Cash Godbold offers practical Biblical principles for developing relationships with Muslims. This is the first lecture in a three-part series.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Biblical Principles for Relating to Muslims:
Hello. I want to share with you some biblical principles I have learned that I hope will help you in your contact with your Muslim neighbors and acquaintances. I want us to look at 3 principles that can help us, and then let’s look at some problems to avoid. The this is a simplified approach. There are books that have a great deal to say on this subject, but they are very long to read.
The amount of material is massive, but I want to make it simple and practical. I hope when you finish this that you will read more on a given subject and that as you interact with your Muslim friend, you will go and read up on the subjects he brings up. It is very important that you bathe the whole adventure with Muslims around you in prayer. You need the Holy Spirit to lead you and to give wisdom and boldness with humility. I think it is foundational that we accept that our lord Jesus requires us to reach out to people around us so as to share with them the good news.
These CDs are for you, the Christian, to study and put into practice. They are not, again, I say not, for you to give to your Muslim friends. Know that God has commissioned us to be a witness to his salvation. We’re not talking about what a nation’s government should do to protect its people, but we’re talking about what our lord has told us, his followers, to do in sharing the gospel with neighbors. The first principle I want us to take up is know that we are to love our neighbors according according to Christ’s instruction.
In Luke chapter 10 verse 25, a lawyer asked a question to trap Jesus. People do this to you from time to time to trap you, to show you up. Don’t be afraid. It’s alright to say you don’t know. If you don’t know, Jesus turned to the Bible and asked a question.
What do you read in the law? The lawyer had asked a good question, but he had asked it for the wrong reasons. What do you have to do to have eternal life? It’s a good thing when people ask you a question to ask them a question. The lawyer answered, you should love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.
I want to call attention to this one word, mind. As we study together these principles, I hope you will engage your mind to the fullest and think and use your mind to understand what’s being said. And then the lawyer added, and your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, you’ve answered correctly. Now go and do what you said.
The lawyer wanted to justify himself, so he asked, who is my neighbor? He saw that the trap he had laid for Jesus had fallen on him, and he was trying to get out of it. So he said, who is my neighbor? The answer to this specific question, who is my neighbor, is this parable of the Good Samaritan. Leaders in the church have used this parable to teach lots and lots of things, But the reason that this parable was given to begin with is to answer that question, who is my neighbor?
Who would you say is your neighbor? Jesus gives us this parable to explain that. A certain man left Jerusalem and went on a trip. Now, evidently, he was from Jerusalem, so probably he was a Jew from Jerusalem. And as he traveled and got out in the, country, he fell among robbers.
They beat him severely, stripping him of everything, clothes, baggage, everything, and left him half dead. What does half dead mean? It means he’s not going to make it. He hasn’t got enough strength to go to the next village. He can’t crawl.
He can’t get there. Unless somebody comes and helps him, he’s gonna die right there. And then Jesus chooses these people to teach something terrible. A priest, a man who, knew God’s word and who was of the same nationality as the Jew from Jerusalem came by. And he did not even come close to the man lying by the side of the road.
He passed by on the other side, it said. And then a Levite, He knew the Old Testament very well and served God in the temple. He was the same nationality as the Jew. But when he came, he passed by on the other side. He didn’t even come and take a good look at the poor man.
It was as if he didn’t want to get his priestly robes dirty. This man lying there was lying in his blood and with dirt mixed in with his bruises and with the places he had been beaten. And then Jesus says, but a certain Samaritan. The but tells us we’ve got a contrast coming up. This man was of a different nationality, a different religion, a different dress.
Probably, the Jews wore robes, and this man wore Levi’s. And in another place in the Bible, it says the Jews and the Samaritans have nothing to do with each other. They don’t even eat the same. Their what? Their wives don’t even do their hair the same.
They were just different from each other, a certain Samaritan. This Samaritan stopped his journey. In other words, he took time to see what was happening. And when he saw this man and his condition half dead, he felt compassion. He came to him.
He did not pass by on the other side, but he came up close to him. And he took oil and wine from his own baggage, and he poured the wine on the, broken places, the bruises, the wounds to sterilize them and wash off some of the dirt. And then he poured oil on to bring a healing. Do you ever think about where are the robbers during all this time? That Samaritan had put himself in danger to do something for a Jew who would have nothing to do with him.
Then it says he bandaged up his wounds. Where did he get bandages from? Did he have a first aid kit on the donkey he was riding on? I don’t think so. He probably had to take some of his own clothing and tear it up into strips to be able to bandage up this poor man.
