Have you ever considered that genuine love can make you unpopular—even hated—and, in some countries, cost you your life? Let me explain. Real love is willing to tell people that they are in great peril and risk eternal damnation because they are unrepentant sinners. Real love is willing to share the full gospel message that while Jesus loves you, we are hopelessly lost and heading to hell if we don’t accept Christ as a Lord and Savior from sin. And real love is willing to risk being unpopular in order to lead people out of darkness. I like how the late Pastor John MacArthur put it: “It is unloving to leave people in darkness and error.”1
Jesus Christ is without a doubt the personification of love and compassion. He healed the sick, raised the dead, and yes told people to repent of their sins. His demonstration of real love eventually cost Him His life and made Him quite unpopular with those who were self-righteous and unwilling to acknowledge their sinfulness. Our role as Christians is to follow the teachings and commandments of Christ and share the good news of the gospel, which includes letting those people we love know that they must repent of their sins and realize that in reality they are rebels against a holy God.
Let’s look at real love in another way. It would be quite unloving if you had the cure for cancer but refused to share it with cancer victims. In the same way it is quite unloving to, as John MacArthur shared, leave people in darkness and error, by not letting them know that they are sinners that need to repent and accept the free gift of salvation. We have the antidote for sin, and if we withhold sharing it, people will not make it to heaven if we refuse to do the loving thing and that is to tell them the good news of the gospel.
Genuine love is risky business because you may lose friendships in the process. I know in my own life that I lost two good friends when I shared the gospel with them. They were offended when I told them that they needed to repent of their sins. But real love says that it is better to lose them as friends now in the hope that the seeds we planted in their hearts will some day open their blind eyes and hardened hearts to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.
My friends, in closing, real love says that I am willing to have my feelings hurt if it means possibly losing a friend now but seeing them again later in heaven!