Luke 6:45 “Out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks.”

Jesus’ word here is a statement of spiritual truth, but it also reflects a principle we see active in everyday life.

Listen to the conversation of your friends for a while. What do they believe is life-changing? Are they overwhelmed by the possibilities of some new high tech gadgetry? Were they deeply moved by the latest best-seller or box office smash? How do you know? What they believe in their hearts and minds eventually finds its way to their mouths. They just have to tell you.

Some companies rely on it for survival. Almost 30 years ago my wife worked for Electrolux Corporation for one year. At the time you never saw a commercial for the company’s products. They depended on customers to recommend their vacuum cleaners to friends and family. You haven’t seen commercials for Krispy Kreme donuts, Rolls-Royce cars, Jiffy muffin mix, or Costco stores. They are all examples of the few companies so confident of their product’s ability to impress that they rely entirely on word of mouth advertising to sell their product.

Don’t we believers all share a common product of infinitely greater importance? The gospel of Jesus Christ–the good news that God forgives sins, and even suffered death for us to make such forgiveness possible–is more than a reliable product, a moving message, a life-changing tool. It is the one and only source of eternal life. It is our only escape from hell and our only admission to heaven. It is the only way to be sure that God loves you.

Faith that this is true opens our mouths. Speaking about this doesn’t make us half-crazy religious fanatics any more than talking up the gas-mileage and safety features of our new vehicles somehow makes us driving fanatics. We seek converts without shame.

But potential converts are not the only people to whom our faith drives us to speak. Consider Aquila and Priscilla. After Paul had converted these two devout Jews to faith in Jesus, they in turn helped him in sharing the message with others.

One of the others whom they met was Apollos. Now Apollos was no stranger to Scripture, nor to God’s promises of a Savior. He already believed all of this. He was even familiar with the baptism of John the Baptist. In fact, Apollos’s faith had already moved him to speak openly about what he believed. That is how Aquila and Priscilla came to know him.

After hearing Apollos confess his faith, Aquila and Priscilla couldn’t restrain themselves from filling Apollos in on the rest of the story. In Acts 18 we read, “When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.”

Apollos may not have been required to come to a formal set of classes. The only class room seems to have been the humble home of this Christian husband and wife. There was simply someone who needed to hear more of God’s word, and someone in possession of that word willing to teach it to him.

Not all of us may become missionaries and evangelists. Not all of us are called to be pastors or teachers. But if we have faith, and if we have God’s word (and we do), then we have all we need to speak the truth to others, whether they are hearing it for the first time, or the fiftieth. Let your heart and mouth overflow!