are we Christians supposed to love people or convert them?

Question

maybe this is a question like Which came first, the chicken or the egg. I heard christians say both. So which is right?

Answer 1

John 15:17 "This I command you, that you love one another."

This is something that some fundamentalist churches don't seem to understand: true conversion will never happen unless we love people as they are, before we try to call them into the Church.

Jesus knew this, which is why His love for people was prior to anything else.

I guess if you're just converting people to your denomination, to your opinions about God, you don't have to love them.

But if I truly want them to know God in a deeper and more pertinent way, I have to love them as my brothers in Christ first.

Then conversion to God (not to a denomination) and healing will happen.

I say this as respectfully as I can: if "I accept anything you do as you are" is your idea of God's love, then you have much, MUCH to learn.

Answer 2

To me seeing them as needing to be fixed/converted is seeing a God that made mistakes.

A long time ago I thought that love was something that you reserved for some special set of people that you had judged worthy of it.

After a while I got to thinking about what Jesus had said about turning the other cheek and loving our neighbor I put the two together and realized that he had made no exceptions in these statements. It became obvious to me that he intended that we exclude no one from the love that we are supposed to be giving. I started thinking about my idea of love and suddenly realized that I had not been loving anyone at all. I had simply been judging everyone and every thing.

Judging someone worthy of love is not love, it is only judgment. I actually started to cry when I realized this. I saw just how much of my life I had wasted being judgmental, thinking of myself as a Christian, when I was actually doing just the opposite of what Jesus had asked us to do.

I thought about the verse judge not lest ye be judged, and I understood it for the first time.

I realized that I have a lot of catching up to do. So many opportunities were wasted. I now try to apply the love that I have for the world in a universal way like Jesus asks us to do.

If I start to feel afraid and think that I see someone that I should not love because of something I have thought or heard I try to catch my mistake as soon as possible. I tell myself that I have forgot the truth and have fallen for the same old trick that had cost me so many opportunities to be loving in the past. The horror of this realization is often all that is necessary to bring me back to my senses and make me drop the judgmental nonsense I was thinking.

I still have a lot to learn about love, but at least I’m making progress.

Love and blessings

Your brother
don

Answer 3

Loving people to Christ is our responsibility as Christians. In other words, by our actions and attitudes towards others and in the situations of daily life, we reflect righteousness. This makes people stop and think: Wow! How can she be so peaceful, or what makes her seem so fulfilled? Then, they might realize that it's the relationship with the Lord that's causing it---and they might want to seek it for themselves.

Answer 4

Love...converting belongs to the Holy Spirit.

Answer 5

Jesus gave two Great Commandments..Love God, and Love your fellow man. We are to make sure that the world has heard the Word..but not to shove it down their throats. As Jesus left a town where His message was rejected, the disciples asked him to bring down fire and destroy it..He rebuked them for asking such a thing.
Luke
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.

Answer 6

If you love someone, you naturally warn them when you see they're about to be hurt, right?
When you love someone, don't you show them how they can have more? Enjoy more? Be happier?
Jesus Christ is the Greatest One there is! How could we NOT show Him and tell people about Him?
A conversion comes from God. All we can do is tell people and encourage them.

Answer 7

Its because of love that we preach the Gospel. We dont do the conversion. Salvation is of the lord, Not man.

Answer 8

We are to love other people, like we love ourselves. We are to live a Christian life and let others know about it too.

Answer 9

We are commissioned to spread the word, it is the Holy Spirits job to work on their conscience but it is ultimately the persons decision to make either to choose or to deny Christ

Answer 10

how about you let people make up their own damn mind without trying to pawn your religious beliefs off on them?

I have had so many people who were catholic, or christian and once they got to know me they tried convincing me to go to church, to accept jesus and telling me how i will be saved, and jesus loves me blah blah blah... know how many of those people im still close with? NONE

I dont believe in jesus, god or any of that stuff, so a religious person who goes around trying to convert people, just comes off as annoying. Seriously, if someone wanted to take part in that religion, they would seek it out themselves.

Its like stores that try and sell you credit cards or discount cards... everyone knows its out there, so if i wanted it and was actively seeking it, i would come to you... you dont need to pester me about it, thank you very much