Winning people for God

I was reading John Piper's article, 'Being Mocked: The Essence of Christ's Work, Not Muhammad's'. The phalanx of articles on muslims in Europe in the news, together with Piper's Christian perspective, has left me both sad and confused. Sad because we live in tumultuous times. Confused because I don't know why this is. I'm also a foreigner living in this country, I too hold faith in a God most people around me reject, and I try to live a holy life that sets me apart from my non-Christian friends. Do I struggle as a Christian in the workplace? Yes, of course. Am I insulted when Christ is mocked, when I hear God's name taken in vain? Yes, I am. Would I take off my cross if asked to in school? Yes, I would, and I would tell myself that my faith is not symbolised by a piece of jewellery, but by my heart and my life.

The thing is, these things don't alienate me; conversely, they motivate me to pray and love others even more. It is entirely possible for different people to live together harmoniously. But at the root must be love, not hate. Love is other-regarding, hate is self-regarding. One is sustained by the deep desire to invite others into your life, the other the overriding need to defend onself. One trusts people to know everything and still follow the truth, the other just bans it. So you see? There is a difference between love and hate. Hate is borne of fear, and it is selfish.

I acknowledge there are many underlying socio-economic factors which drive religious wars. (Afterall, I did write a winning essay on how the French Wars of Religion were not concerned with religion when I was 17!) And I'm not saying I'm not a terrible snob in other non-religion-related ways myself.

Plus, I don't think Christians are that great people anyway. But that is the point. God is good, not us. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He saves us where we cannot save ourselves. Salvation is by grace alone. It is God's gift to you and me, not something we have earned, but given to us who are undeserved because of love. Love is the reason Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And Christians should carry that sense of having been forgiven themselves to love others in humility. There is nothing of worth in anything apart from Christ.

Friends and I often muse about how things would be if George W. Bush, representing a nation whose trust is in God (professedly), turned to Osama bin Laden and said, 'We forgive you.'.

How many Muslims would be won for God then?

But it will never happen. And so the quiet war goes on.

"What does this mean? It means that a religion with no insulted Savior will not endure insults to win the scoffers. It means that this religion is destined to bear the impossible load of upholding the honor of one who did not die and rise again to make that possible. It means that Jesus Christ is still the only hope of peace with God and peace with man. And it means that his followers must be willing to “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10)."