have a high level of spiritual life. We must remember that if we lower this level, we will fail. Instead of becoming a soul winner, we will only wound others and become a vessel that obscures God’s glory. Second, we must seek a life that is consistent both inside and outside the church. If we appear holy at church but hide God’s glory in our homes and daily lives, our inconsistency will prevent us from being used by God as instruments to win souls.

Third, to be a soul winner, one must be humble.

We should not forget this biblical principle: “… God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Who is a humble person? A humble person is one who, by knowing God, comes to know themselves properly. Therefore, as Romans 12:3 says, they do not think more highly of themselves than they ought to think, but rather think wisely according to the measure of faith that God has distributed to each one. Simply put, a humble person knows themselves before God and does not think beyond their rightful place. However, too often we tend to "think beyond what we ought to think." Because of this, we end up living in illusions in our faith. Sometimes, I see people saying, “I am lacking,” and then they mention “only 2% is lacking,” but in fact, it’s not just 2%, but rather 98% that is lacking, and they mistakenly believe it's only 2%. Have we ever lived in such an illusion? The reason for this is pride.

Pastor Spurgeon mentions two types of proud people: the first type is those filled with arrogance, saying, "Praise me, please praise me, I want that," and the second type of proud people are those who don't even care if others praise them because they are so proud that they are only satisfied with themselves. These people don't seek praise from others, but instead despise others. After describing these types of proud people, Pastor Spurgeon spoke about false humility, and I felt convicted. He called this false humility the “sinful love of ease.” That is, many people think too little of themselves and regard their abilities so small that they don't attempt any good deeds, not even out of courage. These people claim to have no self-reliance but always choose the easiest path for themselves. They are so humble that they avoid responsibility (and criticism) for things that should be their duty. They call this humility, but Pastor Spurgeon calls it the “sinful love of ease.” Pastor Spurgeon's challenge is that a soul winner should not have this kind of pride at all. Instead, a soul winner must possess true humility. True humility helps us think rightly about ourselves and makes us face the truth about ourselves.

Fourth, to be a soul winner, one must have a living faith.

What is a living faith? To answer that question, we should first think about the dead faith mentioned in the book of James. In James 2:26, the apostle James says, “… faith without works is dead.” Therefore, we can conclude that a living faith is one that is accompanied by works (1:22). In the meditation during the Tuesday morning prayer meeting, we looked at Luke 10:29, where a law expert tries to test Jesus. He was knowledgeable about the law and knew about loving God and loving his neighbor, but when Jesus told him to “do it” (put it into practice), he tried to justify himself and reflected on Jesus' question, "Who is my neighbor?" His faith was not active; it was deceptive, and with this kind of faith, no soul can be won.

Pastor Spurgeon said that to become a soul winner, we must believe in the calling of God, who calls us to win souls. We must believe in the gospel we preach, and believe that through that gospel, the work of winning souls will take place. We must keep in mind that those who act according to their faith will receive according to that faith.

Fifth, to be a soul winner, we must have genuine zeal.

We must exert all our effort to win souls. Let’s look at what Paul said to his spiritual son Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:15: “Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” Among the “matters” mentioned here, I would like to apply the verse from 1 Timothy 4:12: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.” To be a soul winner, we need a genuine zeal to set an example for others. We must also approach others with zeal and diligently preach the gospel. We cannot simply preach the gospel with a half-hearted effort and expect to win souls.

Sixth, to be a soul winner, we must have great simplicity in our hearts.

The "great simplicity in the heart" mentioned here refers to focusing solely on God's glory and the work of winning souls. If, regarding the matter of winning souls, our focus is not on God's glory but on our own glory or other things, we have lost that simplicity, and therefore we will not be winning souls in a way that is pleasing to God. However, Satan tries to steal this simplicity from our hearts. In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul says, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” The word “simplicity” here in the English NASB version refers to a sincere heart. Satan tries to deceive us in order to corrupt the simplicity (or sincerity) of our hearts toward Christ. Therefore, above all else, we must guard our hearts. We must protect the simple heart that is focused solely on God’s glory and the work of winning souls.

Finally, seventh, to be a soul winner, we must completely surrender ourselves to God.

Just as the boy in the miracle of the five loaves and two fish gave everything he had to the Lord, we must surrender ourselves completely to Him. When we do so, we will be used by the Lord as soul winners.

In the new year of 2006, with the motto “Be a soul winner!” (Proverbs 11:30), I aim to put all my effort into reaching one soul after another. To do this, I have reflected on the seven qualities mentioned by Pastor Spurgeon. As the new year begins, I want to pray for these seven qualities. I don’t want to forget them, so after proclaiming the word, I wrote them down again. I will put them on the wall and memorize them. I will meditate on them, pray over them, and strive to live them out. Therefore, I want to be built up as a soul winner, with the aim of winning one soul.