Jesus was no sinner, nor a friend of sinners. He was kind and compassionate on sinners, and never committed sin in His dealings with sinners for He "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22; Isaiah 53:9). His communication with sinners was pure and never encouraged them in sin.
Example when we see a stranger who is in trouble we try to help them , that doesnt mean that we were friends with him , it means we were compassionate to help him.
We also know that Jesus hates wickedness in Hebrews 1:9:You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” His heart is grieved over those who sin and Jesus hates the sin within each one of us. Jesus hated sin so much that He went to the cross to do away with sin. Jesus doesn't want to leave us living in our sins but He came to die for our sins and to empower us through the Spirit to overcome sin.
Compassion does not equal tolerance or friendship especially where sin is concerned. As for being found in the company of sinners, Jesus also gave His reason for that: Sick people need a physician. He ate with sinners, not to approve their lifestyle, but to call them to repentance (Lk. 5:29-32).
We mustn't make excuses for our sins nor should we hide our sins (Psalm 32:5) but we should confess our sins to the Father (1 John 1:9) and remain in faith in Jesus who alone can wash our sins away.
I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:7)
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10)
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32)
Friends are those you are in harmony with, have partnership with, have agreement with, have things in common with. Everything which 2 Cor 6:14-18 states. Only after the sinner repents of sin in response to the mercy of God can such characteristics of friendship as these be possible. Truth is primarily learned by contrasts and James 4:4 contrasting friends and enemies of God is clear. Lastly,
the only two men attested as friends of God in the Bible were Moses and Abraham.
The Scripture bears out many facts that GOD does NOT walk around with a perpetual smile on all people, here are a few of those verses:
Psalms 5:5:…Thou dost HATE ALL who do iniquity.
Rom 2:5-6:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who will render to every man according to his deeds
Matt 13:41-42:41 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus came as the great Physician. We still need to bring ourselves humbly, repentantly before Him, as well as bringing those we know to Him. Jesus said “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
In (Luke 19:1-10) Many of us remember the story of the diminutive Zaccheus, who had to climb a tree in order to see Christ: Zaccheus is a tax-gatherer. Zaccheus is considered by all in his city to be a sinner. remarkable change had begun to take place in the heart of Zaccheus?
And he hurried and came down, and received Him gladly … And Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much."
Zaccheus was repentant! Christ was honoring the repentance of Zaccheus with His presence as a houseguest in Zaccheus’ home.
However, the unrepentant citizens of Jericho were unwilling to recognize the evidence of Zaccheus’ repentant change. They regarded him as a “sinner,” focusing only upon the apparent sins of his past.
Let’s
first look at a time when Jesus describes the friendship ..
John 15:14-15: You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
Here we see Jesus saying, “those of you who love and live in sin, you’re my friend.
Disobedience toward Christ is not friendship with Him. He shares His life with His obedient friends. There are lots of people who justify their sins point out that, “Jesus ate with tax–gatherers and sinners.” Their reasoning is simple, “because Jesus did these things then we can too.” It is true that the Scriptures teach that Jesus ate with tax–gatherers and sinners (Mt. 9:11; 11:19; Mk. 2:16; Lk. 5:30; 7:34; 15:2). Yet, he did so in order to preach the gospel to them, to call them to repentance and not to participate in their evil deeds of darkness. When the Pharisees asked why Jesus ate with godless sinners, Jesus said in Lk. 5:31-32 “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus hated sin and he hated worldliness. He put up with the sinfulness of men in order to call sinners to repentance.We can even cultivate relationships with the godless for the purpose of calling sinners to repentance and evangelizing them, but never to enjoy their sin or sinful life style. Paul said this to the Ephesians in Eph. 5:3-8, II Cor. 6:14-17, I Cor. 15:33-34, II Tim. 2:16-18.
These people, not knowing God, being children of Satan, do not respect the morals of God, and hence they use words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, by promising them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. Then Peter explains that the very ones who promise freedom and “Christian liberty” are already overcome by sin and enslaved to it.
