Is It Unloving to Evangelize Like Jesus?

It's loving, but it's not nice. Like you are a rebel, you're a hater of God, right? You have no righteousness on your own. If you stand before the Lord, apart from the righteousness of Christ attributed to you as a free gift, you're in trouble, man.

The Question of Unloving Evangelism

All right, Tim, the question for today's episode is,.

Is it unloving to evangelize like Jesus?

Apparently it is, because every time I try it, you know, people basically tell me I'm unloving, so.

You know, that's funny, we were talking about this at church the other day, basically this idea that the Bible over and over and over again tells us to be bold, right? It tells us to be bold in our faith.

Paul is constantly asking that the saints pray that he has boldness to share the gospel with people. You know, the apostles are killed sharing the gospel, right? And a lot of times I see people who, I see people who go out and they do like street evangelism, for example, and they get a negative response from some folks.

And the response from like on-looking Christians is not one that's saying like, hey, you know, I'm encouraged to see you guys out here sharing the gospel, it's good to see people that are bold enough to do something like this.

It's normally something along the lines of like, hey, you might want to rethink your witness. You know, which is like just baffling to me, I guess. I think when you read the gospel, it just seems so antithetical, you know, to have that kind of response to say, hey, you need to rethink your witness.

But I mean, you know, what do you think? How did Jesus evangelize? And then how does that compare to what a lot of people expect evangelism today to look like?

John the Baptist, Jesus, and Repentance

Yeah, I mean, you know, when John the Baptist came on the scene, John the Baptist basically, essentially says to the Pharisees, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. In Jesus, when he comes on the scene, he says the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.

And I mean, Jesus, you know, he talks just, he speaks the same way that John the Baptist is speaking at that point. And I mean, almost every single one of his encounters, there's not some extensive Jesus earning the right to be heard or something like that.

I mean, Jesus pretty much goes straight for the jugular almost every time without exception. I can't think of an instance, like there's no instance in the Bible of what has become known as a relationship evangelist.

It's just not there, it doesn't happen. Like every single time Jesus evangelized, it's, you know, I tell you, you must be born again. Unless one is born again, they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

That's what he says to Nicodemus. You know, so the woman at the well, I mean, he does the unthinkable, you know. He basically tells her that the husband she's with is not her husband and she's been married five times now.

And, you know, like there's, his approach is repent and believe. And he gets to it pretty quickly. And, you know, I think in the minds of many people, they, you know, they have this, it's a pretty silly kind of understanding of Jesus.

They think, they take, you know, the fact that he ate with tax collectors and sinners as some kind of precedent to suggest that maybe his evangelistic strategy was essentially to, you know, hang out with the prostitute while she's in the middle of the act, you know, and cheering her on for years and years and years until one day he can work up the courage to tell her that what she's doing is wrong.

And that simply isn't the way that he approaches things. And in fact, sometimes he's downright hostile, angry, rude sounding in our minds. He's obviously not rude. He's doing the most loving thing, but, you know, Jesus, he simply doesn't follow any of the rules that people have given for how these things are done.

So why is it that today, a lot of people really do expect it to be relational sort of evangelism when we just don't see that anywhere in the Bible?

Why Christians Soften the Message

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of different ways that people are trying to soften the basic moral imperative they have to tell people that they're a sinner. So if you want to know what it's about, it's about they don't want to do that.

They don't want to tell people you're a sinner, you're an object of God's wrath. And if you don't repent, you're going to burn forever and ever in hell.

They don't want to say that.

And so what they've done is they've tried to find a variety of ways to shelter themself from having to go there. So, you know, I remember the relationship of evangelism is probably the most predominant now, but in a few years ago, everyone was saying that, you know, it's been a decade and a half ago or something like that, maybe 20 years ago at this point, but everyone was using the St. Francis of Assisi quote, you know, like preach the gospel and if necessary use words kind of thing.

And so that was lifestyle evangelism, right? So what you have is with that, it's like, don't open your mouth, just live, you know, authentic life in front of people. But now it's, I mean, most people are probably in that relationship evangelism kind of thing, but either way, what they're trying to do is they're trying to keep themselves from having to say those dreaded words.

And then the reason why they're so hard on people who are more bold is because that's an embarrassment to them. Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah.

Like the response that you end up getting when you say, hey, you need to repent of your sins. They don't like, they like recoil when people respond that way.

Because that's the one thing they're afraid to say. And so when you say it, if it doesn't work, right? Then it's just like, they're gonna be your attackers. And what's actually happening is they have a guilty conscience.

They have a conscience that's going off. It's basically saying, I wish I had, I could do that, but I can't, you know? And so, you know, like then they go on attack because you're doing the very thing they're unwilling to do and they know they should be doing and that's the problem.

