John 20:31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John, the “disciple Jesus loved,” (John 21:20) was consumed with getting others to know and express that love. That’s another way of expressing what evangelism is. He wrote this Gospel and his three letters with that goal, to get people to recognize and believe the love of God for them, expressed through Jesus Christ the Lord, and to let that love flow through them to those around them, just as he did. Everything we do should be geared to that same end. As Paul said so eloquently in 1 Corinthians 13, without love, the finest lifestyle becomes meaningless. The temptation here is to go off on a discourse on the different types of love expressed by the different Greek words, but suffice it to say that we are talking about agape here, even if in our experience that does bleed into the other types. If we truly love others as God loves us, our foremost desire for them will be to know, believe, and love God themselves, which will indeed mean their eternal salvation. The degree to which we desire that reveals the degree to which we grasp the love of God ourselves, and the degree to which we ignore it reveals the degree of our own self-centeredness.

The more I grow in faith, the stronger this truth comes home to me. There is no tragedy so great as someone rejecting the love of God, and there is no joy so great as someone being born into God’s family by faith. I should be evaluating every part of my life by how well it expresses God’s love, so that as many as will may believe and receive for themselves. Yesterday’s funeral was a case in point. For the man who died, going to be with Jesus was hardly a tragedy, and by all accounts he had a very easy time of it. The length of his life on earth is largely immaterial. However, many if not most of the people present were not in the place of faith that he was, and that is the tragedy. I need to be fully available to God to communicate the good news of salvation to as many as possible, as effectively as possible. That is going to be both in proclamation, as in my sermons, and in individual interaction. My sermons will be meaningless if I am unwilling to take the time with individuals.

Father, I do tend toward burnout on this issue. People seem so stubborn in their disbelief! However, I’ve expressed equal stubbornness in various ways. Help me love people into Your kingdom, not failing to speak strong words when they are called for, but always speaking and acting in love, so that nothing may stand in the way of their receiving the salvation You offer them, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!