<p>12:4 <i>And I say to you my friends- </i>Assuring them that they had nothing ultimately to fear at the last day; for we are His friends. If we are His friends, the friends of the Son of God, the prince of the kings of the earth- why fear audience response when we witness? The laboured assurances of the next verses about being of more value than sparrows etc. are all in the context, therefore, of assuring us that we need not ultimately fear negative response to our witness.</p><p><i>Do not be afraid- </i>The Lord was quite clear that His followers should expect death and serious suffering for preaching Him. He perceived that fear of audience response would be a strong factor in the temptation not to preach Him. But He gave the reason for not fearing in :3- all shall be revealed at the day of judgment. Belief in the doctrine of final judgment therefore has huge impact upon life in practice- in this case, giving us strength not to fear the consequences of our witness. For many believers today, persecution unto death is not a likely consequence of witness; fear of slight embarrassment, being thought &lsquo;odd&rsquo; for turning a conversation around, is a very small price. The Lord is asking us here to accept that witness for Him may well cost us death. If we accept that, accept it as part and parcel of the Lord&rsquo;s basic message, then our approach to witness will be quite different. Fear of audience response will no longer be a major factor, if we have solemnly accepted that we are prepared to die for the sake of preaching the Gospel.</p><p><i>Of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do</i>- Mt. 10:28 adds: &quot;But are not able to kill the soul&quot;<i>. </i>&quot;They&quot; cannot touch our essential self. It is our &lsquo;real self&rsquo; which will eternally endure. In this sense, for the faithful, their body may be killed but their soul cannot be. I take this to mean that who they essentially are is for ever recorded by the Lord, and they will be given that same personality at the resurrection. Significantly, the Bible speaks not of the &lsquo;resurrection of the body&rsquo; it&rsquo;s the creeds which speak of this, but rather &ldquo;the resurrection of the just&rdquo;, &ldquo;the resurrection of the dead&rdquo;. The resurrection is more about resurrected characters than resurrected bodies, although the process will involve a new body being given.</p>