This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot… What does it really mean to love others? And how should it affect how we evangelize.
Frankly, I don’t believe that we are to “constantly” be evangelizing.. At least evangelizing in the way that Christians understand what evangelizing means… That is to be preaching the gospel… with words, I suppose… as in… Handing out tracts… Street evangelism… Etc.
Bleh.. I’m not really in the mood to write right now. So I’m just going to cut and paste my response to a comment that someone left on my YouTube page…
First his comment… (Which is actually a response to a comment i made to him, which was a response to a comment he made on one of my videos… I said something like.. Praise the Lord that we live in a country where we have the freedom to do as we please.. kind of thing)…
“Hi there, yeah, well we are free to believe or not to believe in anything we like and wish.that’s for sure.But you know, sometimes, when I switch through all the videos with even the remotest and closest jesus connection on youtube, then i sometimes wonder, what you guys really want.To share your experiences with your beliefe, or do you just want to evangelize us?? I mean, faith is a thing of education and upbringing, if you are being told a thing every day your life, then someday youre gonna believe in it for sure…Faith for me is nothing but a bad custom….Nevertheless, be peace with you, Fabian”
So here is my response to him…
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Christians have this thing.. a guiding principle I suppose… called the “Great Commission”. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It basically says to “preach the gospel through all the world, and make disciples”.. ie… to evangelize.
I have a problem with this though. What most Christians have turned this principle in to is not so much *a* guiding principle, but *the* guiding principle. As if the only thing all Christians are supposed to do is evangelize… Which I suppose is why you feel like all Christians are doing is try to convert people.
Here what I believe. The “Great Commission” is not the great commission.. it is one of Jesus’ commandments to his followers… as in, it’s one of the things we are suppsosed to do.
So first of all, I don’t believe in no evangelism at all. It’s required of us to share the gospel… The question is when.
I take my cue on this from the true great commission… Jesus’ greatest commandment.. That is, to 1. to Love God… and closely related… 2. to Love our neighbours as you love yourself.
What this tells me, is that sometimes in order to love others… the very thing you’re supposed to do is to let them be… to *not* constantly berate them with the Gospel.. This is why I always try to preach to all the Christians I know.. love first.. not the Gospel…
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Maybe I’ll elaborate on this a little more.. if I feel like it. But right now… eh.