Should We Tell People Jesus Loves Them?

Here is a post from Defending / Contending titled, "Should we tell people that Jesus loves them?"



I’ve heard bold, outspoken Christians tell strangers that Jesus loves them. I’ve heard of people passing out candy and balloon animals along with a heartfelt, “Jesus loves you.”

I hate to tell these individuals they should stop. Their proclamation of Jesus’ love is more witnessing than what 90 percent of Christians will ever do.

However, there is no shortage of people who want to tell me that I’m witnessing all wrong when I give people the law before the gospel; I should just tell people that Jesus loves them. Over the years, I’ve tried a few different approaches to try to explain to them that that’s not what the Bible teaches.

•There are zero examples of that being anyone’s gospel message in the Bible.
•There are examples of gospel presentations to the contrary.
•Even John 3:16 says that those who don’t believe in Jesus will perish.
•Biblically, does Jesus really love everyone? Does He have the same type of love for everyone?

I’ve recently thought of a new approach—one that is actually ancient, because it is in 1 Peter 5:5: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” That verse is repeated in James 4:6 and Proverbs 3:34.

So, I’ve asked those who question me: If God opposes a proud person, do you think I shouldn’t tell them that He opposes them, but that He loves them?

No one has really had a response to that yet. It’s so quick and easy that it even works on the street.

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I realize that this type of post creates a stir in the evangelical world when a particular "method" of evangelism is called into question. I absolutely agree with what the poster stated at the beginning of the post when he opined, "Their proclamation of Jesus’ love is more witnessing than what 90 percent of Christians will ever do".

True that.

But can telling people that "Jesus love them" alone actually be called evangelism?

Evangelism is the intentional proclamation of the gospel.

We must never forget that we (Christians) were told to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15).

The gospel is preached when we tell the world about sin (Romans 5:12-13), God's wrath abiding on the sinner (John 3:36), man cannot save himself or please God (Romans 3:10-11), will suffer an eternity in hell for those sins (2Thess 1:9), what God has done for the sinner (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, 1 Peter 2:24), and the sinners response to the preaching of the gospel (Mark 1:15).

To say that, "Jesus loves you" and nothing more to a lost soul (and call it evangelism) is to at best deceive him and at worse give him a false assurance that everything is alright between him and God.