This article originally appeared on GentleReformation.com and is used with permission.
Have you ever tried to share the gospel with someone and they keep bringing up one objection after another? How did you respond? Did you patiently try to answer each argument? Did it degenerate into a shouting match? Did you give up trying to talk to them and walk away? What should we do?
The apostle Paul was a master debater. His natural debating abilities were developed in the rabbinical training he received from Gamaliel in Jerusalem (how the Pharisees enjoyed arguing!) and then redeemed and honed in his missionary labours in synagogues and marketplaces all around the Mediterranean world after his conversion.
In his letters we see Paul engaging with imaginary debaters, though no doubt the objections he deals with are drawn from any number of real conversations he had over the years. In Romans 3:1-8 we have a good model of how to deal with debaters. He is anticipating and answering four of the most common Jewish objections that he would have heard many times in the synagogues he visited.
I don’t want to get bogged down in the details of these objections: if Paul were writing a letter to the church in your city, the objections to the gospel he mentions would no doubt be very different. Instead, I want us to notice a few principles we can learn from Paul’s interaction with his opponents.
