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Show ASSOCIATION Luke 5: 29-32 Who do you associate with? How does that association affect you, your life, and your behavior. When I was growing up my parents often reminded us that "Birds of a feather flock together." What they were suggesting was that those who have things in common hang out together. They were suggesting that when people hang out together, they become like each other. This text is hanging out with the publicans and sinners. Levi, better about Jesus known to us as Matthew, who collected taxes, had been invited to follow Jesus. He walked away from everything and followed Him. He hosted 1 a dinner for Jesus and were some not the of his friends and likely guest. Scribes and the Pharisees they When the saw them together, they murmured against the disciples wanting to know, "Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?" Jesus answered them saying, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5: 29-32) Jesus was saying, in short, that the self-righteous who think everything is together and alright, need no help and they were not the object of his coming. Rather, He came as a friend to the publicans and sinner, to those who recognized their needs and shortcomings. Are you practicing exclusiveness and bigotry? 2 What is your purpose in life? Who do you associate with? There are two considerations. First, this reminding bad an us men on text to be that to associate with the ground of friendship is unchristian behavior. When only purpose is to enjoy the our company of vicious and mercenary have missed the mark. There are those who we seems are , surely better ways to spend your time and to seek pleasure. Doubtful sources are seldom productive and most often leave us unfulfilled and empty. To mingle with a covetous publican or an irreverent sinner is to waste time. Instead of encouraging, we ought to discourage those who persist in their vicious ways. And what is more, to mingle with the 3 frivolous and guilty is to lower your own standards. Be courteous, gracious and respectful, but remember that no wise man will establish an intimate relationship with the unholy and the unworthy. F or the more you associate with the degenerate, the more degenerate you are destined to become. On the other hand, to associate with the bad for the purpose of their elevation is a Christian principle. We must find ourselves never ignoring who need to be lifted. Levi those was completely changed for the better because of his association with Jesus. Instead of taking more than was his, he gave back all that he had wrongfully taken, and more. Jesus did not engage in the wrong of the sinners 4 or the revelries publicans or the lose living of the careless or the corruption of the powerful. He did not cheat because He of the was with those who had cheated. He did because He was in the presence of those who had stolen. Rather, He not steal showed them to higher ground. He taught them greater lessons and principles. He demonstrated better behavior and stronger belief. He lead the ignorant to knowledge and wisdom. He guided the young to maturity. the lost to find their way. Teachers ought not to be halls of ivy league He helped only in the debate and discussion but in the classrooms of ignorance and student learning. Doctors need not to be in the country clubs of the healthy but in the hospitals of the sick and the homes of 5 the shut-in. Christians are not the pavers pleasantry and security but examples of freedom and nobility. What legislation cannot root out, love will. What learning and literature will not change, empathy will. What science cannot accomplish, repentance and holiness will. It is our calling to assemble ourselves together in an association of faith, to be animated by the Spirit of God, to promote spiritual growth, to practice missionary hospitality, to show brotherly unity, and to walk in Christian fellowship. Then we can rejoice in the "Tie that of roads with binds our hearts in Christian love. fellowship The of kindred minds is like to that above." 6 |
