Not every Christian is interested in studying or practicing apologetics, and such could be the case for any number of reasons.

One such reason I sometimes hear from students on campus is that apologetics just isn’t for them, either because they lack the interest or because they don’t think it’s necessary for or even relevant to the ministry to which God has called them.

Yet although not everyone is called to be an apologist, Scripture is clear that every Christian is supposed to do apologetics, no matter their role in the body of Christ. (By analogy, not everyone is called to be an evangelist, but all are called to do evangelism.)

This is especially evident from the repeated pattern of New Testament believers, no matter their respective ministries, engaging in the defence of the faith to others as part of their ministries.

The Universal Call

There are at least three ways in which we might say that there’s a universal call on all Christians to engage in apologetics.

First, as a matter of principle, Scripture is adamantly against blind faith, saying that only the unwise “believes everything” (Prov. 14:15), and warning against believing certain teachings simply because they’re what we “want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). We’re instead to follow the command of 1 Thessalonians 5:21 to “test all things,” and the command of Christ in John 7:24 to “not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” We’re to be like the Berean Jews of Acts 17:10-12 who, rather than blindly believing what Paul and his companions preached to them about Jesus, “examin[ed] the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” For that reason, they were counted as “more noble than those in Thessalonica.” In other words, according to the Bible, a reasonable faith is to be held in high esteem.

Second, as for our own walk with Christ, God himself calls us to a reasonable faith. When asked which of God’s commandments is the greatest, Jesus answers that it is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). As Christians, we’re supposed to engage our minds as part of loving God with all that we are! In other words, according to Jesus, we’re not supposed to turn off our brains or leave them behind as we entre through the church door!

Third, as for our ministry to others, whatever that may be, God calls us to make apologetics a part of our ministry. Scripture explicitly commands all believers to prepare ourselves to give a defence for the Christian faith to any inquiring individuals. Peter tells believers to “honor Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). Paul similarly instructs the church at Colossae, saying, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Col. 4:6).

Because these are such repeated themes in Scripture, it seems evident that that call to have a reasonable faith and to do apologetics wasn’t restricted to pockets of the first-century church. Rather, it’s a universal call to all believers, and we see this universal call applied in various ministry contexts throughout the New Testament.

The Earliest Church

It’s not too difficult to find apologetics being used by New Testament Christians. The earliest believers practically breathed the stuff!

Our earliest extant Christian creed is preserved by the apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:3-8), This creed reflects the beliefs of the earliest church and would have been recited by these early believers when they gathered. What’s interesting to note is that the creed largely consists of a list of historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection from the dead! This means that the whole congregation would actually recite some apologetics as a church!

We also repeatedly see the apostles and their associates in their roles as missionaries conversing with people in the synagogues, the marketplaces, and wherever else they happened to be with the intent purpose of persuading these people that Christianity is true (e.g., Acts 2:14-36; 14:1, 14-17; 17:1-4, 16-34; 18:4; 19:8; 26:1-29). In addition to missionaries, we see the earliest deacons engaging in apologetics, for when opposition arose against Stephen’s ministry, his opponents began to argue with him but found that “they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking” (Acts 6:8-10).

The ability to do apologetics was also viewed as a qualification for church leadership, specifically for the pastor or elder. Paul lists a number of qualifications for a pastor, including that he “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:5-9). The Greek word translated “rebuke” in this verse bears the meaning of “refute” or “convince,” and the example which Paul then gives makes clear that the goal of this particular rebuking—one of refuting falsity and convincing of truth—is that those under the pastor’s oversight might be “sound in the faith” (vv. 10-16). So, the leaders of our churches are actually required to know how to do effective apologetics!

And finally, the New Testament writers engage in apologetics in their very writings, often citing it as the very reason for their writing in the first place. Luke says that his aim is to provide certainty about Jesus based on the eyewitness testimony (Luke 1:1-4). John says that his goal is to convince readers of Jesus’ messiahship and divine Sonship based on the miraculous signs (John 20:30-31). And Jude says that he seeks “to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all” (Jude 3).

Apologetics Everywhere!

It would seem that, in the end, every first-century Christian was doing apologetics in one shape or form. Whether the local church reciting the creed, the missionaries traveling abroad, the deacons serving the church, the leaders overseeing the congregations, or the writers taking this all down for our benefit, apologetics was an integral part of the various roles held by believers in the earliest church. Given the universal call to defend the faith, this should come as no surprise.

The question now, then, is this: Will you heed God’s call on his people to prepare yourself to give a defence of the gospel and all it entails? Will you endeavour to do so no matter the role you play in your own church, whether as pastor, deacon, missionary, youth leader, Sunday school teacher, or something else entirely?

What part will apologetics play in your ministry?