Then he put picked him up dirty as he was and got himself dirty. And now the Samaritan is walking, and the Jew who had nothing to do with Samaritans is riding. What humility on the part of the Samaritan. He took him to the inn and took care of him. He washed him and fed him and gave him something to drink and paid for him and offered to pay more if need be.
Jesus then turns to the lawyer and says, alright. You ask a question. Who is my neighbor? Now which of the 3 do you think was neighbor to the man from Jerusalem who fell among the robbers? You know, the lawyer would not even say the word Samaritan.
It would have rendered his mouth impure. So he said, the one who had mercy. His prejudice was so strong that he would not even pronounce the word Samaritan. Jesus says to the lawyer and to us to us, go and do the same thing for someone not of your nationality, not of your religion, who does not look like you, who doesn’t eat the same food you do. It will cost you time.
It will cost you humility, your goods. It will mean you will have to take risk. This is the way you love your neighbor. Perfect love cast out fear. 1st John tells us, a pastor told me that he hated Muslims, but that he was going to give his hatred to Jesus so that he could be their friend and share the gospel with them.
A lady told me that she never spoke to them. She had nothing to do with them. But now, after this course, she’s going to be friends with them to be able to share the gospel. If we have fear, If we have fear or hate for our neighbor, We must deal with it now. Give it to Jesus just the way that pastor did.
And I encourage you right now as you listen to these lessons that you would just say to Jesus, I’m giving the problems in my heart to you. And keep on praying day after day that God would fill your heart with love so that you can be a friend with them. Friendship is the way our neighbor understands love. Friendship is the way our neighbor understands the love of God in our lives. How do you become a friend?
You must be willing to say hello. Can you say hello to a Muslim? Will you say hello to a Muslim? Usually, we just look down at the ground and pass by and say nothing. We must be willing to take the initiative to speak to Muslims who are of the same gender.
Never cross the gender line. Because of Hollywood movies, they get the wrong impression when we cross the gender lines. But say hello. Seek to be friends. Reach out to them.
Friendship involves listening and conversation, not preaching or confrontation. It is very important if you say hello and the other person responds in a friendly manner that you converse. Talk about life. And as you talk, you sprinkle or seed your conversation with references to Old Testament characters of note. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and the teaching concerning them so that your neighbor knows that you’re a person of the book of God.
They call all these men prophets, including Jesus. I said sprinkle your conversation, not drowned it. They are not looking for an hour and a half Bible study. Sprinkle your conversation every time you have a chance. If you say hello and they respond, then stop and talk a few minutes.
A few. If they invite you to drink tea, then take time to drink tea or to chat about sports, culture, their country. Lots of topics. Friendship will involve hospitality, t plus. Sometimes crackers, sometimes peanuts, sometimes any number of different, things you can add to tea.
But it will also involve t plus patience. It will take a long time for them to understand the difference between Allah and God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. They have been taught that Allah is a judge, and he sits there. And when you do something good, he puts it on one side of the scale. When you do something bad, he puts it on the other side of the scale.
And all through your life, the scale is measuring how many good things and how many bad things you’ve done. And at the end of your life, God looks at the scale. And if the bad things are greater or if the good things are greater, that determines where you’ll go. If there are good things, then maybe maybe, just maybe, he might let you into paradise. If the bad side of the scales is heavier, then god puts you in the fire.
But you understand that God the father has sent a savior to pay the price for us and for the bad things we do. It doesn’t matter how many bad things are on the scales. It doesn’t matter how many good things are on the scales. A holy God knows that to get into heaven, you are going to have to be forgiven. And so he has sent the savior to pay the price for your sins so that you can be forgiven all the bad things you’ve done, and he will let you into his heaven.
That’s just incredibly difficult for them to understand that for free, he forgives you, That all you do is accept him, trust him, believe him, put your faith in him, and god will forgive you? That’s beyond their comprehension, so it’s going to take a long time for this to sink in. But I encourage you to, from time to time, mention what a blessing it is that your sins are forgiven, that your disobediences have been forgiven. Let me remind you that sin does not have a great deal of force for them, so you may wanna use the word disobedience. But we want to continue to share the historical message of the Bible of salvation by faith in the savior that God sent.
There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. The message cannot be diluted, distorted, or changed. It must be faithfully shared. And then the difference between the Quran and the Bible is also difficult and will take time for them to understand. They say and have been taught that the Quran was dictated by an angel, and so that’s what the Quran is.
The Bible says that it was inspired by God through men, that God inspired men to write the Bible. Therefore, you have the message of God through the Savior, Jesus Christ. In Matthew, you have the message from God, in Mark, in Luke, in John. And if you compare these four gospels, you will see that all of them tell you the same thing. So you can be confident that you have the message from god.
