Love the Sojourner

Allow me to share something that has been on my heart recently. In Deuteronomy 10:19 Moses tells the Israelites “Love the sojourner, therefore, because you were once sojourners in the land of Egypt.” He is telling the people to welcome those who do not belong. Welcome the people who are different than you. They had once been in Egypt where they were not native people, and the flipside was now true. God through Moses was instructing them to welcome foreigners. Why do I bring this up? We are in one sense sojourners. As Christians, this earth is not our ultimate eternal destination. In one sense we do not belong on this earth. In another sense non-Christians are sojourners when they are in our midst because they do not belong to the kingdom of heaven. This is the group I want to turn our attention too. We need to love the sojourners, the ones who are not yet of the kingdom of heaven. If an unbeliever walks into your church, he is a sojourner. He does not belong to the kingdom of heaven yet, but it is the duty of Christians to love such a one because here is the reality; you were once in the same boat. Christians are all sinners saved by the grace of God. You were once in their position – you were a sinner condemned to hell but were saved and now according to Romans 8:1 you are no longer under condemnation. A good friend of mine and I were talking recently and she turned to me and she said “Why are we wasting time judging those who are lost in sin rather than loving them and reaching out to them in the Love of Christ.” This coming a few months after another conversation I had with a stranger on an airplane. I try to take opportunities to witness to a captive audience and if you’re thousands of feet in the air, I don’t think you’re going to get too far in the way of escape. I opened up a conversation with her but before I got far she asked me “Are you like all those other Christians?” With slight hesitancy I asked her to define that terminology and I was not prepared for her response. “What are other Christians like?” I asked. She said “All you Christians do is judge people and tell us we are going to hell for not believing in Christ.” This thought has stuck in my brain since then. The doctrine of hell is true, and it’s a horrifying reality to know that people are going to hell every day. As Dr. Bob Jones III of Bob Jones University says “The most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to hell today.” Is it possible that we have forgotten the love aspect of the gospel? Is it possible that we spend so much time judging people for their sins that we actually shed a bad light on the gospel and on Christ and turn people off to the message of Salvation? I think the answer is yes and it’s a reality that needs to change, my brothers and sisters. I think every Christian needs to sit down and read First Corinthians 6:9-11 – “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor the drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.” I think a lot of us see in the world those who represent the first part of that verse and we don’t see the second part – ourselves. We were all vile in God’s sight until God himself through the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed us from our sins. What right do you or I have to judge someone who is not saved, or even a fellow Christian for their sin when we are no better? The only difference between me and someone who is not a Christian is that I am covered by the blood of Jesus Christ my God! We have a duty to love others. A line of “O Church Arise” (a favorite hymn of mine) mentions part of our call is “to love the captive soul, but to rage against the captor.” Satan has a hold on this world and we sit around here saying “Look at these homosexuals. How could you possible love another man?” Or we look at a man like Jery Sandusky who sexually abused multiple children and we say “That’s disgusting how could anyone do that?” I will tell you how. Jesus is not called the light of the world for no reason. This is a world darkened in sin and because of that there are people in darkness slaves to sin who are susceptible to the devil leading them astray and leading them to commit abominable acts like murder, rape, child abuse, homosexuality and everything else we see as awful and terrible. Here is a novel idea that some of you are going to think I’m crazy for saying. Instead of sitting around thinking how terrible these sins are, how about you visit a prison and share the gospel. Find someone on death row and tell them about the life-giver who can provide eternal life for them even after their earthly bodies die. Yes I’m serious, go find these people you are judging and share the gospel with them; love them. Some of you may be thinking “That’s crazy, they have had their chance, and they don’t deserve to go to heaven after everything that they did.” If you are thinking that you don’t understand the gospel. Jesus said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17). Not only that, but none of us deserves heaven. We have all broken God’s law; we all have sinned (Romans 3:23). God in his grace provided us a way to escape the hell that we all deserve. Isaiah 53:6 says “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus didn’t pay the price for our sin so that we could be self-righteous. He paid the price so that we may have life in him and that we would share the hope we have in him with others. The bottom line I’m getting at is this: Stop judging other people, stop sitting in church just listening how bad the world has gotten, stop sitting around with your friends talking about how someone else is so horrible for – insert a sin here – and go out and do what you were called to do: love like Jesus. Reach out to the spiritually sick, care for them. There is an old cliché that says “No one cares what you know until they know that you care.” While it’s a phrase you have doubtless heard before it is true. If you go around telling people that their sin is bad and that they need to turn to Jesus, they will likely not listen to you. Show them that you care about them personally. Let your love shine before them so that their hearts will soften and they will believe in Jesus, the life – giver, the savior, before whom we stand. There is no greater calling than to serve Jesus, but to serve him, you must love like him.