In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.
We have spoken about the importance of planning in evangelism - setting goals, understanding our mission, and knowing our purpose. But before any plan can succeed, we must examine something deeper: our values. Values are the invisible foundation upon which everything else is built. They determine what we prioritize, how we act, and ultimately, what kind of people we become.
Let me begin with a simple test.
The Wallet Test
Imagine you are walking down the street and you find a wallet on the ground. It is full of money. There is an ID card inside. No one is watching. What do you do?
There are three types of people in this situation. The faithful person picks up the wallet and searches for its owner. He looks at the ID, he makes phone calls, he goes out of his way to return it. The unfaithful person takes the wallet, pockets the money, and walks away without a second thought. And then there is the indifferent person - he sees the wallet, glances at it, and keeps walking. He does not steal it, but he does not help either. He simply does not care.
This simple scenario reveals something profound about human character. What separates these three people is not intelligence, education, or social status. What separates them is their values. The faithful person values honesty and compassion. The unfaithful person values personal gain above integrity. And the indifferent person - perhaps the most troubling of the three - has no clear values at all.
What Are Values?
Values are what I consider important in life. They are the standards that guide my actions, my judgments, my attitudes, and my decisions. They dictate my priorities. They shape how I spend my time, my money, and my energy.
Think about it practically. What do you spend your money on? What do you give your time to? What occupies your thoughts when you are alone? The answers to these questions reveal your true values - not the values you claim to have, but the values you actually live by.
A person may say he values prayer, but if he spends three hours on entertainment every evening and cannot find fifteen minutes for God, his actions tell a different story. A person may say she values family, but if her career consumes every waking hour, her priorities reveal her real values.
Here is the key principle: when your values match your beliefs, you experience satisfaction and peace. When there is a mismatch between what you believe and what you value, you experience unhappiness, restlessness, and inner conflict.
St. Augustine of Hippo understood this deeply. Our hearts are restless until they rest in God - and that restlessness often comes from living according to values that contradict what we know to be true.
Maturity and Values
One of the clearest signs of maturity is having well-defined values. Let us compare the mature person with the immature person.
The Mature Person
The mature person has clear, identified values that guide his life. He is purpose-driven rather than circumstance-driven. When difficulties arise, he does not collapse because his decisions are anchored in something deeper than his feelings. He is rational and thoughtful - not because he lacks emotion, but because he does not allow emotion to override his principles. He is confident, not arrogant, because his confidence comes from knowing what he stands for.
The mature person can say, "This is what I believe. This is what I value. And therefore, this is how I will act - regardless of what others do, regardless of what is popular, regardless of what is easy."
The Immature Person
The immature person, by contrast, lacks clear values. He is driven by circumstances rather than by purpose. When things go well, he is happy. When things go poorly, he falls apart. He is impulsive - making decisions based on the emotion of the moment rather than on a stable foundation. He lacks confidence because he has never taken the time to identify what he truly believes and what truly matters to him.
The immature person is like a ship without a rudder, tossed about by every wave. He follows whoever speaks the loudest or whatever feels best in the moment.
The Difference Between a Hypocrite and an Immature Person
Now, there is an important distinction we must make. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke harshly against the Pharisees:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." - Matthew 23:27
A hypocrite is someone who knows his values, can articulate them clearly, and deliberately acts against them. He preaches one thing and practices another. He wears a mask of righteousness while living in contradiction.
An immature person is different. He is not necessarily acting against his values - he simply has not identified them yet. He has not done the hard work of examining what he truly believes and aligning his life accordingly. The hypocrite is dangerous because he deceives others. The immature person is vulnerable because he deceives himself without even realizing it.
The solution for the hypocrite is repentance - genuine, deep repentance before God. The solution for the immature person is growth - taking the time to examine, identify, and commit to values rooted in the word of God.
Where Do Our Values Come From?
