Two streams of dangerous indifference to overcome

“The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference.”

You may have heard this quote before- it’s a sticky statement. It prods my conscience because I can easily boast that I’m not a hateful person. I’m easy going, I enjoy people, I generally seek to be kind and helpful. So imagine my surprise, and sinking feeling, when confronted with the idea that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to my efforts at evangelism may simply be my lack of love. 

The source of the quote above, was a gentleman who knew something about hate. He was a holocaust survivor who came face to face with arguably the most heinous, gruesome hate in his century. And yet (even if only rhetorically) he describes a lack of love not as hate, but as simple ‘indifference’. 

Now, not loving my unsaved neighbor enough to share the gospel with him doesn’t make me Hitler. But honestly assessing my pride, by admitting that I’m running short on the kind of love strong enough to share the gospel is confronting. 

This constructive confrontation came by means of my Sunday school class that worked through Matthias Media’s Share the Gospel curriculum. Unearthing our personal hindrances and shortcomings when it comes to evangelizing our friends and neighbors was an important step in growing us as Christians to fulfill our role as ambassadors for Christ. 

But here’s the really sticky part of facing my lack of love, or indifference: it’s not only a love for others that should compel me to share the gospel. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that our driving motivation behind proclaiming the good news of the gospel is our love of Christ. So there’s two streams of dangerous indifference to overcome. Our love of Christ should be enough to compel us to share the gospel, and may we shed indifference and put on love toward those who don’t yet know Christ.

I may have been confronted with my need for growth in this area in some other way, some other day. But I’m glad it was now and not later. And I have a deep appreciation for the way Share the Gospel helps examine the commands, challenges, opportunities, and motivations for evangelizing our circles. Doing so in a group of brothers and sisters in Christ proved to be exponentially helpful as week in and week out we shared weaknesses, encouragements, personal examples, and questions. If this is an area you think you could use some help in (does anyone not?), this is the book for you.