Up or Down?

Loving people wherever they are

What does it mean to share the gospel with someone? How do we approach it? What angle do we take?

I think too often Christians look at it wrong. We want to bring people up to Jesus instead of bringing him down to them. That’s the opposite of the gospel message, yet we can be so prone to do it. Instead of telling people the truth that Jesus meets them where they are, we want people to act better, and thereby, come to faith.

It’s a lie that the enemy has used since the beginning - that it’s about works. That as long as you’re “good enough” you’ll be fine. We compare ourselves to others (but only those who are “worse” than us so that we can feel better). And when we see the reality of sin in lost people, we can be too quick to condemn the sin but don’t focus on giving them the answer. We sometimes want to make bad people good instead of wanting dead people to come alive.

What if instead of trying to pull people up, we brought them Jesus where they are at? What if we could help the guy who is on drugs understand that Jesus accepts him while he’s holding that needle but loves him too much to leave him there? What if we helped open the eyes of the woman selling herself on OnlyFans to understand that Christ loves her even while she is doing those things and wants to give her freedom?

What if we approached it that way instead of (in essence) telling people to clean themselves up and get to church? What if we truly cared for people where they are at and loved them enough to walk alongside them through the dirt and grime instead of just assuming that a “real” Christian will go to this church, or go to that Bible study, or have this or that political opinion?

I’m no better. You’re no better. We’re all sinners. Some are sinners saved by grace; some are sinners condemned right now (see John 3:18). We’re commanded to come down to their level. Look at Philippians 2: “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.”

We want to pull people up to where we are. That’s not a bad thing, per se. We should want those who are lost and in rough spots to be pulled out of the pit they are in. But we can’t stand on the side lines waiting for them to climb up. We need to jump in the trenches with them and bring Jesus to them, not them to Jesus. It doesn’t work that way.

Love people where they are, not where you wish them to be. Christ did that to you; he did that to me. And he’s still doing it today.