The Fear of Direct Confrontation in Evangelism

Yeah, you know, one of the things that I have noticed because I've talked to some of these people before and, you know, basically sort of as like, okay, what am I doing? How would you do it? You know, how have you done it in the past?

And one of the interesting things, I've noticed this a lot, especially with like same-sex attraction, people who, in response to all those things, I've had a lot of people come at me and say, hey, you can't say the things that you're saying.

You can't say that it's a sin. You know, you can't tell people to just stop pursuing these things and repent of it. And, you know, why? Because they don't say because it's not true. They say because it's not loving, right?

And then I have asked them in the past, you know, okay, how do you do it? You know, and the response is normally they don't respond to me, which

I like my way of doing it better than your way of not.

Right, right, which what they're admitting there is, well, they don't actually ever tell people to stop, right? And so they see me doing it and they see a negative reaction. And they're like, see, this is why, this is what's wrong with the church.

And it's like, no, what's actually wrong with the church is people like you who refuse to tell anyone like what the Bible actually says. And what you're communicating there is like, you don't actually care about that person because you're fine with them.

You're fine with them going to hell as long as they like you on the way, right? And yeah, and I think there's a point for me early on that would sort of, would really get bothered by the critiques coming from people who are basically saying, hey, you're being unloving, you're being unloving, you need to stop this.

And I got those at the beginning. I was like, man, I don't know, maybe there's something to what they're saying. But then the more, I mean, it's just, the more I read the Bible, the more I talked to those people and found out that they actually, they don't actually tell people to repent.

They really don't even tell people the gospel at all. They just try to become friends with people. And then all of a sudden they're just locked into these relationships.

You know?

Friendship Evangelism and Worldly Validation

Yeah, they try to be friends with them and like endlessly participate in the same kind of entertainment that they participate.

Right, right.

With the hopes that one day they'll get the courage to speak things that, you know, push, make the conversation a little bit more spiritually minded or something like that. But I mean, part of it is like, what's happening when they're reacting against you, part of it is there's this guilt that they have that they're not being faithful and you're challenging that, right?

You're basically showing them an example of how, of what it looks like to do the thing that they're entirely unwilling to do. So part of it is that they're recoiling at you because you're convicting them.

But then another aspect to it is that, essentially, we bought into the world's notion of love. So the world's notion of love is that love is this universal positive regard. It's like acceptance, it's tolerance, it's like, if I love you, I need to validate you, I need to praise you, I need to build your self-esteem, I need to take you as you are.

And then they read that into Jesus. You have a lot of churches that are doing that very thing. They'll read that into Jesus. Basically, Jesus invites everyone to come with their sin, almost indefinitely, just come with your sin and he's welcoming here and he's loving and he's going to accept you.

And he's gonna be like the therapist, counselor kind of person who is going to sit there and tell you that you're wonderful and sly queen and hashtag daughter of the king and all that and you are worthy and you are enough.

And that's just not his message. I mean, it's amazing when you think about the kind of things that he actually says. I mean, if you read the Sermon on the Mount, you'll realize it's a polemic against the Pharisees.

And you don't realize that reading it because we don't actually have Pharisees here today. But I mean, it's a polemic against people, like the major religious group of the time who are actually there and actually listening to what he was saying.

And he looks at them and he says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Like that's unthinkable for anyone to talk that way at all.

I mean, woe to you scribes. I mean, here's a few verses. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. This is his way of evangelizing. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces for you neither enter yourself nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte. When he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much of a child of hell as yourself. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You are like whitewashed tombs, right? Outwardly appear beautiful, but are full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. You build the tombs of the prophets and desecrate the monuments of the righteous.

So like you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in marketplace. He just goes on and on and on. This is not the way that we would evangelize. We think evangelism is essentially like trying to be nice to a person.

Like that's what we think. You're evangelizing someone when as a Christian, you are showing hospitality to them and being nice to them. And mostly just, you know, participating in whatever worldly entertainment that they want to participate in.

Trying to find common ground and common interest. But you don't think of evangelism as telling a person they're a sinner. And there's no nice way to do it.

The Gospel Requires Bad News

Well, it's because I think most people view it as like a sales pitch, right? Like I've got to convince you that this is worth doing. When that's not even, the Bible tells us, that's not even how that works.

As if we could have any control over what someone believes.

We have no control whatsoever. And I mean, sometimes like the meanest things that you can say, like sounding things that you can say are the things that really matter.

Yeah, just to give an example, just to give an example. I remember one time I was meeting with a guy and a girl at the local college here. We met once a week to sort of talk through these things because they were interested in hearing about the gospel, right?

And so, you know, one time I asked one, I think it was the girl, I asked her while we were all sitting there, you know, I said, hey, so I've told you about what our sin earns us. It earns us eternal death, you know?

