A lot of modern evangelism focuses on the love God. We rarely hear it preached that God is angry at us because of our moral rebellion, and we rarely hear about the coming judgment. And yet, when you look at what the early church preached in Acts, it was a lot about judgment and not a word about the love of God or inviting people to have a relationship with God (see Evangelism: Are we preaching what the early church preached?).

I’m not saying we shouldn’t preach that God loves sinners. I’m saying we need to preach both that God loves us and that we are sinners. Indeed, only if we understand that we are enemies of God does the message of God’s love and forgiveness make sense. Apart from that context, why should anyone even care that God loves them?

If someone came up to you and said, “My god, Zoho, loves you,” would you instantly convert to Zohism? Would you even care? Even if you think it’s possible that Zoho exists, why should it matter to you that Zoho loves you? Celebrities get approached by people who express their love for them all the time. Does that change the celebrity’s life? Does that make the celebrity want to have a relationship with that person? No. The love of God alone is not enough to draw all people to God. They need the whole context of the Christian faith to understand God’s love and be drawn to God by it.

Personally, it was not the love of God that drew me to Jesus, but fear of judgment. I recognized that I was a sinner who was bound for hell unless I repented. It was only after my conversion that the love of God appealed to me.