While the late author, Madeleine L’Engle, held some heretical views on Christianity, one of her quotes struck a cord in my heart when she said: “We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”1
Sharing the Word, fervent believing prayer, and sound apologetic arguments can often plant seeds in the heart of the non-believer but still not bring them to a saving knowledge of Christ. But when we demonstrate true Christian love for the person we are witnessing to this can be the extra element that causes their heart to want to know Jesus. When we truly show love for an individual, in the words of Madeleine L’Engle, it’s like “showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”
This special Christian agape love is defined as follows: “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). As Christians this special kind of love is what should distinguish us from the world and is what often can attract even the most hostile opponent to Christianity to consider getting to know just who Jesus is.
Manifesting the love of Christ often will arrest the attention of an individual to at least consider the Christian belief system and message. While sharing the Word, praying for the lost, providing good apologetic arguments, and loving others the way Christ did, can all play a part to bringing someone to salvation, in the last analysis we are all saved by God’s grace alone through faith in Jesus.
While no one seeks after God on their own the great mystery of how God still holds us accountable to what we do with Jesus is something I don’t fully understand. But the Scriptures clearly teach both the Divine Sovereignty of God and our human responsibility. There is clearly a tension in salvation between the Divine Sovereignty of God and our human responsibility and while we will never be able to resolve this apparently paradoxical situation with our finite minds, God in His infinite wisdom can. Our role as ambassadors for Christ is to share the Word, pray, and love as Christ loved, and watch how God works in bringing souls to Jesus!
1 TOP 25 QUOTES BY MADELEINE L’ENGLE (of 427) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)