Luke 15:1-2: Loving the Lost, part 1: Yeshua shows how God makes sinners righteous

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At the beginning of a chapter with three parables about God’s seeking to bring back to the Kingdom of God those who are “lost,” Yeshua demonstrated how God makes the “unholy” “holy.”

Let’s look at Luke 15:1-2:

Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.

Corresponding passages are Matt. 9:10-13, Luke 5:29-32; and Mark 2:15-17. The sages and פרשים P’rushim (“separate ones,” Pharisees), even the disciples of Yokhanan (John the Baptist) confronted Yeshua about the character of those He chose to associate. They were alarmed at how He and His disciples lived lives of joy, which was different from their lives of austerity and contemplation. Even today, we have sayings such as, “Show me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” 

The P’rushim ― the “separate ones” ― didn’t eat with “sinners,” as noted by one sage: “Let not a man associate with the wicked, not even to bring him to the Torah.” One can easily get this teaching from the Torah instructions on clean and unclean, no intermarriage with foreigners, contact between the high priest and the dead, no syncretism with worship of other deities and no blending of two things that aren’t the same (different fabrics in the same garment, different seeds in the same plot of land, etc.).

After all, apostle Paul ― supposedly, the post-Torah teacher of the ways of Christ ― drew from the Torah and Prophets in teaching that believers in Messiah should not be unequally yoked. Port cities, such as Corinth in the ancient times, are well known as places where all sorts of different kinds of people, with their varied cultures, moral values, religions, etc. blend together and create their own culture, which often differs from the culture of the cities further inland. Often, what results from this blending is not morally uplifting and profitable. 

In 2nd Cor. 6:14–7:1, Paul advised:

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Paul drew from Ex. 29:45; Lev. 26:12; Jer. 31:1; and Ezek. 37:27 to show that God’s people in the wild, licentious port city of Corinth should be careful of mixing their new lives with God with their old lives.

This command to “come out” to be “true p’rushim” from the ways of the world is echoed in Rev. 18:2-8:

And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.  For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.

I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; or her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow [Isa. 47:7; Zeph. 2:15], and will never see mourning.’  For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.

Paul emphasized the importance of separation, but it is easy to go into extremes of either legalism or unhealthful liberty. If you look at Paul’s writings with one set of glasses you will see one message, but with another set of glasses a different message appears. Yeshua says that the way of life is a narrow way, once one goes off on an extreme, they end up on the broad road to destruction. 

Acts 10–11 demonstrates that God has lifted up “gentiles” believers to Himself — made them “holy” — not lowered the standards of Israel to those of the nations. Those who are returning to God aren’t “unclean” anymore, because God declared them righteous because of their trust in Him more than in their past lives. Once He brings people into Israel, they are in the same family. 

We read in Gal. 2:11-21 about Paul chastising Peter for bowing to peer pressure from visiting P’rushim and treating fellow believers, who happened to not have a Jewish background, as unbelievers. Some believe that the events in Galatians 2 occurred before the vision God gives Peter in Acts 10. 

Paul does say in other texts, that believers must be careful when trying to reach out to the lost that they not be enticed into those same sinful behaviors. Like the Master, we are to seek out the lost, but we must be careful when doing so. At meetings of Celebrate Recovery, a Bible-believing, addiction-fighting group, the following counsel from apostle Paul in Gal 6:1-5 is recited:

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load.

As we reach out, we have to be careful, because we might end up on the same dangerous road. 

We are in danger of making God’s name common and of no repute — i.e., “taking it in vain” — if we reject those who He is calling to Himself just because they don’t have the same understanding we have. If we block the gateway to sinners and unbelievers into the company of Israel, we are entering dangerous territory. The Kingdom of God is taking over and calling people to Himself. He wants His followers to work with Him not against Him. 

Speaker: Jeff. Summary: Tammy.