An attitude of superiority may lead to a failure to have sympathy for lost souls. We must lay aside our preferences and prejudices in order to reach the perishing.

Every Christian has something they cling to—personal comfort, preference for their own nationality or ethnicity, materialism, traditionalism—which may hinder them from reaching the perishing. Perhaps no place in Scripture is this truth more vividly illustrated than in the life of Jonah.

Perhaps no place in Scripture is this truth more vividly illustrated than in the life of Jonah. After this prophet finished proclaiming God’s mercy to the Assyrians, he sat outside of Nineveh to see whether God would judge or spare them (4:5). While he waited, Jonah was provided with a plant for shade, but God withered the plant after only one day. Jonah became outraged! God said to him “You pity the plant; should not I pity Nineveh (4:9-11)?” How did Jonah get to the point where he had more pity for a one-day-old plant than the eternal souls of the Assyrians?

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