Here’s an idea for you: Christianity cannot exist without non-believers. I know that might seem counter intuitive, but it’s true. As a Christian believer, your main purposed in life is to spread the gospel of Christ to as many people as possible. In order to complete that goal there has to be people who don’t know the gospel. If everyone believed in Christ, then who would we share the gospel with? Our mission would be over. We would have completed our goal for existing and the only thing to do then would be for Christ to take us to heaven.

The unfortunate reality is that there are those who do not have a relationship with Christ. In fact, there will likely always be people who do not believe. This means we will always have the opportunity to share our faith with others. The world will always contain many people who do not believe, and if we’re living our lives correctly, before others, then we will constantly be in contact with unbelievers. This is of course a good thing! If you’re a doctor and your job is to heal the sick, then you have to be in contact with the ill. The issue is that many Christians lose sight of this. They attempt to insulate themselves from the world, or even worse, they try to blend in with the world.

The connect team that I am a part of just finished with the series Thriving in Babylon. It’s a really great curriculum that used the story of Daniel in Babylon as a way to explain how we as Christians are supposed to live in the world. I am always a little leary of Bible studies that market themselves as teaching Christians to resist the world because they tend to take things a bit far, and in doing so hamper the listeners ability to share with unbelievers. Thriving in Babylon does not make this mistake. It does an excellent job explaining that we are not to separate from the world, but to share with the world the Gospel. There were a few things that we spoke about that really stuck with me that I would like to share.

The world is not our enemy.

Too often Christians mark the world as our enemy. In our minds we make up anyone who does not believe in Christ the enemy. Therefore we attempt to separate ourselves from nonbelievers, even attacking them at times. That is not how we are told to respond to the world. We are not told to attack the world, but to influence it. We are told to love others. You cannot love someone who you constantly view as your enemy. Our perspective has to shift. Something that was said in the study was that we need to stop seeing nonbelievers as our enemy and start seeing them as  victims of our enemy. Once we see that our true enemy is Satan, and he has ensnared those apart from God, then we can help them free themselves. Too often we push back against those who are looking for God. We shun those who are broken and seeking Jesus. The terrible irony is that Jesus is the only thing that can help those who are in bondage to the enemy, and we constantly stand in their way. We need to make it easier for people to come to Jesus, instead of being a road block. Jesus wants their brokenness and loves them despite their sin. How evil would you have to be to stand in their way?

We have to adjust our expectations.

Too often I see churches, preachers, and even other Christians berating and attacking those who do not know Christ. They do so by casting light upon the wrong things nonbelievers do. Taken to its extreme, this is exactly what Westboro Baptist Church does when they protest. In a similar, yet less extreme way this also happens when we are constantly shocked or outraged by the behavior of nonbelievers. Here’s the issue, we are holding nonbelievers up to a standard they do not know. Would you berate a five-year-old for not playing football correctly? Of course not, they don’t understand the rules. In the same way we constantly hold nonbelievers to the same standard that we hold those in Christ too. They simply don’t understand what they are doing is wrong. Instead of constantly chastising nonbelievers for their behavior, we should instead show them the meaning behind our own behavior. That’s what it says in 2 Timothy 2:23-26.

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

They won’t care about how they act until they know why it matters, and they can’t know why it matters until they know Jesus.

We have to stop being scaredy cat Christians.

Here’s the truth that we have to become comfortable with, if we want to spread the gospel then we have to go to the places where it isn’t. That means we have take the gospel with us into the places that might seem dark. In order to spread the gospel we have to be brave enough in Christ to go into places that might seem dark. We have to start acting boldly in our faith. Isn’t God strong enough to protect us? Of course He is, so stop acting like someone else’s sin is going to rub off on you. We are light to the world and darkness can’t overpower light. Light always drives out the dark. Look at what Daniel did in Babylon. Daniel learned the legends of the Babylonians. He learned astrology and other dark arts of Babylon. Not only that, but he became the best student in the class. He of course stayed true to God during this time knowing that God would protect him from any evil he would face. Because he learned these things he was able to impress upon the king and tell him that he did not use the Babylonian dark arts to interpret the king’s dream, but the one true God had shown him the answer. Too often we’re afraid of catching second hand sin, but God is more powerful than anything. We have to be bold and go out into the places that might not welcome us. We have to go to the places that the gospel is absent from. XXXChurch goes into strip clubs, porn conventions, and other adult venues to spread the gospel and reach out to sex workers. They have helped numerous people find God in one of the worse environments. Who do you think needs Jesus more, those in a bar or those in church?

This series has taught me a few things about myself and how I behave when among unbelievers. It has changed my perspective of those who need God. It’s only by understanding these truths that we may better serve Jesus by reaching out to those who desperately need them. Turns out that we aren’t supposed to curse Babylon, but we’re supposed to love them. Are you shining your light among Babylon, or are you keeping it to yourself?