Shady reasons for wanting people to be saved

Let me share two less than shady motivations you might have for wanting people to come to Christ. 

1. Because I am uncomfortable with people different than me:

This is true of most people on this planet so it is somewhat natural for Christians to desire that others surrender to Christ because they believe the person will become more like them. Let me be the first to say that a person who genuinely repents of sin and turns to Christ will indeed be transformed. This does not mean that a person who becomes a Christian will become the image that you have of a the cookie cutter Christian. God transforms but people change and the transformation God introduces is much deeper than mere appearances. People are not projects to be remodeled or pigeonholed. If you want people to be like you because it makes you less uncomfortable join the club but this is no reason to desire that people become like Christ. Oh by the way, I find that most people will never reflect deep enough to actually realize they are uncomfortable with others - they simply recognize their innate desire that others would change and stop there. 

2. Because their circumstances in life will get better:

Clearly anyone who believes that embracing God's salvation means better circumstances in life must have skipped over about half of their Bible. Remember Job, most of the prophets, John the baptist, the Apostle Paul or any of the apostles for that matter. I guarantee no one wants the life they had. Most of them were tortured, poor, and martyred for their faith. Many of them (especially the prophets) felt alone, abandoned and deeply mourned the judgement of God. The Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 4:11 and in 2 Cor. 11:27 clearly tells us about his circumstance: "I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches." I guess someone forgot to tell Paul that his circumstances were supposed to get all better because He trusted in Christ for salvation. 

So what is the correct desire and motivation for wanting people to come to Christ. I think the scriptures are quite clear that it is love. Not emotional love but the kind of love that compelled Christ to obediently give up his life for sinners. You see, that kind of love is only available from God.Christian, the only way we give away this kind of love is by the grace of God and by the power of His spirit in us. Non-Christian, this love is already bestowed upon you but you have to quite rejecting it. Repent and trust in Christ lest you go to the grave having rejecting the only kind of love that can save you. 

1 John 5:12 He who has the son has life, he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 

1 John 4:8-11 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

1 John 4:16-17 and so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 

A human's capacity to love can be great and I believe this is so only because we were made in the image of God. While the human heart is wicked and our flesh is evil, still love prevails in this world, though not always and with less and less frequency. 

Matt 24:12-14 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.