An estimated 1.5 billion people – 1 in 5 people on the planet – are Muslim. How are we as Christians supposed to respond to Islam? The Bible gives us a principle that can help us. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Paul says that the Corinthian believers have now been reconciled to God.

In this passage, Paul tells us two important things about our identity and our mission:

1. If we claim to be a Christian, we are an ambassador for Christ.

However we come across to other people, whether we’re effective, or whether we’re harsh, crass, and rude, we are saying something about Jesus Christ whom we represent. Therefore, we want to be mindful of the way we approach other people.

2. As an ambassador for Christ, our mission is to proclaim the message of reconciliation.

Remember, we’ve been made at peace with God, so now it’s our job to proclaim that message to others.

When we wonder what we should do regarding Muslims and Islam, we should recognize our identity and our mission. We are ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors represent God to other people. Therefore, we should present God and the message of reconciliation to Muslims.

What does an ambassador do before he goes to another country? He learns, and then he engages. He learns about their country. Why? So he can draw upon that information when he goes to speak to those people.

As Christian ambassadors going to speak to Muslims, we should do the same thing. We need to learn about Islam, Muslims, their culture, their beliefs, and their practices. Why? So we can draw upon that information to more carefully craft the message we want to communicate.

What’s our message? It’s the message that God wants to reconcile the world to Himself.

Muslims love talking about God and religion. This makes it easy to share our faith with Muslims, and we should take advantage of it.

There are two ways you can do this:

1. Avoid conversations that distract from the Gospel and create a defensive posture. For example:
- Jihad: Whether or not violent jihad is valid Islamic doctrine is certainly interesting to discuss, but even if it is a valid doctrine, it doesn’t prove Islam is false. It just raises defenses.
- Making denigrating comments about Mohammed. It doesn’t ever seem to help move a Muslim towards the Gospel.

2. Use a tactic to determine what is truly Islamic and what is not (3 sources of authority), which will be discussed in the next segment.

Focus your message on what really matters: The Gospel. Same as you would with anyone else.