We have neighbors who are pre-believers. They moved in about two years ago. They are a blended family with five children between them. Some days, there are no children around, other days, the kids are running everywhere.
Something else you need to know about my neighbors. They have never asked where I work, and I have never told them. This is not because I am ashamed of being a pastor. Nor is it because I don’t want to talk to them about Jesus. In fact, it is that ultimate purpose that determines my actions towards them. I want them to look at my life and be able to see the fruit of my relationship with Jesus through the grid of a neighbor who cares about them, not a pastor who gets paid to preach to them.
Recently, two of their kids had friends over. There were a bunch of middle schoolers chasing each other and screaming. After a while, they were jumping over the fence into our yard to escape those pursuing them. Then they were running around our house yelling at the top of their lungs. We soon noticed they were cutting the corner and running through our landscaping to get where they wanted to be. We had a choice to make. Do we go out and yell at them to respect our yard and stay out of our landscaping? Or do we go out after they are gone and rake the landscaping rocks back in place.
We chose plan “B” because we don’t want to do anything to potentially close the door to a relationship that may someday lead them to Jesus. We are choosing to try and stay on their good side; to be a person they feel comfortable being around instead of those old people who are always yelling at their kids. Besides, how hard is it to rake a few stones back in place?
My point is this. If we are going to be reproducing disciples, we need to be attractive to those we hope to challenge with the Gospel. If we are people they want to be around, it will be easier to convince them to grasp a relationship with Jesus.
This isn’t about our rights, it’s about our opportunities. The Apostle Paul said it best in 1 Corinthians 9:22. “To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”
Scripture says a man of God should be respectable. The Greek root of this word is where we get the English word cosmetics. The purpose of cosmetics is to make a person more attractive. The difference between the use of this tool and what God is calling us to is significant. Cosmetics make you appear attractive on the outside. God is challenging us to be attractive in our attitudes and thoughts, what we call a changed heart. This will then be seen in our actions. This challenge to be attractive goes far deeper than simply inviting pre-believers to the message of Jesus. It is what defines us as a child of God. Consistently displaying right actions can only happen if we have a right heart to govern those actions. This is important to God because he sacrificed his Son to offer us the opportunity to be respectable men. If our choice to model this lifestyle leads someone to faith in Jesus, this is icing on our spiritual cake.