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According to people who study missions, some foreigners reject Christianity because, in their minds, those who offer them the Gospel are the same ones who exploit them. In their view, the ones who bring them the Bible are the same ones who rip them off. They can’t tell the difference between Christians and non-Christians. The Bible frequently reminds us that we must not separate what we do on Sunday from what we do all week. The Apostle Paul stressed this. He said our lifestyle, as followers of Christ must penetrate every area of our life. We must not justify or do things in our daily lives that contradict our claim to be followers of Jesus. Paul stressed that as he ended the letter of 1 Thessalonians (Chapter 5), “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” We misrepresent Jesus when the values we practice every day contradict the values Jesus taught. He said we must love God with all our hearts and love people as we do ourselves. These two loves go together. When we say we love God but deprive others of justice, we shame the Christ we claim to love and follow. That is true whether the others are in our family, our church, our community, or people in other countries.
