A Better Way
Far, far better is the way of Jesus. Love, compassion, inclusion, grace, mercy.
In these days where the the boundary between religion and politics has become almost indistinguishable, I often wonder if those of us who call ourselves Christian remember what the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is. I remember my friends and I gathering in San Diego’s Balboa Park to share the good news of Jesus with anyone who would stop to listen. We invited people to listen to our music and engaged them in easy conversation. Forty years ago that’s how we did it. No hiding behind social media. Face-to-face, the gospel was presented with gentleness and respect. That’s a rare thing to see these days.
The mission Jesus left for us is evangelism: the spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness.
It doesn’t take a deep dive into social media to see the dark opinion much of the world has toward evangelistic Christianity. They see it filled with hate, exclusion, and judgmentalism. Do this. Don’t do that. Stay away from people who disagree with you. Love, or at least tolerate, only the ones who agree with you most of the time. Right or wrong, this is how the world sees evangelical Christians. Evangelicals have given the world good reason to hold such a dark view. It’s what happens when people called to be lights in the world choose to walk in darkness instead.
There is a better way
Far, far better is the way of Jesus. Love, compassion, inclusion, grace, mercy. Evangelism, like everything else, is so much easier Jesus’ way. He has given us everything we need to accomplish the assignment, which we call the Great Commission.
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
This is how I apply the Great Commission to myself: As I go about my day, whatever I happen to be doing, I ask the Holy Spirit to make me aware of people around me. See them, hear them, pray for them. When the opportunity arises, tell them about Jesus. That’s all. Simply tell them and encourage their questions. Patiently and humbly teach them, and when they are ready help them to follow Jesus. Encourage those who follow Jesus to take more steps, next steps, such as baptism, service, and growing deeper into the new life they have committed to. Encourage them with gentleness and respect, love and humility. It takes a servant’s heart and sometimes means washing dirty feet.
Being an evangelical Christian isn’t about forcing others to believe and subscribe to a set of rules and regulations that no one, including you and I, has ever been able to meet. It is about loving others as Jesus loved and showing them the way to know and follow him. They want to, they just don’t know how. With grace and mercy, empathy and compassion, we must show them the way.
Rather than pushing people further away from Jesus, followers of Jesus ought to be taking advantage of the incredible opportunity before us to spread the good news of the gospel, and to invite wayward souls to come home. Many Christians remain on mission, but others have allowed the cares of this world to creep in and distract them from the assignment. The fruit of the Holy Spirit; love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), is missing from the lives of far too many who call themselves evangelical Christians.
Straying from the mission is nothing new to the church. It has existed since the church first began and started to spread outward from its origins in Jerusalem. As the faith spread to Judea, then Samaria, and eventually “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) false teachers came on the scene teaching a different gospel to the infant church deceiving many and pulling them away.
I am astonished
In the early days of the Church the “end of the earth” began with Asia Minor, present day Turkey. Church planting missionaries Paul and Barnabas were commissioned to plant churches and develop leaders, teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus Christ as they did. Beginning around AD 46-47 they made their way to the cities of Antioch (in Pisidia), Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. When they finished they returned the way they came and revisited the churches they had planted, strengthening them as they prepared to return home to Antioch of Syria. They ministered in synagogues to Jewish audiences, but also called to faith a significant number of gentile Greeks.
Through the efforts of Paul and Barnabas the church grew, but not long after the mission, perhaps a year or two, Paul was compelled to write a letter to the new churches they had planted. It is the earliest of his letters written around AD 48-49. Word had reached Paul, and the Christian leadership in Jerusalem, that the work they had done was in trouble as false and deceptive teachers had introduced a false “gospel.” A gospel based, not on the grace of God, but on following Jewish law.
Paul’s letter, what we now know as the Epistle to the Galatians, after an introduction begins:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. — Galatians 1:6-7
Like Paul, many followers of Jesus, myself included, are “astonished” that so many who claim the name of Jesus today are “turning to a different gospel.” At least it seems that their faith has taken a wrong turn as they abandon the gospel of grace and humble forgiveness. Instead they follow a way which is self-serving, hateful, legalistic, judgemental, proud, and divisive. It is really no gospel at all, rarely mentioning Jesus, much less following his ways. The followers of this “gospel” seek to force their brand of works based salvation on others, while criticising the true gospel of God’s love, forgiveness, and grace.
What is the gospel?
So what is this gospel that so many have abandoned and perverted?
Simply put, the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross to atone for the sins of everyone, and was resurrected from the dead to secure new and eternal life for those who chose to follow him. This good news is humbly offered to anyone who will hear so that they may come to know the grace of a loving Savior. New life in Christ is freely available to anyone, a gift from a loving Creator who is not willing to let anyone perish, but offers grace to all people so they may forsake sin and be adopted into the family of God.
Want to know more?
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One Way Photo
The photo at the top of the page is one I made on June 17, 2025 to post for a theme on Flickr. The theme? One Way. (That was easy.) It was taken in downtown Newnan, Georgia and was featured on Flickr Explore.