Love & Evangelism

The greatest commandment and the great commission seem to sum up what the Christian life should be all about. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27), and go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19).

Love God. Love people. And make disciples; ie: evangelize.

The case for love for the sake of love: God calls us to love...period. Not to love with a motive.

The case for evangelism: God calls us to make disciples. I believe that loving people is an excellent means to do so.

There's a bit of a conflict of the heart here. I argue that we should love for the sake of love with no ulterior motive. But, then, what about evangelism? If we are using love as a means to evangelize is it actually love or just a method? Maybe evangelism is what motivates us to action, and love is the means in which we carry it out. Is that love real? Are we being fake? Are we reaching out in love just to bring someone to Christ? Is it wrong if we are? What if that person we're reaching out to shuts us down and evangelism is going nowwhere? What do we do? Far too often, I believe, we love only to evangelize and then when we're done evangelizing, we stop loving and then we're shown to be hypocrites. The world is just waiting for us to perpetuate that stereotype.

The argument was recently made that if we love someone we should want them to be saved. That is true and we will go on loving that person no matter what, but we want them to know God. That's not what I'm talking about, though. I'm talking about evangelism to the random person (neighbor) that walks by or is at some point or for some reason in your life. You don't know the person, so would you honestly say that you feel love for them? Probably not. However we are called to act in love towards them. Now the question; do you act in love so that they will come to know Christ, or do you act in love for the sake of love? Does it matter?

This may sound like symantecs, but I believe that Jesus gave ample examples of how He cares more about your motive (what's in your heart) than your outward action. Your outward action may be love, but is that what's really in your heart?

That whole discussion was a preface for the following statement. You must be willing to continue to love even when evangelism seems to be going nowhere. Just like everything else in the Christian life (and life in general) there must be balance.

Sabbath

So we were talking about the Sabbath last Friday at this early morning coffee shop thing that I go to and we talked about what it really means to observe Sabbath as a 21st century Christian. Is it still relevant? How do you observe Sabbath? What it's for? At some point I made a comment about it being a day of rest and so whatever is restfull to you is what you should do. I realized, partly that morning, but more-so today how wrong that is. The Sabbath is not just about rest. It's about setting apart a day for God. I was thinking about this today as it is MLK Jr. Day. It's a federal holiday and lots of people have off from work or school. So basically it's a vacation day or a day of rest, but how many people actually "observe" the day for it's inteded purpose? A couple times today I thought to myself, "Oh, it's Martin Luther King Jr Day today". But other than that I did nothing to set today apart as a day to think on or honor the meaning of the day. I think the Sabbath is like that. I (or we) recognize that it's Sunday and those fortunate to have the day off can spend it resting and in the end may think I am so holy b/c I went to church and took a day to rest, but did I really set apart the day for the Lord? Did I take time to rest with Christ or was it all about me? What do I want to do to rest? Did I truly "observe" the Sabbath, or did I just rest?

Love people so that...?

Jesus said to love our neighbors...period. Not to love people so that they will 'get saved'. He also said that "They will know that you are My disciples by the way you love one another." The motive is to love for the sake of love, not to love for the sake of "bringing someone to Christ."

It's such a fine line. Some college kids and I bring homemade cookies and other treats to a spot on campus Thursday nights to give to anyone walking by. People ask us what group we are with or why we are doing it. We tell them that "Jesus told us to love our neighbors so that's what we're trying to do." The question on my mind is do we do this in the name of love so that maybe, just maybe, someone will 'get saved', or do we do this solely out of love with no ulterior motive?

As always with Jesus, it's about the motive, not the outward action...

I'm reading this book called "UnChristian" and they talk about how this generation is "quick to sniff out what they believe to be the underlying motivations and superficialities." And it's often thought that Christians (genuine motives or not), "rather than being genuinely interested in people for their friendships, often seem like spiritual headhunters."