Truth in Love

I hear, quite often, when someone is attempting to explain the Christian faith to a non-believer, something like this:

“Jesus loves you! God is love! He has a plan for your life if you will just accept Christ into your heart. Be open and accept Christ.” 

While, on the whole, this is true, is it really effective? It attempts to draw without offense. But when we witness to others Christ commanded and the apostles taught to preach the GOSPEL. The gospel is about SALVATION. It is about sin and the only way to free ourselves from the bondage of it. 

Look again at the example above:

“Jesus loves you! God is love! He has a plan for your life if you will just accept Christ into your heart. Be open and accept Christ.”

Ask yourself, what good would this statement have been to the fatal victims of the Colorado theater shooting? How about the Las Vegas concert shooting victims? Would there be comfort in God’s “plan for their lives” when their lives were cut short? 

We do a disservice to those we are supposed to love when we don’t speak the full truth. When the church was born, despite the harshest of persecution, Christianity exploded! Why? Because they followed Christ’s commandments and His prescription for evangelizing. They told the full truth! 

It doesn’t matter how “good” a person thinks he or she is. He or she is measuring froma subjective standard: his or her own. GOOD is determined by the One who created us. We need a saviour! If the plane is going down, love is handing the passengers a parachute: not a fuzzy statement about a plan for their lives! 

In Christ, we have that saviour! Tell people how He died and was resurrected that we all may be forgiven and live. We need only believe and follow His commandments! His burden is light, not difficult. Tell the truth, Christian. Honor Matthew 28:18-20: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore 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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

And preach only the true gospel. Scripture warns that anything other than the truth comes with a curse for the one spreading the lie. Show your true love for others. Let them decide.