Sharing Christ: Get Personal

This post is derived from the book Becoming A Contagious Christian (BACC) by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg.

Boo!

Did that get a rise out of you? If so, you may want to talk to someone about your anxiety issues. 🙂

We can all be a little uptight at times. That’s nothing new. People talk about how stressful the modern age is, and I’m sure it’s true, but stress has always been around. We talk about how polarized things are now, but people found ways to spar with each other long before the Internet. Maybe one difference now is that we are inundated by all the cacophony. It’s harder to make out substance amidst the noise. Everything begins to sound like boo.  I pity a world where people can no longer hear each other. We don’t want our conversations coming to this:

“I’ve heard your opinion and a thousand like yours. I know what you are going to say before you say it and I have fifty links pointing to sites that illustrate where you are wrong. Therefore, there is no real reason for us to engage each other. Thanks for playing. You are the weakest link. Goodbye!”

That’s inhuman.  Granted, we can’t engage everyone, but neither do have to be shallow with everyone.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the conversation was more like this:

“Hey! You and I actually come in contact pretty regularly. I see that you’re (some political/social/religious bent). We may or may not disagree in some million different ways, but since we’re in close enough proximity to hang out, and maybe, you know, have a BBQ or something, why don’t we try and find some way to engage each other despite those lines? Maybe there’s more to both of us than just quotes we’ve learned?”

Whew! Can you imagine that?  How humane would that be?

It’s hard to engage others like this. Mature people can engage each other in a respectful way, but inevitably our disagreements will offend to some degree. It takes heart to stand firm in your beliefs while allowing others to do the same. It takes sensitivity to know what the reasonable limits of your conversation can be, given the relational credits you’ve earned with each other.

For followers of Christ the times have changed in terms of how we communicate the message of hope in Christ. There was a time in America when the majority of the population had a cursory knowledge of the Bible. Most believed in the existence of a loving God. Spreading the gospel was often more about clarifying the completeness of Christ’s payment at the cross for all sin than trying to get people to even recognize God’s existence and love for them. Today, people need convincing from square one that there’s anything they can believe in spiritually.

In this environment, there is no more “drive-by” evangelism. Not many people are going to be engaged by a stranger with a tract or five minute gospel presentation. It takes something deeper, more substantive, more personal and human to reach the unsaved in the modern world. Oddly enough, Jesus seemed to think it took something more personal in the ancient world as well.

Friend of Sinners

“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’

On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” Matthew 9:9-13

Jesus always had such a great way of putting things. You can be sure the Pharisees recognized how he turned the table on them. They were blind to their own sin and need for God’s mercy. Scripture says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Jesus came to bring God’s love to a world where every single person is in need of a pardon. To lead others to him, as always, requires being like him in our world. We have to get personable with the unsaved.

Get Personal With The Right Perspective

To love people the way Jesus does requires a right perspective. Love is not relegated to the saved. Sometimes the saved are worse to deal with than the unsaved. Praise God that it’s not about works of righteousness we have done, or we’d all be in trouble. It’s grace and mercy pure and simple. God’s love is for everybody. He hates sin, not sinners. The only reason for judgement is because the conditions of this fallen world must end at some point. God must make things right to end the cycle of destruction and bring full restoration, or there would never be any restoration at all.

“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” Habakkuk 1:13

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 1 Peter 3:9

Jesus didn’t justify sin. He justified sinners through the cross. Religious people especially have a hard time wrapping their heads around this, at least in part because the more you recognize what is wrong the more you want to turn from it. It takes effort to separate sin from sinners. Jesus was able to do that. He taught us to do the same.

The right perspective for followers of Christ is to remember we are fallen ourselves. No one stops sinning after receiving Christ as Savior and Lord. We can only sin less. And in some sense, we probably sin more because the Spirit starts directing and correcting us.  We’re more aware of the wrongs we do as we do them. We fight an inward battle between our desire to sin and our desire to please the Holy Spirit. I’m sure it looks quite schizophrenic to the world. The great part is that in Christ we have power to overcome that double-mindedness. It’s not a finish line we reach until we’re free of this body. It’s a pressing goal we strive to get closer to daily.

Get Personal With Patience

I have an orange tree in my yard that is just bursting with oranges. It’s a big beautiful tree and it gives me joy just to look at it. If there aren’t any orange trees where you live, you may not know that oranges start out deep green. They can look like round limes before they start to ripen. I picked one of those once and cut it open, just to see what it looked like at that stage. It’s really solid. Viewing a cross-section, you can see it’s this incredibly dense white with a hint of green future orange material. You can’t eat it (though I suppose somebody might try). It’s not ready. It takes months of time hanging on the branch before it’s ripe. People are the same way spiritually. You can’t expect them to ripen overnight, let alone in a single conversation. It often takes years.  We’re not here to force it.

“Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not mere men?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

The verses above really stick with me. There may be people that want to follow men, but I’m not one of them. I value godly people who help direct me towards the Lord, but I’m not following them. I’m following Jesus because he was God in the flesh. In the same way, I’m not out to gather followers of me. As Christians, it’s tempting to try and force decisions for Christ before people are ready. The failure in that is it is like trying to gather followers for yourself. You made a decision for Christ because your heart was ready and you desired him. Now you see what you’ve got and you want others to do the same. But if you don’t trod gently, you are screaming in the face of others who have their own choice to make, “Follow me!” (Don’t do that.)  Jesus said, “Let he who has ears hear.” As much as you want to pick that fruit yourself, it’s Jesus who has to ready it.

Sometimes it feels like people are just inches from the plug. You want to drag them that last couple of inches so they can feel its power, but God wants them to come of their own desire for him.  Like Paul said, our job is to plant seed and water it. Only God can make the seed grow into a plant.

Get Personal By Not Panicking

Questions of spirituality and faith in God are deep waters. It’s pretty silly to think anyone has all the answers. In fact I’ll bet in any serious discussion of spiritual matters you’re liable to come across befuddling questions. As believers, we look to the Bible to teach us, but that too is challenging. It’s a big book of books, crossing millennia, with dozens of writers. The concepts are profound. It’s only natural that the infinity of God is going to exceed us.

I often feel responsible when I fail to handle spiritual questions correctly. It’s like I think people might never know the Lord because I was stupid. That’s the wrong attitude. It may be a missed opportunity, but in reality a simple, honest “I don’t know” may be more valuable than trying to be the Bible answer man. No one likes a know-it-all.  People need answers to help them find Christ, but they need sincere humility and love more.

I’ve been in conversations that challenged me greatly. I have to force myself to remember that I’m not really in a debate. My faith stands firm whether or not others believe it. At times, unbelievers correct me.  I’ve learned a lot by listening to good questions. Some of my presuppositions about the Bible and God have come undone because of them. It makes me a better person and a smarter follower of Christ.

Just because people disagree with you does not mean they are against you, nor vice versa. It’s ok to learn as you go. Yes, it feels really bad when you fail to adequately respond, but sometimes our perception of that is a myth. It’s not like we’re going to win a debate and the other person will just cave in and say, “Ok, you win, give me Christ.” 😉 Remember, it’s just a discussion. You’re just people on the planet Earth talking to each other. Life will go on and God will accomplish his will in spite of our limitations. Let go and let God.  People have to resolve their own issues with him.  We’re just trying to help.

Get Personal By Being Firm In Christ

There’s no testimony for Christ if we don’t act like him. He gave people something to believe in when he was here because he was true to the Father. We have to do the same. It’s tempting to fall back into old habits and compromise our beliefs when confronted by opposition and/or desires for social acceptability, but if we do that, we will be like a covered light, untrue to ourselves and untrue to God. There’s no joy in that. I think the key thing for each of us to remember is that we are entitled to be who we are in Christ.

‎”Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof.” ~James Russell Lowell

Following Christ is our choice. We shouldn’t compromise our own beliefs, but we have to allow for the fact that others do not share them. Those who haven’t signed up to follow Christ do not live by our rules. That’s their choice. It is not compromise to hang out with people who live by different rules. It is compromise to change your own rules. Of course, if you are legalistic, it may be that your own rules get in the way of actually living for Christ.

“If you spend time doing the do’s, you won’t have time to do the don’ts.” – Anon

Get Personal By Loving Deeply

When it comes to God’s love, we must drop the conditions. I’ve seen some terrible things Christian’s have done, “loving” people only because they hope they can turn them. The only real love is the love you can come back to and it’s still there. If your love depends on proselytizing someone, you will fail. Jesus loves us right to the grave; all of us. He’s not waiting for us to get cleaned up to love us. He’s only waiting for us to love him back. This is how his people must love the unsaved.

People are not projects. They are souls fearfully and wonderfully made. It’s heartbreaking that most are not redeemed from spiritual death, but people are worth loving anyway. It’s worth considering that maybe the love of God they receive from you is all they will ever know. God shows a lot of grace to people he knows will never turn to him. He knows the first will be last and last will be first.  Time is short. People matter.  This kind of love wins people to him.

Let’s get personal for Christ.

Next in this series: Sharing Christ: Step Out Of The Box

Previous in this series: Sharing Christ: Give It Up