"...This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Luke 15:2. Now there's a really good, feel good Bible verse for all of us who have ever sinned. These particular sinners had the marvelous privilege of eating a meal with GOD! This was Isaiah's prophecy come true..."they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us"). Matthew 1:23.
While we view Jesus welcoming sinners and eating with them in a positive light, the people who said this of him 2000 plus years ago, meant it as a slur. This was Jesus' response: "To what can I compare this generation... For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'" Matthew 11:16,18-19. Notice, Jesus didn't say these things about Himself. He acknowledged that HIs enemies said them about Him. Were these labels true? Was Jesus a glutton? No. A drunkard? No. A friend of sinners? Hopefully we don't have to say no on this one. It all depends on how we define a friend. Proverbs chapter twenty-seven, verses six and nine give this insight on friendship: "Faithful are the wounds from a friend..." "the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel." If you look at it from this perspective, yes, Jesus was/is a friend of sinners. He wounds us, causing us to see the painful truth about ourselves, with the sole intention of making us well. Much like a surgeon making an incision to remove a tumor. Jesus is upfront about this in Matthew 9:12 when the Pharisees asked Jesus' disciples why He was eating with sinners, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."
I started this post with a quote from Luke 15. Let's look at this quote in context. "Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'" Luke 15:1-2. Jesus poured into those who gathered, anxious to hear, not those who grumbled, anxious to condemn. While Jesus didn't give Himself the title, friend of sinners, He did say this of Himself: "...the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:10. Jesus was searching for hungry hearts. He took them where he found them, making no distinctions between the sinners who sat in the street or the sinners who sat in the Sanhedrin (an assembly of rabbis). He was wiling to share the truth with Zaccheus, the tax collector in broad daylight, or Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and leader of the Jews, under cover of darkness. Thank God, Jesus was the friend of all sinners, or no one would be saved. Jesus' friendship wasn't a picking up his party hat to revel with his friends kind, but a laying down his life to redeem his friends kind.
Father, help the church in America! While our grandparents may have exalted overly strict self-discipline, our children are embracing unbridled self-indulgence. The church of today's anything goes attitude may be the natural response to yesterday's legalism, but it's not the supernatural one. Yesterday the church read the Bible looking for laws to impose. Today we read it wearing grace-colored glasses, if we read it at all. All we need to do is look to Jesus for our example. According to John 1:14, He was "...full of grace and truth." In Jesus grace and truth walked arm in arm. Those arms are open wide to repentant sinners, but not to unrepentant (so-called) saints. Ignorance is not an excuse. God wrote a detailed book. It's not His will that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), but He won't sacrifice His holy standards for the sake of love. For the sake of love, he instituted the standards. Christian freedom is not about throwing off all restraints. For example, You shall not kill may be a restraint, but it's a restraint that protects life. Let us not pride ourselves in accepting any and everything into the church, but in adhering to the Lord's standards for His church! May we never abandon God's Word to embrace whatever feels right, and then categorize it as grace. True love is not accepting every sin; it's proclaiming God's power to change us deep within.
We love the label the Pharisees gave Jesus, friend of sinners, but in John 15:14 Jesus revealed who He was really friends with. "You are my friends, IF you do what I command."
I started this post with a quote from Luke 15. Let's look at this quote in context. "Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'" Luke 15:1-2. Jesus poured into those who gathered, anxious to hear, not those who grumbled, anxious to condemn. While Jesus didn't give Himself the title, friend of sinners, He did say this of Himself: "...the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:10. Jesus was searching for hungry hearts. He took them where he found them, making no distinctions between the sinners who sat in the street or the sinners who sat in the Sanhedrin (an assembly of rabbis). He was wiling to share the truth with Zaccheus, the tax collector in broad daylight, or Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and leader of the Jews, under cover of darkness. Thank God, Jesus was the friend of all sinners, or no one would be saved. Jesus' friendship wasn't a picking up his party hat to revel with his friends kind, but a laying down his life to redeem his friends kind.
Father, help the church in America! While our grandparents may have exalted overly strict self-discipline, our children are embracing unbridled self-indulgence. The church of today's anything goes attitude may be the natural response to yesterday's legalism, but it's not the supernatural one. Yesterday the church read the Bible looking for laws to impose. Today we read it wearing grace-colored glasses, if we read it at all. All we need to do is look to Jesus for our example. According to John 1:14, He was "...full of grace and truth." In Jesus grace and truth walked arm in arm. Those arms are open wide to repentant sinners, but not to unrepentant (so-called) saints. Ignorance is not an excuse. God wrote a detailed book. It's not His will that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), but He won't sacrifice His holy standards for the sake of love. For the sake of love, he instituted the standards. Christian freedom is not about throwing off all restraints. For example, You shall not kill may be a restraint, but it's a restraint that protects life. Let us not pride ourselves in accepting any and everything into the church, but in adhering to the Lord's standards for His church! May we never abandon God's Word to embrace whatever feels right, and then categorize it as grace. True love is not accepting every sin; it's proclaiming God's power to change us deep within.
We love the label the Pharisees gave Jesus, friend of sinners, but in John 15:14 Jesus revealed who He was really friends with. "You are my friends, IF you do what I command."
Jesus, friend of...
sinners who cry out for a Savior,
He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' Luke 18:13 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance Matthew 3:8 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance Luke 5:32 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Acts 3:19 After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand, I beat my breast. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth. Jeremiah 31:19 Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness. 2 Timothy 2:19 "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." John 8:11
Not of...
sinners who embrace their behavior!
This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. John 3;19 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:32 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Galatians 6:7
sinners who cry out for a Savior,
He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' Luke 18:13 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance Matthew 3:8 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance Luke 5:32 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Acts 3:19 After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand, I beat my breast. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth. Jeremiah 31:19 Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness. 2 Timothy 2:19 "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." John 8:11
Not of...
sinners who embrace their behavior!
This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. John 3;19 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:32 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Galatians 6:7
