There are people we don’t want to pursue, and people groups we find hard to love. Sadly, it’s easy to forget that we were all strangers from God at one time, until Christ brought us in and made us members of His Father’s household. 

Our series through Jonah is titled “Loving Strangers” because we don’t want to lose the focus of our call to make disciples by loving, engaging, and pursuing those outside of our church family. 

The gospel compels us to love those who are difficult for us. The story of Jonah is a good reminder to love and pursue others even when our hearts and emotions don’t want to. When our hearts are not there, we can take steps and trust that emotional excitement isn’t a requirement to be faithful to God. Jonah is an encouraging picture of that reality. No one naturally loves their enemies, but that difficult command is even more difficult when we lose sight of the reality that we were once enemies of God, who have gone from strangers to family because of His grace and because someone shared the gospel with us.