Reaching the lost

“And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” - Matthew 9v11-13

One of the greatest challenging situations we face is knowing how to deal with the lost. We know that in some ways we are to be separate from the world. We know that there are a lot of worldly practices that the word of God condemns. We know that we are not to be defiled by the things of the world. Yet, we still need to reach the world for Christ.

Some think that the best way is to live something of a “neo-monastic” life where we live and function in our Christian environment where we only reach out when we need to or we do our job of knocking on doors and telling other about Christ. Some would never think that we should be actively involved with the world.

The Pharisees felt the same way. We need to keep ourselves clean from the world so we should not be involved with it. When Jesus and His disciples sat down to eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners there were questioned about their behaviour. Jesus heard the question and made the reason clear. “I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” His teaching was clear; in order to reach them we must go to them.

We need to keep ourselves pure and unspotted from the world. At the same time we must go out to them with the gospel. Since Jesus set the example He will give us the wisdom to do so.