Insiders and Outsiders

Author Anne Rice (Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession) has a powerful personal story about her relationship with Jesus. She grew up in the church, but left it as a young adult. In her fifties, she rejected her decades-long atheism and returned to church...for ten years. And then she made this announcement on her Facebook page:
Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.
Rice’s statement stirred controversy, but let’s be honest: the idea that Christians can be quarrelsome, hostile, and difficult isn’t exactly surprising. How is it that people like Anne Rice—people devoted to Jesus—sometimes feel driven from Christianity? Could it be that if you’re a follower of Jesus, nonbelievers expect you to act like Jesus. They expect you to care about and value the things that Jesus cared about and valued. They judge your likeness to Jesus largely on the way you react and respond to people outside the faith. And you know what? They’re right to do so. Given that truth, what does the Bible say about how followers of Jesus should treat nonbelievers?