Don’t Tell Them Jesus Loves Them

Back in 1988, Steve Camp released a song that haunts me 30 years later.  Here are the lyrics:

Oh, the suffering souls
Crying out for love
In a world that seldom cares
See the hungry hearts
Longing to be filled
Much more than our prayers
And a young girl sells herself
On Seventh Avenue
And you hear her crying out for help
“My God, what will we do?”

Don’t tell them Jesus loves them
Till you’re ready to love them too
Till your heart breaks from the sorrow
And the pain they’re going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don’t tell them Jesus loves them
Till you’re ready to love them too

All the desperate men
Are we reaching for the souls
That are sinking down in sin?
Oh, cry for the church
We’ve lost our passion for the lost
And there are billions left to win
And another forty thousand children
Starve to death today
Would we risk all we have
To see one of them saved?

Don’t tell them Jesus loves them
Till you’re ready to love them too
Till your heart breaks from the sorrow
And the pain they’re going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don’t tell them Jesus loves them
Till you’re ready to love them too

Why have we waited so long
Ah, to show them Jesus lives
To share salvation’s song
Why have our hearts become so proud
Oh, that we fail to see
To love them is to love God

And a young girl sells herself
On Seventh Avenue
Hear her crying out for help
“What will we do?”

Oh, don’t tell them Jesus loves them
Till you’re ready to love them too
Till your heart breaks from the sorrow
And the pain they’re going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don’t tell them Jesus loves them
Till you’re ready to love them too

A song, released 30 years ago, tells the story of TODAY.  The story of NOW.  Church, WE are called to tell them that Jesus loves them.  But don’t you DARE tell them until you are ready to love them too!!  In fact, if you do not love them, you are walking OUTSIDE of God’s will.

And, if we are called to LOVE the lost, how much are we called to love those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ?  How can envy and strife exist in the modern church, except that we (the church) are walking and living in a way that is contrary to God???  A long time ago there was a word for living like that:  That word in SIN.  Walking against God’s will.  And those of us that knowingly walk against the will of God will be judged for doing that.

So, pray and seek His face.  He will give you exactly what you need to be able to love even those you deem unloveable!!  (Trust me … I know from experience!!!)