Showing posts with label "you should sit with tax collectors and sinners". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "you should sit with tax collectors and sinners". Show all posts

Friday 28 June 2019

You should sit with tax collectors and sinners

You should sit with tax collectors and sinners
The book of Matthew states,
“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.  
When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:10-13.
I knew a man who wanted to be a pastor. He had the idea of going and setting up a new church congregation in a small rural Ontario town that had no evangelical church. Which he said they needed one.
In order to do this he went to Bible school and got his degrees. Trouble was he forgot a key thing that pastors and evangelist need to remember and for that matter every Christian. I realized this when I told him I’d gone to a gay wedding.
He said I shouldn’t have done for by doing so. I in attending, as a Christian, and at that time being a Christian teacher, lent credence to the marriage. Saying homosexuality was sinful.
He was shocked when I said I didn’t care. That even if it was sinful it was more important for me to go to it.
I reminded him that the apostle Paul said,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” 
                                                                                 Romans 3:23.
I noted that, that all meant heterosexuals and homosexuals alike. That everyone on earth is a sinner according to the apostle Paul.
I noted an incident between Jesus and that Pharisees recorded in Matthew that states,
“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.  
When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:10-13.
I noted that the only way anyone will hear about the saving grace of Christ Jesus, is by Christians interacting with people no matter who they are.
Thus my question to you the reader.
If you claim to be a Christian, a true believer in Christ Jesus do you interact with everyone irrespective of their sexual orientation, their faith, or their lifestyle?
If not, why not?
Please think about it.