Where Your Heart Is

I got to thinking the other day about people who don't know Christ. You find them all around you. They're at work and in your neighborhoods and likely even in your family. They're friends and acquaintances and strangers. They're nice people and not-so-nice people and some downright wicked folk. So, the first question is, are you telling them about Christ? Are you living the Gospel in front of them? Are you concerned about their eternal well-being?

Specifically what I got to thinking about was unbelievers you or I may know who are in obvious sin. You know that guy in the next cubicle is openly gay or the entire office pool is unmarried and living with people to whom they are not married. He's doing drugs. She has a drinking problem. And those two who are, oddly enough (it seems sometimes), married are horrible parents. Whether these are friends or family or just people that God has put in your path, you know that they need Jesus. "Well, it's pretty obvious, isn't it? I mean, they're sinners." Of course they are, but that's all of us. What they need beyond anything else is Jesus, and that is all of us as well. But is that your primary concern for them?

I don't know. I just got to thinking about it and I began to wonder. Is your biggest concern for them that they be more moral or that they find Christ? If an office acquaintance asks you about the hope that lies within you, are you going to warn him that he needs to repent from his sexual sin or are you going to warn him that he needs Jesus? That is, where is your heart? Is it that you want people to be more moral, or do you want them to know Christ and then let Christ deal with them?

I ask because sometimes it seems like we're more concerned about morality than salvation. It seems we're more concerned that the world (which Scripture guarantees will hate Christ) is opposed to virtue more than we are that they're going to Hell. We are more outraged by their sinful antics than the fact that they are deluded and headed for damnation. And I have to wonder because that sounds more like judgmentalism than genuine concern, more like legalism than love. So if you had the chance to either alter someone's particular sinful behavior or give them the Gospel without commenting on their behavior, which would you prefer? I don't know for sure, but the answer might tell you where your heart is.