One of the most obvious reasons for disliking professional evangelical Christians is their ridiculous insistence on abstaining from being seen or associating with people who don’t go to church and act holier than Jesus himself. You know what I’m talking about. There are those people who think, if you, as a Christian, are seen with and/or conversing with non-Christians or “formerly Christians” we are defiling ourselves. Unfortunately the only thing you are defiling by associating with said non-believers, heathen, or “sinners” is the the narrow minded, egotistical worldview that people hold, to elevate themselves higher than the rest of us. Let’s read Luke 15:1-2. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” – Luke 15:1-2 Jesus constantly rubbed religious people the wrong way by associating with those people who couldn’t be reconciled with the religious. Look at how Luke describes the people that were coming to Jesus– they were tax collectors (essentially traitors in the first century Roman Empire) and “sinners.” But this is not “sinners” as everybody in the world is a “sinner” before God, type of “sinner.” This is the type of “sinner” whereby you were caught “sinning” by not just one person to make it only hearsay, but by a group of people, thereby having witnesses against you, type of sinners. The religious people hated it. But Jesus embraced it– the people who are thrown to the wayward curb. These people were not just notorious for their lack of so called morals (their only true crime was not being able to cover it up as well as other people); rather, these people were just abandoned to live out their lives in relative loneliness because people who should have known better decided not to be better and do what their God dictates them to do in His name. For way too long, we at church, have decided not to associate with people outside of our so-called group and it is a shame. I don’t care how you define your “group”– whether it be by race, morals, education, occupation, social preference, etc. People are standing on the outside looking in because they want to be invited, and you’re staring back at them? Why aren’t we out the door, welcoming them in? Jesus says to the Pharisees and scribes: “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” And allow me to paraphrase here but he says, “let’s have a welcoming party.” If judgment from other people are keeping you from being friends and socializing with people that you know want to join you; then you better get it together and stop that silliness. Maybe you should dump those judgmental group members. (Just as a note, this is not me telling you to go join a gang or play with sexual predators). This is me telling you that God has charged all of us to be little shepherds, and there are sheep out there, who are waiting to be found by us. The company we keep (the people who are supposedly are lost) will be found by God, and when they are, heaven will celebrate. Judge the real company you should be keeping.
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