Pastor James MacDonald went undercover as a homeless man at his church to see how his congregants would respond. He says "What I witnessed blew me away."

The social experiment was conducted a few weeks ago and unveiled this past Sunday as an illustration in a sermon on Luke 6:32-33 which says:

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. (ESV)

MacDonald encouraged his congregants to "not play favourites." He preached that it's much easier to love those who are close to us, even after a conflict. However, he said, it's harder to love those who are far from us, especially when loving them has no benefits for ourselves.

The pastor, who is originally from Ontario and now leads Harvest Bible Chapel in Illinois, revealed himself to the congregation by pushing his shopping cart down the aisle and taking off his disguise behind the pulpit.

He told his congregation he was proud of how they responded. The video shows many people stopping to talk with what they thought was a homeless stranger. They also offered him food, gave money, and stopped to pray.

"How you doing? You doing ok?," one man asked before inviting the man inside to join him and his family for worship.

MacDonald shared the video on his social media pages Monday morning and it's already had nearly 700,000 views.