Our values do not appear out of nowhere. They are shaped by many sources throughout our lives:
- Family - The values of our parents and grandparents are often the first values we absorb, sometimes without even realizing it
- Media - Television, social media, movies, and music constantly present value systems to us - often ones that contradict the Gospel
- Friends - The people we spend time with shape our thinking. As the proverb says, "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed" (Proverbs 13:20)
- Teachers and mentors - Those who educate us transmit values along with knowledge
- Society and culture - The broader culture around us presses its values upon us constantly
- Beliefs - And this is the most important source of all
Of all these sources, our beliefs form the foundation. A person's deepest beliefs about God, about the nature of humanity, about the purpose of life - these beliefs are the bedrock from which all other values grow. This is why the Coptic Orthodox Church has always insisted that right belief - orthodoxy - is not merely an intellectual exercise. What you believe shapes who you become.
St. Athanasius the Apostolic, the 20th Pope of Alexandria, fought his entire life for the truth of the faith because he understood that false belief produces false values, and false values produce a false way of life. Get the belief right, and everything else follows.
Types of Values
Values can be categorized in several ways:
Moral values concern right and wrong - honesty, justice, integrity, faithfulness. These are the values that govern how we treat other people and how we conduct ourselves before God.
Materialistic values concern possessions and wealth. There is nothing inherently wrong with material things, but when they become our highest priority, they become idols. Our Lord Jesus warned:
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21
Personal values concern individual growth - discipline, education, health, and self-improvement.
Family values concern our relationships with those closest to us - love, loyalty, sacrifice, and commitment within the household.
Social values concern our relationship with the broader community - service, generosity, hospitality, and civic responsibility.
Spiritual values are the highest of all. These are the values rooted in our relationship with God. The Apostle Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." - Galatians 5:22-23
These spiritual values are not merely nice qualities. They are the evidence of the Holy Spirit working within us, transforming us from the inside out in the process of sanctification.
Positive Values and Limiting Values
Positive Values - Virtues
Positive values are those that build up, connect, and strengthen. Fairness - treating others justly regardless of personal gain. Integrity - being the same person in private as you are in public. Trust - being someone whose word can be relied upon. Generosity - giving freely without expecting return.
These values create connections with others. They make relationships easier, deeper, and more genuine. When you encounter a person of integrity, you feel at ease. You can trust them. You want to be near them. This is why positive values are essential for evangelism - people are drawn to those who live by genuine virtue.
Limiting Values
Limiting values, on the other hand, are rooted in fear rather than in love. The desire to be liked by everyone is a limiting value - it causes a person to compromise the truth in order to avoid conflict. People-pleasing is a limiting value - it leads to saying what others want to hear rather than what God wants said. The desire for power and control is a limiting value - it turns relationships into transactions and ministry into manipulation.
Limiting values lead to doubt, stress, anxiety, and ultimately, an inability to stand firm for Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote:
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." - 2 Timothy 1:7
The evangelist must be freed from limiting values. If you fear rejection more than you love truth, you will never open your mouth for Christ. If you desire popularity more than you desire faithfulness, you will water down the Gospel until it means nothing.
Finding Your Core Value
Every person, whether they realize it or not, has a core value - one central principle that drives everything else. For Mother Teresa, her core value was unconditional love. Every decision she made, every action she took, every sacrifice she offered flowed from that single, powerful value. It was the lens through which she saw the world and the engine that drove her life.
What is your core value? If you were to strip away everything else, what is the one thing you would never compromise on?
For the Christian, the answer should be clear. Our core value must be Christ Himself. He is not merely one value among many - He is the source and summit of all true values. When Christ is your core value, every other good value falls into its proper place. Love, truth, justice, mercy, courage, humility - all of these flow from a life centered on Christ.
St. Paul expressed this perfectly:
"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." - Philippians 1:21
When Christ is your core value, you do not need to agonize over every decision. You simply ask: "Does this honor Christ? Does this reflect His character? Does this advance His kingdom?" And the answer becomes clear.
From Beliefs to Culture
Now let us understand how values actually work in practice. There is a chain - a progression - that moves from the invisible to the visible, from the internal to the external:
Beliefs lead to Values. Values lead to Attitude. Attitude leads to Behavior. Behavior, repeated over time, creates Culture.
This chain is powerful. It means that if you want to change a culture, you cannot start with behavior. You cannot simply tell people to act differently. You must start with beliefs. Change what people believe, and their values will shift. When values shift, attitudes change. When attitudes change, behavior follows. And when behavior is consistent and sustained, a new culture is born.
