He Ate with Publicans and Sinners – Part 2
Why did Jesus associate with publicans and sinners? First, Jesus did not associate with sinful people to engage in their sinful practices. Jesus was the sinless Lamb of God (1 Peter 1:19). He never once committed a sin nor even spoke an inappropriate word (1 Peter 2:22).
Second, Jesus did not associate with them to validate their sin. He called upon them to repent (Matthew 9:13). He taught them to give up their sin and give their life to God (Luke 15:1-32).
Third, Jesus did not aid them to further commit sin. When the woman-taken-in-adultery was brought before Jesus (John 8:2-11), He did not condemn her to death; however, Jesus told her to go and sin no more. His refusal to condemn was not license for her to continue to commit adultery.
Jesus associated with publicans and sinners to teach and preach the gospel (Matthew 21:28-32). What should we conclude from this? We need to pursue the same purpose. As Christians, we must be in the world, but not of the world (1 Cor.5:10). What does this mean? It means that we associate with people who are steeped in sin, but we don’t participate in that sin. If we were to stop all association with anyone who had sin in their lives, then we would have to go out of the world. While such may be possible (that is, to practice some bizarre type of isolationism); it is not consistent with Jesus’ example and our call to take the gospel to the lost.
God bless you, and I love you.
Kevin Cauley