John 15:14: “You are My friends, if you do what I command you.
Here we see that
sinners do not do what Jesus Christ commands , they by nature practice sin and are disobedient.
1 John 3:4: Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
There are many people who twist the words of God and make Jesus to be a “friend of sinners” and claim innocence before Christ.
Let us see Luke 7:33-35:33 “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 34 “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’ 35 “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
It is clear that there are
four accusations hurled out our Saviour and His servant, John the Baptist, in this passage…
John the Baptist “has a Demon”
Jesus was a “Gluttonous Man”
Jesus was a “Drunkard”
Jesus was a “Friend of tax-gatherers and sinners”
How any man can reason that the accusations are true. To take just one out of the four accusations AGAINST Christ and claim that it is true, is twisting scripture, taking it out of context, but men with smooth words deceive multitudes by doing this very thing.
You see, if we say Jesus was a “friend of sinners” then we conclude that the accusations are true, and then He also is a drunkard and a gluttonous man, as well as John the baptist had a demon (God forbid). Certainly none of those things are true, so we can conclude that Jesus was NOT a friend of sinners, as well as He was NOT a drunkard, or a gluttonous man, nor did John have a demon.
Look at another verse
Hebrews 7:26 that He was mentioned as “seperated from sinners.
Heb 7:26: For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;
Let us look at Luke 15:1-2: Now all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
here in this verse we see again that the words are an accusation of a pharsee.
God does recognize repentance. “But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live.
“Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord GOD, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live? But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery which he has committed and his sin which he has committed; for them he will die.
“Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' Hear now, O house of Israel! Is My way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right?
"When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies because of it, for his iniquity which he has committed he will die.
"Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all his transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
"But the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' Are My ways not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not right? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct," declares the Lord GOD. "Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD. "Therefore, repent and live." (Ezekiel 18:20-32)
In all the parables where
Jesus was a friend of sinners demonstrates that” Again, it is Jesus Christ emphasizing God’s great, merciful, and loving regard for the repentance of those who sin.
Let’s go on to examine some occasions where it is recorded that Christ did eat with unrepentant men – although it is evident that they were men who imagined themselves to be righteous!
We are not to socialize at all with people who, having become part of God’s Church, are practicing sin. Jesus was compassionate for sinners because Christ came into the world to save sinners. He didn't come to make sinners feel good about themselves.
Some people attempt to justify their wrongdoing by saying, for example, that Jesus refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery and that He spent much of His time eating and drinking with sinners.
Jesus' words to the adulterous woman, "Neither do I condemn you" (Jn. 8:11), are filled with forgiveness, not tolerance. She knew her own sin, and He knew that she did, whereas the would-be stone-throwers weren't reflecting upon theirs. So Jesus had to deal with them first. But after He forgave the woman, notice that Jesus did not say, "Go, follow your feelings, celebrate diversity, and try not to hurt anyone." He said, "Go, and sin no more." To the paralytic, He added a further warning: "Sin no more, lest something worse befall you" (Jn. 5:14). That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.2 Corinthians 5:19
God hates everyone who doesn’t put Him first." God is not angry merely against the sin abstracted from the sinner, but against the sinner himself.Eg when you say God hates the theft, but loves the thief. He abhors adultery, but is pleased with the adulterer. This will not make any sense. The sin has no moral character apart from the sinner. we also know that God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day." (Psa 7:11)
Proverbs 30:12 there is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
God hates sinners so much that “for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)
Proverbs 6:16-19 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
Whosoever is born of God will not commit sin. And saints are made free from sin to become the servants of righteousness. The word of God, prayers keeps away from sins and also we need to keep as far away as possible from sinful places and sinful people who corrupt good morals.
