To truly love others, and to truly love God, requires that we also Love Others To God? The final words Jesus gave to his followers before ascending to heaven are commonly referred to as the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (NIV)
We want to challenge and lead every person at BCCC to follow Jesus’ example of how he lived his life. He lived by loving others enough to lead them to a relationship with the Father, with God. To live your life with that focus is not necessarily easy, but it is one of the greatest aspects of life we can ever experience by focusing on loving others to God in 4 simple ways.
Love Others to God at a Personal Level
Throughout the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that give us the life of Jesus while he walked with us on this earth we see a consistent quality, he invested in others at a personal level. Investing in others at a personal level often means moving outside of our personal circle of friends and acquaintances a getting to know others and their lives. That means taking the time to build relationships with those who don’t know Christ. It means taking the time with our co-workers to listen beyond the work place. It means taking the time with those at the gas station or coffee shop we frequent to look past the name badge and get to know the person themselves and where they are at with a relationship with Jesus. It means earning the right to share the gospel message of salvation by personally coming to know their hurts, struggles, and life situations. At a personal level also means being sensitive to God’s leading on the opportune time to share the salvation message with them.
Love Others to God Means Living Xtreme Evangelism
In his book, Eats With Sinners, Arron Chambers says, “True commitment to God results in lost people being found, because true commitment to God results in lost people being loved.” To love others to God as they are means loving those who don’t know Jesus unconditionally. In other words we don’t pick who we love and don’t love to Jesus based on how good, or what type of a person they are. If they are lost, they need Jesus to be found. Jesus even loved others to God by loving them against cultural and religious norms. When culture said don’t talk to those who weren’t Jewish, those who were different, Jesus shared forgiveness with them. When religion said, “don’t interact with sinners, don’t touch lepers, don’t care for people on the Sabbath,” Jesus did it any way. Why? Because loving others to God does not have walls, or conditions, or who we think deserves to know about God’s saving grace, it only has love. It is a lifestyle of Xtreme evangelism.
Love Others to God by Sharing the Salvation of Jesus
Just as when a child is young we would not let them touch a hot stove burner and being a loving person, if we truly love someone we cannot let them die to spend an eternity in Hell away from God. Love demands that we love others by sharing the salvation of Jesus. You cannot personally save someone, but you can personally share the message of Salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ with them. Of the many ways to share that message a simple way it to explain it through a few scriptures often referred to as the Roman’s Road and by sharing your own personal story of how Jesus has changed your life. One version of the Roman’s Road is as follows:
Romans 3:10,23 All have sinned.
10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;”
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 5:12 Death is the penalty of sin
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—“
Romans 6:23 We have earned death
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 5:8 Christ died for us
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 8:9-10 Repent and confess “Jesus as Lord”
“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
Ephesians 2:8,9 Saved by grace through faith
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Romans 6:3,4 Be baptized into Christ through immersion
“Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
(also see 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
Romans 5:1 Gain peace with God through Jesus Christ
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Acts 4:12 Jesus is the only way
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
If you would like to talk to someone about making a decision, or how you can become involved in one of or ministries to love others to God contact us to today.
*All scriptures listed are from the New International Version of the bible.