Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian."
Acts 26:28

Upon hearing Paul’s testimony and proclamation of the gospel, King Agrippa was “almost persuaded to become a Christian.” But not quite! How should we understand this? When we share the gospel we need to have a few goals in mind.

First, we must strive to be accurate. This does not mean that we must know everything, or know even what we do know perfectly. It does mean we want to get the basics of the gospel right. And what are the essential basics of the gospel?

God is holy and demands that we be holy as He is holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16)
None of us are anywhere near as holy as God is holy (Romans 3:23), and that matters (Romans 3:26)!
But because God is loving, He provided one way to be forgiven and that way is Jesus. (John 3:16, John 14:6).
Jesus died to pay for our sins so we could be forgiven and reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18).
To receive the benefit of what Jesus has done for our forgiveness, we each must “receive” Christ by faith, trusting in Him instead of in ourselves or in anything else (John 1:12, John 3:16).

We need to get this right, not that we must memorize a particular script, and/or include all the verses (non-believers do not know what the references mean anyway)—though it is good to say, “The Bible says…”

So first we must strive to be accurate. Next time we must strive to be loving.