What You Call the Unsaved

In our Christian circles, we like to refer to non-Christians as "unsaved." That is, they have not decided to accept Christ as Lord and Savior.

What we like to call the unsaved I call mom, dad, sister, cousin, and friend.

What do you call the unsaved?

I do not come from a Christian home. I come from your typical suburban home. My parents taught us to make adventures outside in the streets with all the other neighborhood kids, as long as no cars were passing through. We were the house with the big trampoline in the backyard. We had the best playground equipment. We had the basketball hoop in the driveway. We possibly had the best house on the block.

I started hanging out with a few girls in the neighborhood who took me to church. I was interested in the stories they told there because they were like mini soap operas. The story of Moses, Jonah, Noah, Adam and Eve. A lot of drama. A lot of Bible games that went along with them. And a lot of sugary treats if we answered a question right!

I asked my mom about God. She said she believed in Him and sometimes she prayed to him at night. That made me happy. What made me happier was to know my Grandma, my mom's mom, was a Christian. She believed in God and knew the stories I was learning. I was too young and shy to ask her many questions about her beliefs, but if it wasn't for her sweet gentle aura, I would have at least known by her trust in God by the way she lived her life. She had a kind of grace no one who raised nine kids on her own possessed. When she died, I barely cried. I truly believed in my twelve year old mind (I was became a Christian three years later) that she was in a better place.

I am from a non-Christian home. An unsaved family. A lost people.

For those who grew up in saved homes, where though you had your family issues, REJOICE! Rejoice you do not have the agonizing thought of watching loved ones going to hell. Rejoice that the people who have raised you and made sure you were sheltered and fed will not someday be torn apart from you when you enter into eternity. Rejoice that the Lord has brought them to him. That they have made the choice to trust in Him. And that you will soon will live together in peace with our Heavenly Father.

Pain strikes me some days at the thought of lost souls around the world. What's worse is thinking about my parents, my sister, friends, and other lost aquaintances.

This post is in response to speaking to two different people this past week about my unsaved parents. One friend whose family is saved asked me what it was like to have unsaved parents. I told her how it hurts. That I break down sometimes because I want them to get it. I want them to see the pains in this life they are struggling through can be a moment in the grand scope of eternity. I want them to know that they are loved. They are precious. They are cared for no matter what circumstances come up. No scientific fact, no logic can explain away a God who loves them and wants to save them. Ultimately I want them to answer the question in their own lives "what is life really about?" I think it's hard to answer that question without God.

I had another friend ask me the same question about my parents because she, too, has unsaved parents. I told her the same thing. She then went on to tell me about a moment she broke down in church because of her parents' salvation, or lack of. In the middle of her Sunday school class where she was crying, the song "All I Have Is Christ" began to be sung. It then dawned on her that that was all she had. Jesus. She ultimately had no comfort in going to her parents about spiritual struggles she was facing. She was not raised according to the truth of the gospel. She had no spiritual security in the people she wanted to find security in the most. All she had was Christ. The son of God. Who came to seek and save the lost so that we can be called heirs of God (Luke 19:10; Romans 8:17). Children of God (John 1:12-13). Sons and daughters.

Now, I don't mean to write this post to say we who are not from saved homes are pitiful, stronger, or better than those who come from Christian homes or even to say my parents are bad parents. Quite the opposite. I think that my parents did a wonderful job at raising me. I think Christian and non-Christian homes can be wonderful influences. In fact, part of the reason I think my parents did such a wonderful job was because the Christian homes that they were raised in. My grandparents and great-grandparents knew the Lord and they blessed my parents in ways many parents today sometimes lack-- discipline, respect, and pushing them to work for what they wanted. So I admire my parents. They have been a blessing.


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As cliche as it sounds, it's like having your heart ripped out by knowing loved ones are going to hell. Let's think for a moment and try to picture hell. I know we don't have to think too much about it as Christians, but it is a REAL place. It is someone's destiny. Maybe your family or friend's. What are you going to do about it when they someday do not have a chance to turn to Christ for salvation? Does it make you want to share the gospel with them today?

I'm not a parent, but I picture the pain associated with the loss of a child to be like that of a person who knows their loved one is not going to be with them into eternity. You hear about it. The parent can get over the shock period at which their child is first gone, but the grief always remains. For nine years now, my grief has remained for my family and friends who have yet to claim Christ as their savior.

Are you grieved for the unsaved?

What are WE going to do about it?