I’m human. I can get angry. When I do, I apologize. The one thing I don’t do is stay angry. Angry Christians don’t simply hurt themselves. As an evangelist, my greater concern is what anger is doing to the perception of the Good News of Jesus Christ among America’s non-believers.

Instead of a compassionate, biblical love being our defining mark to an unbelieving world, as commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, many American Christians have become known nationally and internationally by their anger. As an evangelist, I shudder, because anger does not draw people to the Savior. It repels them. Why? Because in our sincere, perhaps alarmist, outrage against evil, we impress the listener that we take a self-righteous, holier-than-thou, position. Scripture, to the contrary, states, “Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” [Romans 2:4 RSV]. It’s repentance we want. Not alienation.

God’s love is the core message of the Good News Gospel. It’s the essence of John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes on him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” I hope you never get tired of telling that very Good News to everyone in your world.

This is Luis Palau.