January 2003
A Brother From Sri Lanka Urges Believers to Endure in Biblical Love

God loves people. It is a simple, powerful, complicated, Jesus-shows-us truth. It is as simple as gathering up a child in your arms and blessing him. It is as powerful as giving your life for someone who needs your help. It is as complicated as loving someone violently opposed to your existence. It is as tangible as Jesus-in-the-flesh, so loving the world of people that he gave his life (John 3:16). But just knowing that God loves people does not automatically mean that we love like He loves.

A few weeks ago, several of us across Evangelical Friends International-North America and many of our missionaries worldwide received a letter from a brother from Sri Lanka (an island nation south of India). In the letter he describes his concern that American Christians take time to consider the thoughts and feelings of Christians in other parts of the world.

"There is a growing frustration [among non-Western Christians] that. . . American Christian are listening only to what American experts say about the situation in the world outside their borders rather than hearing the heart-cry of the people."

While unequivocally rejecting terrorism, he urges American Christians to consider why non-Westerners may be angry with us. He cites several reasons:

The wholesale export of shoddy values and sexual immorality by the West, including America.

Our brother observes that many of the values portrayed by Western media ". . . directly oppose Asian values such as costly commitment to family, lifelong faithfulness to spouse, and community solidarity as opposed to individualism. Then there is the proliferation of pornography and other sexual deviations, which has hit our people. . . My son told me of a 17-year-old Muslim classmate who has downloaded and saved from Western websites two gigabytes of pornography on his computer."

The temptation for the body of Christ to divert our focus from world evangelization to military and economic issues.

He then urges Christians around the world to reaffirm that ". . . world evangelization is the most important cause in the world today. It has to do with eternity. The church must put that first, and whatever hinders that must be dealt with legitimately and biblically."

The habit of referring to ourselves as "the greatest nation on earth," rather than humbly considering "others better than yourselves" in the spirit of Philippians 2:3.

At this point, our brother caused me to reflect upon the fact that, while God has given us great freedom and great blessing-much of which we have shared with others-he also calls us to a greater servanthood. In response to his disciples who wondered "who was the greatest," Jesus declared, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all" (Mark 9:35b). Arrogance impedes our witness for Christ because, intentionally or not, it demeans other people and cultures.

Our friend hits hard but not unfairly. Along with his critiques, he conveys a heart of love for Western Christians. He also acknowledges that non-Western Christians fall prey to some of the same prejudices that afflict us and constrict our witness for Christ.

Perhaps in our lifetime, there has never been a more important time for us to rediscover the purifying power of God's love poured out through Jesus Christ. God calls us to repent when we worship country more than Christ, when we assume a superiority over other people, when we quietly ignore massive exports of immorality for profit, when we permit our fervor for evangelism to be dulled or usurped by our passion for lesser goals.

This is a time for us to intensify love for Christ and his kingdom. This is a time for us to reach out in love to people around the world, through evangelism, church planting, Christian medical ministry, service to AIDS patients, Christian schools, and other tangible efforts to relieve human suffering in Jesus' name.

The love of Christ Jesus purifies our hearts for God and for people. His love helps us to think through the concerns of a brother from Sri Lanka, carefully considering his insights in light of biblical truth, rather than dismissing them summarily as offensive.

Perhaps in the midst of our difficult, troubled world, we can grow in Christ-like love, ever more faithful and credible to those who do not yet know Christ but who can see him incarnated in acts of service and words of truth.

-by Dr. John P. Williams, Jr.

Dr. John Williams, Jr. serves Evangelical Friends as Regional Director of Evangelical Friends International-North America and as General Superintendent of Evangelical Friends Church-Eastern Region. Dr. John is a tireless champion for building the Kingdom of God around the world and for helping Friends continue to be part of that overall movement.