Please consider the following very brief study on "being a witness". Some scriptures are partial quotes, so look them up in entirety to see full context - all are from the NKJV.
John the baptist was sent to "...bear witness of the light..." (John 1:7). Jesus said "you have sent to John and he has born witness to the truth" (John 5:33). Both of these verses have witnessing to the identity of Jesus in view. Jesus also said "I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of Me." (John 8:18). Jesus said to Pilate: "I have come into the world that I should bear witness of the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." (John 18:37).
Jesus command to His followers after His resurrection and right before ascending into heaven is: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8). We see Peter carrying out this call to witness as he told Cornelius: "We are witnesses of all things which He did...." (Acts 10:39).
Even these few verses on what the scripture means by "being a witness", raise a serious question. What is the goal of our witnessing? If our goal is to get people to respond "get saved", our witness may be driven by what we think they might respond to, what they might be offended by or many other factors as we "witness to them." If my desire is to witness to the truth/Christ, who He is and what He as done, my concern will be for accuracy of the message and glorification of the subject - Jesus Christ!
Witnessing accurately to the person and work of Jesus Christ is always a success as it is an act of obedience to His word and declares His glory to the world. It is through the accurate proclamation of the word that the Spirit brings people to salvation (see Acts 10:43-44). Diminishing the message and the subject of the message (Christ) to try to win the person is always a failure on all fronts!
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