1 John 3:9 whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1 John 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
When God says he hate sinners it does not mean that he will tolerate the sinners or the sinners go unpunished. Love for sinners is not reason to keep quiet about sin. The Bible says that Sin should always be confessed ,mourned over,hated,departed from, Avoided even in appearance from all forms,shoulded be guarded, to be prayed to keep away and delivered from sins, to ask God to cleanse our sins with the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. Christ not only pardons repentant sinners, but He restores in them the image of God.
God loves the sinner when the sinner is purged from his sinful nature. God will receive any repent sinner that comes through Jesus Christ. A true love for sinner is by speaking the truth in love, correcting him, rebuking his sin and not allowing a person to live in sin or continuing his sinful lifestyle. The godly sorrow we feel should cause us to change our minds about the way we have acted and lived in the past. Our sorrow should make us decide to quit doing what is wrong and start doing what is right. This is repentance.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Romans 5:6-8 for when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jeremiah 23:22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
The wicked people encourage themselves in sin and also Delight in those who commit sins. They also have numerous unbiblical excuses to commit sin and to defend their sinful ways. When you question them they mock and boast about their sins also they try to tempt others and they either blame God others for their sinful natures. They have become spiritual Blinded which is caused due to the effect of sin, a work of the devil and Leads to all evil. When God’s people do not obey Him, He allows a spirit of blindness to come over them.
Psalms 64:5 they encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
Isaiah 3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
Proverbs 14:9 Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.
Psalms 10:11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
2 Peter 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
Proverbs 10:16 The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin.
We also know that True Love for God is to hate evil.
People who know God's will and who love righteousness will hate sin and evil.
Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Psalm 97:10
Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. Amos 5:15
To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Proverbs 8:13
We need remove our self with people who constantly sin who encourages us to sin and who refuse to repent and whose lifestyle reflect their rebellious ways. We need to be very careful to whom we make friends.
The righteous should CHOOSE HIS FRIENDS CAREFULLY, for the way of the wicked leads them astray." (Proverbs 12:26)
The
Bible says that evil company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33).
God has called us to walk godly and keep away from sin. A Godly friend will lead you to God, Church, Godliness, Holiness and truth.
we can not be everyone’s friend. God's word says - evil friends, ungodly friends will corrupt you.
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways; they have made themselves crooked paths; whoever takes that way shall not know peace" (Isaiah 59:7,8).
"There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12).
Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble" (Proverbs 4:11-19).
You cannot be friends with the world and God. If we have friendship with worldly friends they will encourage us to live in world ways and encourages us to sin and will keep us from hearing Gods Word. Gods word and Godly ways are nonsense to them ultimately we will loose Gods kingdom and our end will end in hell.
James 4: Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
We can identify wrong friends in our life by their fruits. The bad friends are are filled with anger and bitterness whose who lifestyle, goals, teachings, morals conflict with Gods word, who offers wrong advises with wrong motives, who gossips, who is their only in Good times and runs when you fall.
Every sin has its own consequences and demands heavy price. The final result of sin is death and destruction. "The wages of sin. is death" (Rom. 6:23).some of the examples are:
1)Ham & Noah (Genesis 9:20-27) involved in looking at naked body Hence Ham's son Canaan and his descendants are cursed (future Canaanites)
2)Angels taking human wives (Genesis 6:1-12, Jude 6-7, 2 Peter 2:4) which was Indulged in gross sexual immorality with "strange flesh" and as as result Earth was corrupt and full of violence God determined to destroy humanity by a flood .
3)Sodom & Gomorrah (Jude 6-7, Genesis 18:16-33, Genesis 19:1-29, Ezekiel 16:48-50)was involved in Homosexuality ,Pride ,Gluttony which resulted in Both cities and the surrounding territory were destroyed by God.
4)Lot & his daughters involved in Incest (Genesis 19:30-38) because his Daughters did not have faith that God would provide for them which resulted The descendants (Ammonites and Moabites) became hated enemies of God's people.
Gods word say that”I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-- not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you" (1 Corinthians 5:9-13).
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? … When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 3 John 1:11
It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 1 Peter 3:17
Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. Leviticus 19:17
