Hannah, a listener to the podcast, writes in with a really good question for you. "Hello, Pastor John. I have a Muslim friend and I aim for their salvation in this friendship, but I never share my weaknesses. Moral weaknesses, bad habits, even my own sin struggles. I refrain out of fear that if I did share those things, this friend would see me and Christ in a bad light.

My thought is, why should I talk about my weaknesses to an unbeliever since they can't help anyways? Or, if I should, what is the goal and hope for telling this person my own weaknesses and struggles? Can you help me think through this?" Hannah says that she avoids sharing her weaknesses with her Muslim friend or other unbelievers out of fear that they will see her and Christ in a bad light.

That is a real, appropriate, biblical concern. Because the Bible repeatedly calls us to let our light shine that people might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father. So it's not wrong to want unbelievers to see us as doers of good rather than moral failures. But alongside that concern, there needs to be put another concern, namely, communicating a false perfectionism and a view of the gospel that fails to revel in the promise of ongoing forgiveness of sins and the justification of the ungodly.

So Hannah needs to steer a course between being indifferent to the demonstration of God's power, like it doesn't matter, on the one hand, and the communication of a gospel-minimizing perfectionism on the other hand. So I would mention maybe four reasons why Hannah should, wisely and humbly, share with unbelievers, including her Muslim friend, her own struggles—struggles to trust, struggles to follow, struggles to obey Jesus and live a life consistent with His mercies and His promises and His Word.

So first, she should do this because the Apostle Paul did it. He very openly said in 2 Corinthians 12 that a thorn was given to him in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass him, to keep him from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but He said, God said, Jesus said, "My grace is sufficient for you.

My power is made perfect in weakness." That's why I thought of this passage—weakness—because she's worried about sharing weakness. And here's Paul making much of his weakness for the sake of the glory of Christ. So she needs to stir that in to her thinking. And in Romans 7, at the end—and yes, I do believe Romans 7 is Christian experience in that debate—"Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" And then he exults, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And then he goes back down, "So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh." In other words, when my flesh gets the upper hand, I serve the law of sin.

And he just so boldly lets it hang out. So Paul's example should set us free to speak of our brokenness and weakness, and I think even our struggle with sins, always being sensitive to what's appropriate in every given situation. So that's the first reason. Second, I think we should be willing to share our weaknesses with unbelievers, lest we give the impression of a false view of what it means to be converted to Christ and what it means to be sanctified.

John says in 1 John 1:8, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." Present tense. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his truth is not in us.

Now many unbelievers—this has been my experience over the years—many unbelievers are kept back from serious consideration of Christianity because they believe that the standard of behavior that would be expected of them is inconceivable. On the one hand, they don't know anything about the power of the Holy Spirit, and on the other hand, they may have serious misconceptions about perfection and about the people that are Christian and what they're like.

And Hannah could help them have a clear view of conversion and of the Christian life if she spoke about it in a realistic way in relationship to the Holy Spirit. Third, we should be willing to speak about our weaknesses and struggles because this will give hope to unbelievers that Christians are real people with real struggles rather than a kind of superior moral race, which of course they know we're not anyway.

And lastly, fourth, we should be willing to share our weaknesses, even with unbelievers, in order to magnify the extraordinary grace and patience of God in Christ. So Paul did this in 1 Timothy 1:16. He said, "I received mercy for this reason, that in me the foremost, Jesus Christ, might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in me for eternal life." So the point here is that the true nature of the gospel, the true nature of grace and mercy in Christ are highlighted when we describe to unbelievers how precious forgiveness is to us and how precious God's patience is to us even when we're struggling after we're Christians to obey.

So I would conclude that Hannah should think through not just which weaknesses should be mentioned, but should also think through why Christ is precious to her in view of her weaknesses. In other words, talking about her weaknesses is not the point. Talking about Christ and his patience and his grace and his value and preciousness in relationship to her weaknesses, that's the point.

It's a way of talking about Christ. So maybe she should just adjust the category question, not just should I talk about my weaknesses, but should I talk about the glories of Christ in relationship to my weaknesses. So for those four reasons at least, I would encourage Hannah and all of us to make the truth about our lives a means of celebrating the greatness of Christ.

That's really good. Thank you, Pastor John. And Hannah, that's exactly the kind of question we're looking for in the inbox. Thank you for sending that in. And if you have a question for John Piper, send it to me through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. And speaking of our dealings with non-Christians, we are going to close out the week with a doozy of a question.

How do I wisely and humbly confront someone in my life who claims to be a believer, but who gives no evidence of this in their lives? Wow. A huge question to be handled with pastoral care. I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and I'll see you tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

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