How Much Do You Have To Hate Someone...

I saw this video the other day that has really hit me hard. The longer and more in-depth I think about it, the more I see God speaking to me and all Christians. It is amazing to see how God uses people to teach us His truths, people that sometimes do not even believe that God (or any god for that matter) even exists. I was not aware until I saw this video that Penn from the famous Penn and Teller duo is a very strong atheist. The video that I saw (which I will post a link for later in this post) was a clip from Penn as a response to a gentleman that attended one of his shows and then after proceeded to give Penn and Bible and witness to him.

While Penn openly states in this video that this man did not change his mind and he still “knows there is no god”, I believe 100% that God is using Penn to teach Christians an important lesson on evangelism. The reason I say this is a statement that Penn makes about those of us that believe in an eternal life and whether we should be telling people about it. First of all he says that he does not respect people who believe what Christians believe and do not try to tell others about it. Then he drops what I consider to be a huge bombshell and possibly the most amazing thought on evangelism I have ever heard (and I have spent my entire life in church and four years in Bible college). Penn states, “How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them”.

Here is the link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM

I do not know about you, but I had never thought about it this way. As a Christian, evangelism, or telling people about what you believe, is something that should be of top importance. While this is how it should be, I have not experienced this a lot in my own life or observed it a lot in other Christians that I have had the pleasure of being around on a regular basis. In fact, I would even go as far as saying it is a topic that most Christians would be uncomfortable talking about. This is because either we truly do not care about other people or we are so scared about what other people will think of us that we think it better just to keep the most amazing gift ever given to ourselves. Another possibility that I see some people using as an excuse not to tell people about Christianity is they believe that only ministers or educated people can effectively do this. It might even be that they think it isn’t even their job to bring others to Christ.

No matter what our excuses are, we need to stop making them and start telling/showing everyone that we come into contact with the truth and gift that we were so freely given. There is no excuse that could ever be enough for us to not tell people about our wonderful loving God. In fact, Christ even commands us to go and bring others to Him. Matthew 28:18-20 states, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” (NIV). This is one of the last things Jesus told his disciples before ascending into heaven. It is a command that all of us are suppose to follow.

This is not an easy command to follow. In fact, I would argue that because Jesus commanded it, it isn’t really supposed to be easy. People will reject what we have to say. We will face persecution from following this command. Jesus never promised us a peaceful life in which no one would hate us for being His followers. In fact, He told us that this would not be the case at all. Jesus states in Matthew 24:9-10, “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,” (NIV). Following Jesus is not easy. Following Him comes at a price and following His commands comes at a price as well. While Jesus never promised us it would be easy to follow him (in fact He promised it would be hard), He did give us something to hold on to. This is found at the end of the Matthew 28 passage I quoted earlier. Jesus said, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (NIV). What could really go wrong with Jesus promising us that He will always be with us? It won’t be easy, but we have the King of the universe on our side.

I want to focus on what Penn said again for a few minutes. I really feel that his statement shows that he, as an atheist, might actually understand what is at stake with evangelism and why we should be doing it better than most Christians. “How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them?” Let that sink in a little bit more. We are supposed to love everyone but it really is an act of hate to let someone go through our life without trying to show them what we have to look forward too when this world is over. We should be motivated by our love for humanity more than our fear of persecution. All we can control is what we do, and we should try to show everyone what we have.

I do not believe that this means that we have to get in people’s faces every time we see them and try to convert them. We need to be outspoken about who we are and what we believe, but we have to come across as sane people who just care about others enough that we want to share what we believe can lead to everlasting life. Not everyone that we come in contact with is going to listen to us or end up believing what we believe, but we can still plant that seed. We can evangelize in many many different ways, but I feel convicted that we are supposed to evangelize anywhere and everywhere we go.

Again, there are no excuses that can get us out of that. You don’t have to be the best speaker in the world or know the Bible from cover to cover. In fact, I would argue that one would not even have to tell someone about Jesus to evangelize. One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from St. Francis of Assisi and I think it fits this post very well. He states, “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words”. That hits it right on the head. We should always be trying to bring others to Christ by our actions. Actions speak much louder than words, but our words should back up our actions. No matter what, we should be trying to bring every person we meet to a loving relationship with Christ. No excuses. When it seems hard to tell someone about your faith and what you believe, look back to what a self-proclaimed atheist once went on video and said, “How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them”. Also remember that Jesus promised to always be with us even to the end of the age. Let’s all try to make an effort to plant seed wherever it is we go.