Jesus Loves All
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.’” But wisdom is proved right by her actions.
Matthew 11:19 NIV
The late Dr. Harry Ironside once said, “Beware lest we mistake our prejudices for our convictions.”
To be sure, we must deplore wickedness, evil, and wrongdoing, but our commendable intolerance of sin too often develops into a deplorable intolerance of sinners. Jesus hates sin but loves the sinner.
I was amused and shocked to hear a man of considerable religious background declare on television not long ago that “you didn’t catch Jesus associating with questionable people or those whose basic ideas and attitudes were at variance with what Jesus knew to be honorable and right!”
Such a man should have known that Jesus wasn’t afraid to associate with anyone! One of the things which the scribes and Pharisees criticized bitterly was His willingness to help and talk with anyone, be they publicans, thieves, learned professors, or prostitutes, rich or poor! Even His own followers decried some of the people with whom He was seen in public, but this did not lessen the compassion that Jesus felt for all the members of poor, blinded, struggling humanity.
Jesus had the most open and all-encompassing mind that this world has ever seen. His own inner conviction was so strong, so firm, so unswerving that He could afford to mingle with any group, secure in the knowledge that He would not be contaminated. It is fear that makes us unwilling to listen to another’s point of view, fear that our own ideas may be attacked. Jesus had no such fear, no such pettiness of viewpoint, no need to fence Himself off for His own protection. He knew the difference between graciousness and compromise, and we would do well to learn from Him. He set for us the most magnificent and glowing example of truth, combined with mercy of all time, and in departing said, “Go ye and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).
Our Father and our God, thank You for Jesus and His love for the lost, no matter what their station in life. He loved even me, Father, and I am so grateful for that. Help me to be like Him and go in love to the lonely, the poor, the lost, and the abandoned. Show them Jesus through me. In His name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).