There’s also the difference between the mosque and the church, and you’ll need to be very careful about this because it’s a cultural thing in many countries. In many places, down the middle, there is a wall or a curtain that divides the two sides of the mosque. The men sit on one side and the women on the other side. Whereas in the church, we sit with our wives, with our daughters, with our neighbors, side by side, and we think nothing of it. But to them, that’s a scandal for a man to sit next to a woman who is unmarried in God’s house?
They just cannot understand that. And some will not understand if you show a film in a church because they know what films are like that come out of Hollywood Hollywood, and they know that that kind of stuff ought not be seen in a church, in God’s house. When you talk about Christians, it’s best to talk about followers of Jesus, not Christianity. And don’t ever bring up the question of the crusades. That’s like pouring gasoline on the fire.
But the main point is to be friends. If he asks you to drink tea with him or her, drink tea. Drinking tea or eating together, no matter how little what you eat is, it is a sign of friendship. Ask about their family, how their work or studies are going, how are things in their country, How is their health? How are their parents?
How you can do this each time you encounter them anew. Avoid insulting your neighbor. Be a friend. Ask about the customs in his country and in our country, and be positive, but don’t preach. If he says something you don’t like, don’t jump on it.
Share is what is acceptable to them. Preaching and teaching, they are very, very leery of. They feel you’re trying to convert them. Whereas if you are sharing as a friend, they’re very happy to know how you walk with God. So you can talk about, in a personal conversation, head to head, talk, not butting heads, but a friendly, talking, They will be happy to listen to you talk about your walk with God.
Don’t criticize. If you say anything about god, it is best to start with god as the prime mover. It’s best to say God created or God moved Moses. God sent his spirit, But just sprinkle a little at a time. Don’t do a Bible study.
And you note that when I’ve been talking, I talk about God sending a savior, and that’s a much easier way for them to understand it than the way we talk from the Bible. All of these concepts are in the Bible starting with God, but we just need to remember to do that with our Muslim friend. But don’t do a bible study or a sermon. And then it’s very unwise to say Israel or the Jews. That’s like pouring gasoline on the fire again.
Talk about the children of Abraham. Just replace Israel or Jews with the title children of Abraham. Also, you blaspheme when you say, Son of God. When you say, Son of God, it’s precious to you. But to them, when you say son of god, you are saying God slept with a woman and had sex, and they produced a child.
You don’t believe that, and so don’t say that by saying, son of god. Don’t bring that up in the first times with them. Wait for them to bring it up, to ask you about it, and be ready to give an answer. If you don’t have an answer, then tell them you don’t have an answer. Ask him about his world, his nation, his religion.
There are 5 major pillars of Islam. Ask about them. 1st, there’s the creed. There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. 2, pray 5 times a day toward Mecca.
3, Ramadan, fast 1 lunar month a year. No eating or drinking during the day, only at night. And the month moves every year a few days because it’s not the same month as the solar month. Then number 4 is the giving of alms, and 5 is the pilgrimage once in a lifetime to go to Mecca if possible. You can ask him about his book, his language, but try to find things in your friend’s world that you can admire.
Do not speak about things that you don’t admire, but try to find things that you do admire. Many of the types of art that they have are gorgeous and just absolutely exquisite and delicate. But try to find things that you can speak a good word for. You can always speak in favor of the Bible and truth from the Bible, but try to find things in his world that you can admire. Listen carefully to what I am about to say to you now.
Not everyone is ready to hear the message of salvation. The parable of the sower who went out to sow found that some seed fell on hard ground. And there will be those who seek violence and are closed minded about others and just want to do harm. Some seed fell among thorns, and you will find those who are seeking political power or financial power and pleasure, and they do not want to listen to the message of the gospel. Some fell where there was little depth, and you will find that people like that have little spirituality, little desire for forgiveness, little desire to know about God.
But but there are some God seekers who want to know about the forgiveness of sin and God’s love and mercy. Those are the people we are looking to find and share the good news with. We continue to be friends with others as someday they may change their minds and want the good news, but the God seekers are the good ground where we can plant the seeds of the gospel in due time. But remember that if 3 out of 4 are really not interested, then that’s the same proportion that Jesus told us about in the parable of the sower, and don’t be discouraged. We are looking for God seekers who want to know God and want to have their sins forgiven.
Their disobedience is pardoned. When you’re talking to a neighbor about spiritual subjects face to face in private and others come up, then change the subject. They are very afraid of one another. They are very afraid of persecution. Yes.
Right here in America. Change the subject. Talk about sports. Talk about economics. As a woman, if you are visiting a woman and another person comes in, then change the subject.