Applying This to Evangelism
Let us walk through this chain in the context of evangelism:
Belief: I believe that I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-14). This is not my opinion - it is the word of Christ Himself.
Value: Because I believe this, I value the idea that Christians should be different from the world. We are not meant to blend in. We are meant to stand out - not with arrogance, but with the fragrance of Christ.
Attitude: This value produces a positive attitude toward evangelism. Instead of seeing it as a burden or an obligation, I see it as a privilege and a joy. I have something the world desperately needs.
Behavior: This attitude leads to action - to Christian manners, to kindness, to speaking the truth with love, to sharing the Gospel with courage and compassion.
Culture: When this behavior is repeated consistently - by me, by my family, by my church community - it creates a culture of evangelism. It becomes the normal, expected way of life, not an occasional program or special event.
Salt and Light
Our Lord Jesus Christ used two powerful images to describe His followers:
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden." - Matthew 5:13-14
Salt preserves and flavors. It works invisibly, from within. You do not see salt in food, but you taste its presence - and you immediately notice when it is absent. The Christian is meant to preserve the world from moral decay and to add the flavor of godliness to every environment he enters.
Light illuminates and guides. It does not argue with darkness - it simply shines, and the darkness cannot overcome it. The Christian is meant to illuminate the truth in a world of confusion and to guide others toward Christ.
But notice the warning: salt can lose its flavor, and a light can be hidden under a basket. When Christians abandon their values, when they become indistinguishable from the world around them, they have lost their purpose. They are, as Christ said, good for nothing.
There is a saying worth remembering: "If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything." The Christian who has not identified and committed to clear, biblical values will be swept away by every cultural trend, every popular opinion, every emotional appeal. But the Christian who stands on the rock of Christ and His word will remain firm.
St. Cyril of Alexandria, the 24th Pope of Alexandria, stood firm against the entire world when the truth of Christ's nature was under attack. He did not bend to political pressure, to threats, or to popular opinion. He stood because his values were rooted not in human wisdom but in the unchanging truth of God. And because he stood, the faith was preserved for us today.
A Practical Exercise
This week, take time to write down your top five values. Not the values you think you should have - the values you actually live by. Look at how you spend your time and your money. Look at what occupies your thoughts. Be honest with yourself.
Then compare that list to the values of the Gospel. Where do they align? Where is there a gap? Where do you need to grow?
Finally, identify one limiting value in your life - one value rooted in fear rather than in love - and bring it before God in prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to replace it with a value rooted in Christ.
Because the evangelist who has clear, Christ-centered values does not need to be told to evangelize. His values will drive him to it naturally, just as salt naturally flavors and light naturally shines.
Conclusion
Values are not abstract concepts for philosophers to debate. They are the practical, daily, moment-by-moment standards that determine the direction of our lives. They dictate what we prioritize, how we respond to challenges, and what kind of witness we present to the world.
The mature Christian identifies his values, roots them in Scripture, and aligns his life accordingly. The immature Christian drifts without direction. The hypocrite knows the truth but refuses to live by it.
Let us be people of clear, courageous, Christ-centered values. Let us believe that we are salt and light. Let us value what God values. Let us carry a positive attitude toward the lost world around us. Let us behave with Christian integrity in every situation. And let us, by God's grace, create a culture of evangelism - in our families, in our churches, and in our communities.
If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything. But if you stand on Christ, you will stand forever.
"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock." - Matthew 7:24
Key Takeaways
- Values are the invisible foundation of everything - they determine what we prioritize, how we act, and what kind of witness we present to the world
- When your values match your beliefs, you experience peace - when there is a mismatch, you experience inner conflict and restlessness
- Maturity means having clear, identified values rooted in Scripture - immaturity means drifting without direction, driven by circumstances
- The chain from beliefs to culture is powerful: beliefs shape values, values shape attitude, attitude shapes behavior, and repeated behavior creates a culture of evangelism
- Limiting values rooted in fear - like people-pleasing or the desire for control - must be replaced with values rooted in Christ
- Your core value must be Christ Himself - when He is the center, every other good value falls into its proper place
Dive Deeper
Resources coming soon.
To our God be all glory and honor, now and forever. Amen.