Recently, I preached from Romans 10, where Paul reminds us that we are the instruments God sovereignly uses to deliver the gospel news to the world. “How will they hear without a preacher” is motivation for every follower of Jesus to be that preacher. It doesn’t necessarily mean only pastors and missionaries do the preaching, but all Christians should, in some sense, preach the word to the lost. We should do this winsomely, lovingly and intentionally.
This passage convicts me in a lot of ways. For starters, it presupposes that I actually care about those who don’t know Jesus. In my daily life, how often is my heart broken for the brokeness of the world around me?
Secondly, Paul’s words also presuppose something else: that we are actually building relationships with people not like us so that we may be the bridge that leads them to Jesus. Much of our Christianity is focused on prevention. Some of this is good. As parents, we want to shield our children from negative influences and harmful media consumption.
And yet, we must not do this in such a way that conflicts with the Great Commission. It occurs to me that the enemy, who hates seeing people connected to Jesus, is OK with us retreating so deep into our own Christian subcultures and bunkers, into our political ideologies and networks, that we don’t actually interact with anyone else enough to make friends with them in order to be the one reflection of light in their dark world.
The Great Commission carries with it an assumption. Jesus assumed those who have had an experience with Him, whereby they know that He has died on the cross, rose again in victory and is alive regenerating their heart—these people will surely tell others. There is an assumption that we won’t be silent. But underneath even that assumption is that we will take Jesus’ own prayer in John 17 to heart and realize we were put on this earth to be His representatives.
In plain words, this means one thing: We must be intentional about building long-term, thick, vibrant relationships with people who are different than us. People of different races. People of different backgrounds. People of different religions. People who don’t vote the way we do. People who may not live like we think they should live.
You see, we can’t simply carry out the Great Commission on a fly-over basis. By this I mean that staying in our bunkers and then emerging every so often to “gospel-bomb” people with Heaven tracts isn’t what, I think, Jesus is talking about. I love Heaven tracts and know that many have come to faith in Christ because of them. Yes.
However, if we think sheepishly slipping a tract underneath the check at a restaurant gets us off the hook when it comes to the Great Commission, we are doing it wrong. Liking the Jesus page on Facebook can’t be all we do. Wearing the fish symbol on our cars can’t be all we do.
We must vigorously, intentionally, get to know people within our circles of influence.
