Hate our neighbors?

First, watch this video (about 5 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM

Last night we started our GIC - Global Encounter Celebration, which is our church's missions conference. This video was shown last night. It's a powerful statement. But the one line he says that really pierced my heart was the one about how much do we hate someone that we would not tell them about Christ.

While this is a convicting question, I don't think we Christians, when we don't share the Gospel, hate our neighbor. That's not the problem. The problem is, we love ourselves more than God.

We are commanded in Matthew 22:37 - to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Then, Jesus says, "This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"

Thus, this is the crux of our problem. First, we don't love God with all of ourselves. Second, we don't love our neighbor as much as ourselves.

It comes down to pride and vanity, manifested in fear. We are afraid of being bold, of looking like a Jesus freak to someone else. This fear is rooted in vanity and vanity is a form of pride.

Jesus said in John 14:15 - "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. And He repeatedly told us to spread the Gospel. Therefore, we disobey God when we don't tell others about Christ. Disobedience is bad enough.

But, fear rooted in vanity stemming from pride doesn't get any worse.

Proverbs 6:16-19 says "There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers."

Notice #1 on God's hate list. Haughty eyes. AKA pride.

It's bad enough that we disobey God, but then we do it because of the #1 thing He hates. Ouch!

Don't think I'm preaching at you. This is really written for me. Conviction coursed through me last night during that video and during the sermon by Dr. John Avant. I have to do better at telling people about Christ. I can't let vanity / pride / fear stand in my way. That's not acceptible. It's not going to be easy for me. But I have to do it.

Penn was wrong. I don't hate someone because I don't tell them about Christ. I suffer from weak faith and I suffer from strong pride. What about you?