EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH LOVE
Author: Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote to me and told me how they tried to show a loved one how that person’s lifestyle was wrong, but was unable to accomplish it.
When I had finished reading that persons letter to me, I felt a little deflated and depressed about the situation. Because, I was thinking of how much of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is presented to people incorrectly from the start, through showing them, generally in a very nice way naturally, how wrong their lifestyle is.
Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus this way to someone for the first time, is doomed to failure from the start.
Not only proclaiming the gospel in this way, generally it is doomed to failure, but it will also leave a scar on the person with whom the Gospel of Jesus has been shared, which makes it very difficult for someone else who wants to share the Gospel in the correct manner with that same person.
I must firstly make sure that the person with whom I wish to share the Gospel can see that I am a person of integrity, especially when it comes to that what I am going to share with that person about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
How do I accomplish that?
Everything begins with love and in the case of where I am trying to germinate the Gospel of Christ within the heart of that person, it begins with compassion and then true neighbourly love, to put it that way, so that is being applied in the correct manner.
My great hero Paul states it this way:
1 COR 9:19-23
Paul’s Use of His Freedom
19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.
21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.
22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
In other words:
Begin by showing that person true sincere neighbourly love. In other words – that kind of love that Jesus requires me to give to that person.
What does that neighbourly love look like that Jesus wants me to show that person?
I always call that kind of love “Compassionate” love.
I love the English word “compassionate” because for me that word, encompasses the glory of the kind of love that I must show, in this case, the person to whom I wish to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Let’s read now what the dictionary says about the word “compassion.”
Compassion: sympathy, empathy, mercy, charity and consideration etc.
In other words friends –
Do not be prejudice or judgemental towards the person to whom you wish to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Look at/approach that person the same way as Jesus also looked at/approached you, when He brought to you His Gospel and so assisted you in your accepting Him as your Redeemer and Saviour.
Look at/approach and handle that person with Jesus’s love full of sympathy, empathy, mercy, charity and consideration, in other words with “compassionate” love.
Then you will demonstrate the authenticity of the Gospel in your life through your practicing thereof, even before you start proclaiming the Gospel and then you, the messenger of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, becomes more credible to the unbeliever.
As I like to always say, I say it now again:
When we say we are children of our Lord, then let us live so that people and our family will see that our lifestyle is in agreement with our Redeemer and Saviour.
2 TIM 2:23-26
23 Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.
24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
For someone who has accepted Jesus as Redeemer and Saviour and mollycoddles (panders) the sin in your life and you become belligerent (aggressive) when you are made aware of this by a child of our Lord, I just want to quote the following from the Word:
PRO 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.
Also:
PRO 27:5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
PRO 27:6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.