"Just love everyone. I'll sort 'em out later" - God

That's the message that keeps popping up on different church signs all over the place (at least if you believe my Facebook newsfeed). Recently a friend sent me a picture of such a sign and asked what I thought about it. I replied "Short version… That's not how that works. Now if it said "share the gospel in truth and in love" then we would be on the right track."

WHY THIS STATEMENT IS UNBIBLICAL
A person should never assign a statement to God that God, Himself, never said. God never made this statement. He never even hinted at it.

WHY THIS STATEMENT IS APPEALING
I understand the sentiment behind the sign. Christians get a bad reputation for being hateful and mean spirited. A lot of it deservedly so. After all,

• We have churches out there spouting the most hateful messages anyone could spout.
• You can hardly go to a major sporting event without some street preacher with a bullhorn yelling about how God is going to judge them for their sins (which He is) but who does so in loud and angry tones.

So I understand why there are churches who want to counter that perception by demonstrating how loving and caring (and maybe even more important to them) how nonjudgmental they are. And what better way to do that then by putting a short, feel good statement on a church sign.

Don't get me wrong, love is important - at least Jesus thought so. After all, Jesus did in fact say "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35). But you can't take this statement by Jesus and turn it into "Just love everyone, I'll sort 'em out later."

WHY THIS STATEMENT IS DANGEROUS
This statement gives permission for Christians not to engage someone else where they need to be engaged the most - by helping them realize their need for God. God uses people to lead other people to Him. Most of the time, the people who NEED to hear it the most don't WANT to hear it all. According to this sign though, the loving thing to do is to not risk hurting someone's feelings or risk offending them. Just let God deal with it.

WHAT THIS SIGN IS REALLY SAYING
1) Don't hurt anyone's feelings - just love them and let God deal with them.
2) Don't offend anyone - just love them and let God deal with them.

But that's not what love looks like. True love doesn't worry about hurt feelings or giving offense when doing so can prevent a greater harm.

Anyone who has ever had to deal with a drug problem in their home likely has had to show tough love through an intervention. The loving thing to do is confront the addict regardless of whether or not feelings might get hurt.

Likewise, anyone who has ever seen a child about to walk out into heavy traffic likely has had to risk hurting the child in order to prevent them from being harmed to a greater extent. The loving action would never allow a child to walk into the street. Feelings must be secondary to safety.

Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) once asked:

How much to you have to hate somebody NOT to proselytize them? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

"A Gift of a Bible" YouTube

Now, this is an ATHEIST making this statement. Yet certain, misguided, churches are saying it's OK not to share. In fact, it might be better if we left that part to God. Yet there is a danger when we take that approach.

One former Muslim put it this way:

I was raised a very devout Muslim in the United States. Every time I connected with a Christian they didn't know why they believed what they believed. All these other people called themselves Christian, but they never shared the gospel with me. I concluded that, either they didn't believe the Bible was true or, if they did believe it, they didn't care if I went to Hell.

Nabeel Qureshi - author of "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus"

The Bible makes it clear that a person can't be saved apart from Jesus. It makes it clear that a person can't be saved unless they are told of Jesus. A person can't be told about Jesus unless a person risks hurting someone's feelings or offending someone to tell them about Jesus. Hurt feelings are an obstacle that almost every person has to find a way around before they can get to Jesus.

We can't wait for the "God'll sort 'em out" part of the sign. By the time that happens, it will be too late. They will be judged based on how they responded to Jesus. It's up to us to tell them about Jesus before that happens. Feelings might get hurt. Offense might be taken. But... that's the loving thing to do - provided it's done with and in love.