For the Sake of the Gospel
"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
- Matthew 5:44
Even in the church today, we can write off a lot of people, sometimes even fellow believers. It seems that sometimes the slogan is, "Us four and no more." We can divide over minutiae and allow second-tier and third-tier issues to bring unnecessary division in our ranks.
I have had people criticize me for those whom we involve in our Harvest Crusades: "Why do you let that church come? If that church is coming, then our church isn't going to participate." Or, "Why did you let that pastor pray at the crusade? I don't agree with that pastor, because in one of his books, he quoted someone who once had coffee with someone else, and it is guilt by association. I want nothing to do with any of this."
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But I will say, "Look at the essential areas where we are in agreement, and we can get together-even though there are some minor differences-for the sake of the gospel of Christ. That is all I am trying to do."
If people want to withdraw over that, then I guess that is what will happen. But I am going to keep doing what I do and keep preaching the gospel and trying to get as many people to join me as possible. And I want to join as many others who are doing this too.
Here is the thing: Sometimes there are people we don't want to bring the gospel to, because if we were honest (we probably would not verbalize it), we don't want them to come to Christ. But the Bible says we are to love our enemies (see Matthew 5:44).
So here is my suggestion to you: Go to them. Take the message of the gospel to the people who have offended you and hurt you.