Talk about sewing, cooking, babies, language learning. Do not blow the cover of the person who is interested in spiritual things. They will appreciate what you are doing for them by protecting them from the persecution of others. Once a man asked me in class why his Muslim friend with whom he talked a great deal would not even speak to him in a public place. The answer is simple, because of persecution.
The Muslim cannot be seen as being the friend of a Christian. Do not bring harm to your friend. Be sensitive to his circumstances. Be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove, Jesus says. Your friend wants to know how you walk with God.
He is going to watch you very carefully to see if you are a godly man or woman. Our friendship will express the love of God to him or her. When you talk in private, tell of your personal walk with the Lord and prayer life and what you learned from the word in your meditation time today, and that God has forgiven your disobedient is to him. Since your friend has no sense of forgiveness, it is important that he hear you share that you have been forgiven. From time to time, repeat this wonderful truth that god forgives us because of the savior.
Don’t go on and on and on about it, but bring it up from time to time. But don’t dwell more than 3 minutes on it unless your friend asks questions. When he asks questions, then you can talk more about it. When you cook rice, you put a cup of rice and 2 cups of water in the pot and a cup of salt. No.
No. No. No. No. You don’t put a cup of salt into a cup of rice.
It would make it so bitter you could not eat the rice. A little bit of salt is plenty of salt to give it a good flavor, not a cup of salt. But all too often, we pour in so much salt that it makes it bitter to partake. Jesus had a different approach to Nicodemus and a different approach to the rich, young ruler. One was an old man, one was a young man, the Samaritan woman, and the man born blind.
We should not think that we can have the same approach to each person. We must let the Holy Spirit guide us as to what approach is best. What did Jesus tell Nicodemus? You must be born again. What did he tell the rich young ruler?
Go and sell all you have and come back. What did he tell the Samaritan woman? Go call your husband and come back here. What did he say to the man born blind? Do you believe in the Messiah?
Why didn’t he say to Nicodemus, go sell all you’ve got? Because Nicodemus was in a different, circumstance. He had a different mindset, and Jesus understood that he was seeking. What about the rich young ruler? He was seeking, but Jesus understood that the problem for him was his riches.
And the same was true of the Samaritan woman. It wasn’t riches. It was pleasure and her worldly life. And why didn’t he say to Nicodemus, do you believe in the Messiah like he did the man born blind? Why didn’t he say to the man born blind, you must be born again?
You see, Jesus had a different approach for each person. Does that mean there’s a different gospel? No. The gospel is the same, but the approaches are different for different people. We should not think that we can have the same approach for each person.
We must let the Holy Spirit guide us as to what approach to take with our neighbors. This is difficult, but the lord has given you a mind and the Holy Spirit. He will guide you if you apply yourself to it and try to learn. Do not give up if you make a mistake and say something that you should not say. Go back and try again with another person.
I’ve made mistakes, but I did not give up. Try to learn and listen to the Holy Spirit. The approach that you would use for the average American and the approach you would use for a Muslim are very, very different. And that’s what these lessons are about, is helping you understand the approach you need for your Muslim friend or acquaintance, your neighbor. We must work while it is day.
Jesus tells us because the night is coming when no man can work. There are 3 truths that are very precious to us as Christians. To our Muslim friends, these three truths are heresy. They do not believe that Christ died on the cross, that he rose from the grave, or that he is the son of god. These three things are very precious to us, but to them, it’s like pouring gasoline on the fire.
Don’t try to deal with these 3 precious truths early in your friendship. It will end your friendship with a terrible argument and they will have nothing more to do with you. Work on being a friend so they can see the love of Christ in you and that you are a godly man or woman. Jesus, twice in the scripture, told people not to tell others about what He had done for them. Was Jesus ashamed of what he had done for them?
No. He knew if they talked about it, it would ruin his ministry in that area. We should not think that because we are not dealing with everything that they don’t like, that we are being ashamed of it. We just don’t wanna ruin Christ ministry with them. Little by little, the Holy Spirit will deal with them about these three truths and draw them to desire forgiveness for their disobediences.
It takes time, patience, wisdom, and godliness to be their friends so they can understand God’s love. Jesus had a problem with religious people of his day. Because he was a friend of sinners, religious people did not like it, and they talked about him because of it. When my wife and I started being friends with Muslims, it was the Christians who complained to us that we should not be doing that. They said they were our brothers and sisters in Christ and that these other people were not their friends.
