Love Your Enemies

A pastor in Florida is making news by spreading hate. He is threatening to burn The Quran on September 11th. As a result he is inciting hate. He is also transforming his call to Gospel ministry into a political tool instead of preaching "Christ crucified." I wonder how he sleeps at night knowing that his actions have put thousands of American Soldiers at risk? How does he feel knowing that years of incarnational ministry among Muslims is going to be threatened because of this simple publicity stunt? How can he claim to be a follower of Jesus when Jesus says, "Love your enemies?"

Dr. Timothy Tennet, President of Asbury Seminary, says, "In 1900 34% of the world population called themselves Christian. In 2000 33% of the world population called themselves Christian. The figures demonstrate that Christianity simply kept steady with the population growth of the world. In 1900 12% of the world population called themselves Muslim. In 2000 20% of the world population called themselves Muslim. The Muslim faith grew 8% over the rate of population growth. This makes Islam the fastest growing religion in the world." In the 18th and 19th century, Judaism was the second largest religious group outside of Christianity in the United States. Currently Islam is on the same level as Judaism and is expected to surpass Judaism in the United States for the title of second largest religion within a decade. Islam is a highly misunderstood and feared religion by many of us in the West. Yet we are moving into an era where we will have neighbors that are of the Muslim faith. Our children will sit beside children of the Islamic faith in school. We visit restaurants where the owners are Muslim. It is becoming more common everyday to come across and interact with a person of the Muslim faith. We can choose to ignore the fact. We can refuse the Scripture’s mandate to love and just turn our backs on our neighbors or we can begin to have a conversation.

As parting words, Jesus tells his disciples and us, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18ff). The word “nations” in the Greek is not what we consider when we think of nations. It does not mean nation-states with borders and boundaries. “Nations” in this passage refers to ethnic groups. There are approximately 24,000 ethnic groups in the world today. 10,0000 of those belong to a world religion outside of Christianity. 4,000 ethnic groups currently belong to Islam. If we are going to be faithful to the command of Jesus we must reach out to the Muslims. If we chose to leave out any people group simply because they seem difficult, unreachable, or none of our concern then we are not faithful to Christ. Our call is to invite all Muslims into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our invitation is to all peoples to be followers of Jesus.