Telling Our Friends to Go to Hell - Why Isolating Ourselves is a Worse Sin Than Anything in the World

I recently wrote this for a class (Personal Evangelism). I hope that you are as a challenged by it as I was.

It is a sad reality that the idea of dealing with lost people is completely reprehensible to many who would call themselves Christians. Oftentimes, we have this idea that being a Christian means that must live a squeaky clean life, keeping ourselves above and away from the muck and filth of the unsaved world. As a result, many Christians have developed a “bunker mentality.” I often joke with my wife about the “Christian bubble”, although it is no joke. Too often we develop our own “Christian culture” to protect us from the negative influences of the unsaved world around us. We do this to the peril of our friends and neighbors. Isolating ourselves from them is almost certainly inviting them to suffer eternal damnation. If we truly desire to see people come to Christ, we are going to need to climb down from our ivory towers and be with them. Being with them does not mean that we condone their behavior. It doesn’t even mean that we go to the same places they go. It is so infuriating when I hear statements like, “Jesus would go to a gay bar.” We don’t have to engage in the same activities as unbelievers to be there for them. It is much more important that the non-Christian know that we as Christians are “safe” and can provide an environment of help and concern.