The joy of sharing Christ lies in knowing his love for us

The Great Commission tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. The first step is naturally sharing Christ

Sharing Christ with others is a natural thing for the Christian who has experienced and is conscious of the his goodness. All Christians will experience Christ's love, providence and protection but not all remember or are conscious of it.

However sharing Christ does not come without a cost. In a world where we try to gain acceptance among peers we can do so without sounding irrational or being abnormal. Sharing Christ may make people think that we are one of those religious types. This article does not try to tell you how to be subtle in sharing the gospel or the steps to it. Instructions on how to share are good and gives many a platform to start. It also reminds us to include the important things like confessing we are sinners in need of a Saviour and the cross being the unmerited gift of Salvation. It also guides us into the sinner's prayer. However this article deal with the attitude of wanting to share. I believe if someone really wants to share Christ, the Holy Spirit will teach him how even if he does not have a chance to learn how. And it will be for the time, relevant to your friends and powerful in spirit.

Someone in love will never be at lost of words to say about his/her lover. Why this is so is because this lover spends moments studying and mediating on the love one. And any time anybody asks for a picture from this someone, he/she readily whips out the photograph. You may even notice that the movement of retrieving the picture seems so fluid. I guess it required a lot of practice and a lot of practice is what this person went through. The process of retrieving a lover's picture is truly a labor of love.

Substitute us as the someone and our lover as Jesus and you get the picture why I claim it is suppose to be natural for us to share Christ. There can be other motivations other then our love for God. Some may do it out of envy or perhaps are being forced to by someone.

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Philippians 1:15-18

I rejoice as long as Christ is being preached but I believe it more sustainable and joyous for you guys if you preach Christ out of love. This is our strength in all our service and sufferings. We suffer, serve and even lose face for the sake of love. Christ washed his disciples feet, healed the multitudes and took our sins because of his love for us and the Father. Christ feed on his Father's love. Should we not feed on Christ's love for us? Our motivation to share Christ will be our love for God and the love for the lost. Have compassion for the lost.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4:19-21 **(New International Version)

Jesus is easy to love. He protects me, provides for me and gave me a destiny as joint heir in Christ. If you do not already know I encourage you all to know it in detail, you will easily fall in love with God. But how about my imperfect brother? How to love a human being that is full of faults?

There is an order to things. If we do what the Bible says we will have the results the Bible says. Verse 19 says that we will love because he first love us. If you do not love your neighbor it is because you have not seen God. And the same chapter says that God is love. Therefore the fruit of seeing God who is love will be that you must love your brother/neighbor/friend which is only natural when one beholds the God who is full of love.

So if we want to have a zeal to share Christ with others look to Christ and his love for you first. Leaders seeking to generate an atmosphere of love in their LG should also take note that telling members that we must love will not just happen. We need to look to this source of love that will generate our love to others.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love."
John 15:9 (New International Version)

Do the first things first and the results will come. In this case of sharing Christ, it will be first knowing how much God loves us. When YPM has a bunch of people who is constantly feeding on Christ's goodness that will be the time to get ready. An army whose destiny is more then a conqueror will be on beserker mode when it comes to sharing the Gospel (Good News!)

Moses Foo