By Dick Papworth
“We should just nuke ‘em!” I was surprised when the young man standing before me said this, but I understood the reason for his emotion.
I was speaking at a church meeting about the call for Christians to love Iranians and other Muslims because God Himself loves them. After the service, this young man came up to me and confessed that he had once hated Iranians because they seemed, to him, so radical, hate-filled, violent, and difficult to reach with the Gospel. He used to think that “we should just nuke ‘em!” However, God had changed his heart. He now loved them and deeply wanted to see them reached with the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We tend to write off certain people who seem too radical, too resistant, too obnoxious, too addicted, too dangerous, or too evil. We think they’ll never change. So why even try? It’s better to avoid them and spend time with those with whom we find it easier to get along. I confess I’ve reacted to certain people in my life in this way.
Jesus didn’t avoid difficult people. In fact, He spent a lot of time with people who were pretty messed up—people others tended to avoid. The Gospels record the stories of how many of these people experienced life transformation through Jesus.
He continued this practice after His resurrection. Do you remember Saul of Tarsus? The early Christians steered clear of him because he hated Jesus and was devoting his life to imprisoning and even killing Jesus’s followers. I’m sure many of these believers thought this Saul was too radical and violent and would never change. It was better to avoid him.
Thankfully, Jesus didn’t avoid him. Precisely when Saul was planning another attack on Christians in Damascus, Jesus showed up and dramatically changed Saul’s life (Acts 9:1–6). Instead of hating Jesus and His followers as he used to, he began loving them and devoted his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus to everyone who would listen. Even his name changed to Paul, which indicated the big change Jesus had brought about in his life.
Later, Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer.” (2 Corinthians 5:16) He had previously viewed Christ and people from a strictly human perspective. He hadn’t understood who Christ was and what He had accomplished through His sacrificial death. And he hadn’t understood that even the hardest, most difficult people could experience life transformation through Christ, as he himself had experienced.
In the next verse, Paul said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) If anyone is in Christ, they become a new creation. Anyone includes the difficult or obnoxious people in our lives. It includes those who seem too radical. It includes those on the opposite end of the political spectrum. It includes unreached people across the nations. It includes people with different cultures and beliefs. It includes governments that are bent on evil and oppose and persecute Christians. It includes Muslim terrorists.
Anyone who hears the Gospel, repents of his or her sin, and trusts in Christ becomes a new person, and Christ begins transforming his or her character. However, for this to happen, a Christian must first explain the Gospel of Christ to the person. That’s where we come in. We’ve received a special appointment to actively engage in a special reconciliation ministry. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)
Christ is the one who reconciles people to Himself, but He has chosen us to be the ones who lovingly explain to people how God reconciled us and how it can happen to them. We have the wonderful privilege of doing this with people in our lives and with people around the world.
The call of Christ is very clear. It’s up to us to accept that call.
Originally published in Missions magazine, July 2023. Used with permission.