We needed to stick with them. If we had listened to them and followed their counsel, there would not be brothers and sisters in Christ among the people we went out to be friends with. Don’t be surprised if people in your own church will criticize you. When you engage in conversation, sometimes your neighbor is going to bring up controversial subjects for one reason or another. Let him talk.
You listen. Let it go on in one ear and out the other. The scripture says a soft answer turns away wrath. Don’t try to argue. You will get nowhere.
A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. The scripture tells us not to involve ourselves in foolish arguments that are unprofitable in Titus 39. Remember that the object is to manifest the love of God by friendship. It is a friendly thing to do to drink tea when you’re invited to drink tea. Invite them after a while to drink tea with you.
You can serve cookies and peanuts. If your friend invites you to a meal, go and watch what others do and ask questions about what you should do. You can invite them to a meal in your house, but be very careful. Never, never, never serve any kind of pork and do not even talk about pork. To eat pork would make them impure religiously.
They may not eat even the meat you cook because it is not butchered according to Islamic rules. I would suggest that you ask if they eat fish and serve fish, canned fish, fresh fish, frozen fish. Fish does not have the same rules. And if they say they eat fish, then that makes it possible for you to serve fish. They have many holidays in the Islamic calendar.
If they send you some food for the holiday, then it would be good for you to eat some. If they invite you to come for a meal for the holiday, then go and eat. Look up and study, 1st Corinthians 8 and 1st Corinthians 10 19 to 33. That’s 1st Corinthians 8 and 1st Corinthians 10 19 to 33. Here we are told when it is right to eat with a non Christian.
If he invites you and say nothing, then go and eat. You have liberty from the lord. But if he invites you and tells you the meat is their sacrifice, then politely say, no. Thank you. God has already provided a sacrifice for you.
But that you would like to eat with him the vegetables, the rice and gravy, the desserts, all the nice breads and cookies and other things that he has because he or she is your friend. Try to find something you can eat to show your friendship with him or her. Always be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s voice to you about this and discernment from the scriptures. Our object is to manifest the love of God to our friend so that he can come to find forgiveness in the savior. Let me give you this story to illustrate.
A Christian greeted people along his route to town. He was able to be friendly with a man who lived along the way. They talked from time to time. 1 afternoon late, he was talking with the man in front of his house. The children of the household called their father to come to supper.
The father asked his Christian friend to wait a moment while he went inside. He went inside and asked the extended family if it was alright to invite the pastor at the front gate to supper. The term pastor is a title of respect, not a sign of a man who has passed his pastoral examination. We would say a godly man rather than pastor, but that is what they call a godly man. It is a title of respect and honor.
The extended family gave their okay for him to be invited to supper, a real sign of acceptance. When the Christian was seated inside, and sometimes you’ll find that they all sit on the floor, all the men sit on the floor together and eat out of maybe a big platter together. And the women may have a platter over in another room where they will eat. 1 of the men said to the Christian when he arrived, you Christians pray before you eat. Right?
The Christian said, yes. So the man said, pray for us before we eat, and the Christian prayed. All this came about because of greetings and talking over a period of time. God used it to give this opportunity to this Christian. God will use you also if you have the patience and the humility to put in the time to be a friend.
A Muslim died, and some Christians were invited to the funeral. At some point in the wake, everybody raises his hands as if to read from a book, and they recite a certain passage in the Quran. The Christians took out their Bibles and silently went over a passage. When it was over, the Muslims asked what it was they were reading. They replied it was the book of God.
The Muslims asked that it be read out loud for them. The Christians did so and the Muslims were very impressed with the comfort the passage gave. The effort on the part of the Christians impressed the Muslims, and it made the opportunity for them then to share. Let me close with this story. Some Christians were visiting in an area of town.
The Muslim priest at whose house they stopped invited them in. They talked for a while, and then he told them that he was a follower of Jesus, but that he could not come to church with them because of the problem of persecution. He says that each week, he gets together with his 3 sons, and they read the bible together and pray. Praise the lord. Looks to me like the lord has a church started there.
God is at work in our day. I know in America that we use inviting people to go to church with us as a means of communicating the gospel. We get them to church and let the pastor explain the gospel to them. Basically, that’s the wrong thing to do with Muslims because if they are seen going to a Christian church, they are going to be persecuted. You have to be the person to explain the gospel to them, And God will use you and you will have to be the one to continue to feed them and teach them.
But don’t blow their cover, and don’t tell anybody that they’re coming to your house or that you’re talking. Just ask them to pray for a friend that you’re talking to about the lord, but don’t even tell them he’s a Muslim because word will get back and they will persecute him. Pray that the Lord will fill your heart with love so you can be a friend and manifest the love of God to your neighbors and acquaintances and contacts around you. Amen.