Self-hate. It's a topic that gets talked a lot about now. So how would you go about sharing the gospel with an unbelieving friend who struggles with self-hatred? "Hello Pastor John, thank you so much for what you've been doing. I'm Reynaldo from Jakarta. I listen to your podcast more than I read my Bible and I should change that habit." Yeah, exactly, Reynaldo.

You should change that ratio immediately. My question, I have a friend and she is a Buddhist. She struggles with self-hate and I am confused about what I have to do about it. I listen to her and I want to help, but what should I do? I could give her a self-help book, I suppose.

I'm afraid if I get straight to the gospel, which I don't have a problem saying to her, she will not listen to me. But if I give her a self-help book with tips about overcoming this anxiety, I'm afraid that she might improve without experiencing the forgiveness of Christ. So I guess I want to share the gospel with her sooner than later.

If you had a non-Christian friend who struggled with self-hate, how would you proceed? "Well, let me just underline Tony's misgiving about reading or listening to Piper more than the Bible. That really is a serious problem, so fix that. The Bible is the source, Piper's just a muddy stream, so fix that." This question is difficult to answer because there's just so much to say from the Bible about someone struggling with self-hate.

The problem in answering this question is not a lack of biblical material that addresses it. I don't know her, and I don't know Reynaldo. I just need so much more information about what her true issues are, what's gone on to bring her to this point, how is it expressing itself, how deep and serious is it, and on and on.

So I really want to be careful here. I'm going to make some suggestions, but I make them provisionally as to what the best strategy here is, and trust that the Holy Spirit will help Reynaldo to know what to do with what I say. What about drawing her, Reynaldo, what about drawing her into a discussion about biblical passages that lead to a sharing of the gospel through her own curiosity and her own perplexity about those very texts, those passages that you share with her?

Here's what I have in mind, and I'm thinking this might be a path forward because of the little bit I know about Buddhism and because it just comes to my mind as I pray for how to help. Here's what I have in mind. Ask her if you could give her some passages from the Christian Bible with a view to getting her opinion about what she thinks about them and how they make her feel.

If she's a Buddhist, she would probably approach them in a more or less moral or philosophical way, so you wouldn't expect that she would have any grasp of the gospel at all. You simply want to get her into God's Word on a topic that is very relevant to her.

Now if she's willing, then you might share with her texts like these. You might give her a whole Bible, put some bookmarks in, circle the verse or show her where to find them, and that way she would be able to read the context as well if she were curious.

But you would be pointing her to verses like this. John 12:25, "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." Now that will really perplex her, I would presume, really bother her, which is what we're after. Or John 15, 12, Jesus said, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, and that he lay down his life for his friends." Or Acts 12, 24, Paul says, "I do not count my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Or Revelation 12, 11, "They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives, even unto death." Or Matthew 22, 37, following, Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. One more, Matthew 10, 28, following, "And do not fear those who kill the body, and after that cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father? Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows." Now my guess is these texts will simply leave her baffled, and hopefully she would, when you have your next conversation, she would say, "What in the world did you give me these texts for?" And you would say, "Well, let's just take them one at a time and show me what they made you think and feel." And you're into it.

You're into it. Where you go from there would depend almost entirely on how she responds to these passages. My assumption is that she would be really perplexed about a passage like John 12, 25 that calls for self-hate, and some that assume self-love, Matthew 22, 39. And then from there you'd want to lead her toward teachings about sin in relation to the glory of God, and talk about how that affects our worth.

And then hopefully you'd go towards the coming of Christ and His death, who laid down His life, a kind of self-hate for the sake of our life, 1 Peter 2, 24. Then you'd move on from there to how that purchases sinners to love them and forgive them and accept them and possess them as His treasured possession, 1 Peter 2, 10.

And that would lead on to a life of loving and treasuring Christ more than life itself, because He's so valuable. And that would lead on maybe to the promises you could give her that we will be changed into the image of Christ. All of our hateful, sinful ugliness will be taken away, and Jesus will return and transform our lowly body.

I don't even know if her issue is body hate or if it's mind hate or soul hate. I don't know what's going on, but He's coming back to give all of us a brand new body that's glorious like His glorious body. So who knows where the Lord may lead these discussions, Reynaldo, but what I'm suggesting is this.

Instead of a frontal presentation of the gospel, for which she might have zero categories in her Buddhism to comprehend at first, try drawing her into a serious give-and-take engagement with the Bible. The Bible is sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating to the division of bone and marrow, soul and spirit, Hebrews 4.12.

And then pray earnestly for the Lord's guidance toward the gospel, where she can see—I pray she will see—what self-hate looks like, feels like, when it is deeper than she thinks and yet redeemable by the amazing blood of Jesus and what God's done to save her. Yeah, amen. And as you were talking, Pastor John, I couldn't help but think that this is really a great way to evangelize any friend, you know, isolate some of the texts that most clearly speak to their own questions and life situations.

Go and read them apart, come back together and study and discuss them together. I love that approach. It's so simple but brilliant. Thank you, Pastor John. Well, what's coming to America? Can we anticipate widespread spiritual revival or should we expect a deepening social degeneracy? What can we anticipate in America's future?

It's a great question and it will end our week together. I'm your host Tony Reinke. I'll see you back here on Friday. Bye.