Love and Turn or Burn.

This has been a round a while, but it still is a good point to jump into.  What is love and how does it tie to evangelism.  People seem eager to claim Jesus as a paragon of their own moral definitions.  For example.

If there's one thing classic 80's music has taught me, it's to ask "what is love?"

Many have taken the meaning of this different definition of love within and without the church.  This meme started outside of the church and buys into our modern zeitgeist.  However ironically because of the definition difference of love between the church and the external world we agree on this picture but not the meaning.  We should love, but we define love differently.  The love being pushed outside the church is a simple self-affirmation. 

Love is not God (Adam4D)

This is what is horrible about secular and liberal Christianity.  It’s so nice it’s cruel, ignoring the peril of sin.  In this model Jesus would tell the Samaritan woman “I’m cool with what you did and there’s nothing wrong with it.  Go ahead and have a couple of wives too all at once.  Judge not you know just don’t hurt anybody”.  Yet that’s not what we see at all.  Jesus was loving and honest about her sin.  We are to be also warning of the judgment to come not ignoring it.  However some out of the church see us as otherwise, and some in the Church evangelize this way.  Let me demonstrate with a little retelling.

Jesus reclined at the well of Jacob waiting for his disciples.  A lone woman comes out and Jesus asked her to draw him some water.  She asked why he would ask such a thing being a Jew and she a Samaritan and a woman.  Jesus replies “go to your husband”.  She says “I have no husband”.  Jesus responds “Darn right, you’ve had five husbands you whore, turn and repent”.

What’s wrong with this picture?  We all know the story ( John 4) and that’s not how it goes. Jesus was far more compassionate in his honesty and treated her as a person.   She drew water during the day likely to avoid people who saw her as dirty.  She was even a Samaritan and would have no kind feelings towards a Jew.  Yet Jesus knew this, approached her and spoke kindly and honestly to her. The God who was too Holy for any but Moses to be in his presence came down to dwell among us, and here reached out to a woman living in sin.

Many so called Christians do not follow Christ’s model. Certain churches such as one we all know that’s not a church, not Baptist and yes is in Westboro are prime examples of this.  Turn or burn theology. 

A prime example of Christian love, just not in this universe.

Christ was only harsh when he had to be.  Namely to the Pharisees. I would posit that those who would treat the Samaritan woman are the Pharisees of our day.  Not the good models of Christ and the faithful disciples. Not the model of a God reaching out to save. I have heard homosexuals and those struggling with same sex attraction say of volatile picketers at gay pride parades say “if they are in heaven, I don’t want to be”.  That should be damning of our conduct and heartbreaking to say the least.  I don’t think many of those “Christians” are going to be in heaven either.  Not because Homosexuality isn’t a sin (it is Romans 1, Matthew to name a few) but because of the actions flowing from their hearts show what is in their hearts.  Just because somebody sins differently than I do, doesn’t make me their superior.

Peter is also an example of when to be harsh.  Likewise, his rebuke was to a false shepherd Simon Magus Acts 8:9-15).  The Gospel message of sin and redemption were not compromised but the individual was brought to see their need not with ad hominem hateful speech.  Rather with the message explained and lived out.  With the message proclaimed in word and deed.  Jesus ate with the sinners and while he no doubt spoke scripture he did not turn them away with angry speech.  He drew them in with his presence and his kindness and the truth of his words.  If they don’t see we care for them, why would they listen?

What did Jesus do?  He came, he taught, he fed thousands (Mark 6:30-44 Matthew 13:14-20)

 but he didn’t stop there.  He taught the Gospel, sin and redemption and was often hated for it (John 6.).  He humbled himself and lived it and showed those whom he reached for that he had no ulterior motive.  His words still offended but because of their truth not his conduct.  Let his words offend because they are his words.  His teachings and principles were unchanging and his conduct was loving and consistent.  He got to know people (he even went to parties).  He invested in the people and showed that they meant something.

Take the example in Matthews Gospel for example. In Mathew 9 Jesus calls Matthew while he’s sitting at his tax booth.  Tax collectors were considered cheats and traitors, Christ called him out that lifestyle and literally while he was sitting at such work.  Matthew and Jesus sat with possibly Matthew’s associates (fellow tax collectors and even prostitutes) and ate dinner with them (Matthew 9:9-13).  Matthew brought those he knew from his old lifestyle to hear the Gospel. 

You generally only eat with people you know today.  It was even more so then and still is in Middle Eastern culture, eating was intimate fellowship.  This is why the Pharisees look on this and ask the disciples “why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He is not just eating with them but investing in them personally. 

Jesus’ reply is profoundly deep and incredibly simple.  The doctor treats the sick.  The healthy, the righteous have no need for a physician.  He came to call sinners, which is good for us because none of us are righteous (Romans 3:10-23).  Who else would there be?

In saying “I desire mercy and not a sacrifice” Christ emphasizes the importance of living out faith.  Faith lived is far better than faith of ritual.  A doctor is a good analogy for a doctor cares for his patience and shares the truth of their condition. If a patient doesn’t know he’s ill or has not come to realize it, being harsh with a patient could mean his death. If a patient has a deathly illness and the doctor makes him aware of the fact he will likely run to the cure.

The flip side of turn or burn evangelism is the oft fatalistic mindset of the sinner outside of the church. I had a camper one summer whose mother told him “if I even set foot in a church I would burst into flames”.  This fatalism is not unheard of even among nominal Christians. Similarly I had a Catholic friend tell me once “the things I’ve done I’m going to hell”.  I wish I’d have told him “me too, but it’s not what I’ve done but Christ for me”.  I wish I could have that opportunity back. 

 If you're too sinful/dirty to enter a church because you'd burn up what am I doing in a church?  Look at the Samaritan woman, or the “sinners and tax collectors” Jesus ate with. Or Paul who was actively persecuting, even slaughtering the church.  Christ took it so personal as to ask “Why are you persecuting me” because that is what Paul was doing.  Or Peter even called himself a sinful man when confronted with who Christ is (Luke 8:8).

The Samaritan woman went home to tell everyone and the whole village drew near to hear from Christ.  Peter and Matthew were called from where they were to become disciples.  Living the love of God calls sinners out of this world to great purposes.  In the salvation of one the doors to many others become opened

  It is possible to make so much of one’s sin and to lose sight of God’s love and Grace.  Love truly is about wanting what’s best for another persons not just desiring to avoid unpleasantness.  This is why we can’t leave the world to its fate, we are called to love them.

This is why if we love we can't keep the Gospel to ourselves.

God calls all to repentance.  Religions aside from Christianity are man climbing to the top of a mountain where God is. We cannot reach the peak.  Christianity is God coming down, to look for sinners like you and me.  He came for the sick not the righteous otherwise he would not have come at all.  While most Christians aren’t turn or burn we often get lumped together and lampooned by a world already eager to call us bigots and phobes.

We’re presenting the Gospel not selling it.  The lost need to know they are lost and they need the Gospel.  So loving them is warning them of the peril of sin.  One of the horrors of Liberal theology is how it is nice to the point of cruelty, ignoring and denying the peril of sin.  They also need to know that they themselves are cared for.  For example, what would I do at a gay pride parade?  Would I bring a board with scripture? Depends on the scripture but yes I would share it with them.  I would bring food, water, provide a place to sit even a shoulder to cry on.   I’d show them the substance of my faith as part of the message.  The Gospel. It’s what a hurting world needs (Christians included).

EDIT:Spurgeon has a way with words.