And you're sitting here saying like, hey, I don't really know what's gonna happen to me. I don't really know. Does that worry, are you like scared at all? Are you anxious at all? And she's like, and she basically answered saying, well, no, you know, I don't feel that worried about anything right now.

And I just looked at her and I just told her, you should, you should be really scared, right? Now that's not even like that hard of a thing to say compared to what Jesus is saying. But then what ended up happening is later she came back to me and she said that that was what stuck with her more than anything else we had said.

She said it bothered her that she wasn't scared, but that I was treating it so serious that I was willing to say, you actually should be terrified, you know? So I really do think that sometimes just being direct like that, it really does kind of get through to people in a certain sense, it seems.

Yeah, I'm not saying just being rude for the sake of being rude, but I mean, there are certain truths that are not nice, right?

Right, yeah.

And so you have an entire church culture that is devoted to trying to make a pagan feel comfortable and welcome and safe in your presence. And you think that somehow you're gonna nice them into the kingdom, but that's just not the way it works.

They're a rebel sinner. And I mean, it's the same kind of thing that's happening in law enforcement in a certain sense, if you wanna understand a different way this is going down. I mean, if you have an angry person who is hostile to everything that you are telling them to do and believe in and stand for, you're not just gonna be able to say, hey, please turn around and put your hands behind your back, please, you know?

Right.

Like it's not, I mean, you know, no, they quit yelling at me, screaming at me. Why are you waving the gun at me? You know, like what I'm trying to say is that subduing that person, often it doesn't look pleasant.

And you have a lot of people who are watching videos of police officers, you know, subduing angry, strong, terrifyingly strong people, and they're outraged by it because it doesn't look nice, right? It doesn't look nice, but it's a necessary thing.

But then how are you gonna tell, you know, Herod that it's not lawful for him to have his brother's wife? You're not.

Right.

Like there's no nice way to do that. What is the nice way to say, hey, look, you're gonna burn forever and ever in hell? Like there's no, that's not a nice thing to say. Like it's not, like it's loving, but it's not nice.

Like you are a rebel, you're a hater of God, right? You have no righteousness on your own. If you stand before the Lord, apart from the righteousness of Christ attributed to you as a free gift, you're in trouble, man.

Like you have nothing to stand on. And you're gonna come up empty and that's gonna be the worst thing that you ever do.

Right.

The worst, if you wanna reject God, you can. You know, if you wanna walk away from the church, you wanna blame it on other people, you can, but you are heading for an eternity where the worm dies not.

Like there's, I mean, that's not a nice thing to say. I don't, there's no nice ways to say that kind of thing. And if you really care about them, you know, you're not gonna, like you're gonna say it in a way that like matches the subject matter that you're talking about.

Love, Truth, and Closing Exhortation

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah, and I think it does, we would do well to still remind people just because we're saying speak, you know, speak the hard truths doesn't mean we're all of a sudden advocating for just rudeness for the sake of, just for the sake of being rude, right?

Or for the sake of like being right or trying to prove your own point or defend yourself. That's not what we're saying. We're just saying exactly what you just said, you know, like the gospel, the gospel is, the only reason the gospel is good news is because there's bad news, right?

And you have to tell people the bad news if the gospel is gonna make any sense. And it's just not like, there's just not like a nice way to tell people all the time that, you know, that the bad news, like try and soften the bad news in such a way that it sounds nice and flowery.

You know?

That's what people try to do with the whole, like God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. You know, you're special and unique and, you know, valuable and, you know, but the problem is that everyone's telling them that, everyone's telling them that all day long.

They've grown up hearing that from people and they know deep down that it's not true, true in the way that they're saying it. You know, like they know that, like just to say, yeah, God loves you, period, the end without any context, it doesn't do anything because they're told they're special.

They're told they're wonderful. They got their participation trophies. They have a bunch of teachers telling them that, but then they have a problem. They have a fundamental problem that they're unable to resolve that lies underneath all of that.

So you're just one more voice telling them all the things that everyone else is telling them and not telling them the things they really need to hear. But then there is, I mean, you know, as you said, there is this myth somehow that if you can just say it the nicest way possible, Jesus thinks you're wonderful.

You know, he thinks you're attractive and he thinks you're amazing, you know, and so smart, you know, and intelligent. You know, like don't ever let anyone, you know, bring you down, sister, you know, and it's just like, those are the kisses of an enemy, not the wounds of a friend.

Right, okay, fair enough. This has been another episode of Bible Bashed. We hope you have been encouraged and blessed through our discussion. We thank you for all your support and ask you to continue to like and subscribe to Bible Bashed and share our podcast with your friends and on social media.

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Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.