Question:
"The unbeliever can be the most injurious when we try to shed light into their darkness...how do we keep shedding the light while they continue to scoff?"
Answer:
Just to clarify, correction and reproof, as far as "progressive sanctification" (being made holy) goes, it's only towards the believer, not towards the unbeliever.
I think a lot of times, especially in churches in America, many conservative Christians try to enforce Christian morals on non-Christians. Churches a lot of times are more concerned with people needing to stop practicing certain sins than with people actually meeting Jesus. They will tell the sexually immoral to be sexually pure. They will tell the drunkard to stop drinking. They will tell the sluggard to get up and work. Etc. Etc. The problem with this is that even if they stop practicing these apparent sins, without faith in the life and death of Jesus Christ, they will still be going to Hell. We must understand that just because somebody fits the picture of a Christian as far as morals go, it doesn't mean they are a Christian. Christianity, we understand, works from the inside out. Jesus talks in John 3 about how in order for one to see the kingdom of God, one needs to be born again. This means that we have a new nature. The Spirit of God dwells in all those who have a saving faith in Jesus Christ. This is being born again. So the Christian has faith in Jesus, is born again, and everything else flows out from that intimacy now restored with God by our spiritual rebirth. The morals that Christianity teaches only apply to those who are actually born again. And once again, every Christian is walking with God at whatever pace the Holy Spirit is taking them, so more mature Christians can't go around pointing the finger at fellow brothers and sisters all the time because the less mature are not as "moral" as the mature are. I heard a friend give a good example of this: Let's say a father has two sons, one is 2 and the other is 10. The father obviously has different expectations for both of his sons. The father expects his 10 year old son to make his bed, but he does not ask his 2 year old to do the same. The 10 year old son asks the father, "Why don't you make my brother make his bed too?". The father says, "Because he is only 2. There are more important things he must learn before we get to making his bed, like being potty trained." So even though both sons are at different stages, they are both still sons. All Christians, regardless of where they are at in their relationship with Jesus, are children of God nonetheless.
Now the point is this: we cannot go around requiring non-Christians to fit the morals of Christianity without first becoming a Christian themselves. God will require non-Christians to give an account of their sin eventually, but that is not our job. Our job is not to correct and reprove the non-Christians morality. Our job is to point them to Jesus. We preach the gospel to them, and this is the gospel: that we are more incredibly wicked than we could ever imagine; but Jesus lived the life we SHOULD have lived (a perfect and sinless life) and he died the death that we should have died for our sins, taking them upon himself and clothing us in his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21); and now, he is alive and risen and has conquered death so that all who believe in him will be saved.
Some people will accept the gospel, and some people will not accept the gospel. We preach the gospel both in speech and also in the way we live. If unbelievers will not receive what we say, are we to continue shoving it down their throats? I don't believe so. I do not mean that we should stop preaching the gospel in word, but we do not become those annoying Christians who degrade those who do not accept it and act like they are so much better than the unbeliever for accepting it. Rather, we continue to love the non-Christian in the way we speak to them. We pray for them, asking Jesus to soften their hearts to his glorious truth. We live a life of love towards them and continue to live lives centered around the gospel. We never stop telling them the truth, but that doesn't mean we never shut our mouths.
I hope that answered the question satisfactorily. Good question :)
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