Are you on some kind of commission? What’s it to you that I get this ticket to paradise? Do you Christians have an ulterior motive for speaking to people about Jesus? You know, a better life upstairs – lots of goodies from God for converting the sinners.
It is not surprising that people would be suspicious of strangers trying to help them get their lives right. We live in a time where almost everybody is trying to sell something for a profit in return. Even business gurus who love to share their knowledge out of the kindness of their heart, have some kind of course or workbook that is for sale. With this in mind, I don’t blame you for being cautious.
Unfortunately, there are some religious groups who believe that they will win favours with God if they successfully manage to get outsiders to join their fellowship. These people can often be identified by their importunate manner. If somebody tells them they already have a relationship with God, these people should be pleased for them and politely move on. But they don’t. Instead, they try to worm their way in the person’s house in order to get them to buy their church magazine and to change the person’s viewpoint to their own twisted way of thinking.
If you told a genuine Christian stranger who knew nothing of your lifestyle, that you were saved because you had a faith in Jesus, they would be delighted to meet you – they would not try to pester you to question what you believe or have a ‘you must join my gang’ attitude.
True followers of Jesus Christ are passionate about telling others about Jesus for two main reasons:
Firstly, we are so grateful that we have the assurance of salvation, that we cannot but want to share this good news to others. Jesus has changed our lives, taken our selfishness away and replaced it with a desire to see others as blessed as ourselves. It’s a bit like the entrepreneur who wants to share his success secrets, but without the pricey course he is offering you at the end of the long sales letter. There is no catch. We want to take as many people with us to Heaven for the sheer joy of knowing we have helped save another soul from the disaster of Hell.
But we are not doing it to get praise from God, or a marvellous gift. The bible says,
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8)
That basically means that nothing good that we do has any bearing on our eternal prize. Our prize is Heaven and that is only gained by giving our lives to Jesus, so that no amazing do-gooders can boast that they are scoring higher points with God than others.
The good we do comes out of a relationship with Jesus who rubs off on us when we remain close to him. We also know what good deeds to perform because the bible tells us to love on another and to put others before ourselves. It tells us also to feed to poor and stand up for those who have no voice. These are all good things, but we do them because we know it pleases God, but not because we are trying to gain his favour.
Secondly, Jesus commanded us to tell others about him. He said in his word,
“Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. (Mark 16:15)
So, to answer your question, ‘What’s in it for you?’ more simply:
The joy of knowing the devil’s clutch has been released on one more victim and that person is no longer a slave to him. The joy of knowing one more person will get the chance to live in the Kingdom of God – a realm where there is no sickness, loneliness, sadness, hate or dying.
