Ever heard that title? This is a common phrase and it sounds so good and right. The world doesn’t care what “facts” you know about God and His gospel UNTIL they know that you care about them. Once convinced you care about them, then and only then might they hear your words.
There is only one big problem with that phrase.
We LOVE to put ourselves in the middle. WE are crucial to God working to save sinners.
Some biblical examples prove this phrase wrong. How many caring humans were involved when God saved Saul turned Paul? Did the Ethiopian eunuch have to be first convinced of the level of caring of the evangelist Philip? He just showed up and explained the Scriptures to him and then vanished. There are numerous examples in the NT where God saves people when people just show up and preach the truth, minus any mention of a relationship with the speaker developing first. In Acts chapter 2, three thousand people are saved in one day from Peter’s first sermon and if you read it, Peter comes out the gate swinging, calling them murderers several times! They certainly don’t “feel” warm and fuzzy by the end, yet 3,000 are “cut to the heart” and saved by the clear proclamation of God’s word.
Let’s consider the truth of God’s gospel. It is true whether we ever existed or not. It is true whether we are in the middle or not. It is true whether we produce good “feelings” in someone about our level of concern or not.
People are saved by hearing the truth apart from our charisma or their feelings about us. The truth is the voice of The Shepherd, and true sheep hear His voice and respond, and in a bit of a blow to us, whether we are in the mix or not. We do not “convince” anyone – sheep just recognize the voice of their Shepherd if we are speaking His word.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It does not come by me or the recipient’s perception of my degree of caring or not. Don’t get me wrong, we can be jerks and turn people off from hearing anything we say…but the key word is “us”. If they are elect sheep, and God’s word is being spoken, they will hear their Shepherd, not us.
You and I and our current frame of mind toward someone we’re speaking to are not vital to God doing His saving work. It is arrogant for us to think we are vital to it and that He can’t save His sheep unless we are doing it in just the right attitude. I can’t find chapter and verse that tells me that.
I do understand the sentiment of the phrase. We absolutely DO need to care. Don’t get this wrong. We are to care deeply and love the person we’re sharing the truth with. However, the message is GOD SAVES, not our “caring attitude”. Of course, it helps if they know our degree of caring but don’t get that confused with our involvement in the miracle of The Holy Spirit using the Word of God to regenerate a dead heart. Don’t make you and your level of caring a vital part of the process, stealing from God’s glory in what He alone does. Don’t elevate your contribution to the process of what God alone does.
On the flip side, if you faithfully shared God’s truth from His word, then don’t beat yourself up that maybe you didn’t present it just right or with just the right amount of “caring”, or you didn’t make that evident enough.
The bottom line is – it’s not about you. The saving power is in the Word of God, used by the Holy Spirit to do only what He can do – resurrect the dead.