If the gospel isn't good news for everybody, then it isn't good news for anybody. And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display. To do this, the church must stop thinking about everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever. Besides the fact that these terms are offensive to those who are the "un" and "non", they work against Jesus' teachings about how we are to treat each other. Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor, and our neighbor can be anybody. We are all created in the image of God, and we are all sacred, valuable creations of God. Everybody matters. To treat people differently based on who believes what is to fail to respect the image of God in everyone. As the book of James says, "God shows no favoritism." So we don't either. .Rob Bell
About This Quote
A lot of people like to say that if we don't preach the Gospel to everyone then we aren't spreading the Word. That's not what Jesus said at all. His main concern was that we preach the gospel with love and respect. If we preach with love and care and do no harm, then we're doing it right.
It's what we do with people after they come to faith that is important. What do we expect of people once they have been saved? Not what they did before they were saved. But what they can do now for God and for others once they have been saved.
We need to keep forgetting about our own needs and concerns and remember that of course our friends need us but also people who have never heard about Jesus, people who have never been saved, people who have never heard of Christianity at all, etc.
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