“Jesus hung out with sinners, so why can’t you accept gay people?” I’ve heard this statement in various forms over the past few decades and there’s a glaring error in it that I need to point out. Let’s look at what the Bible says.

Matthew 9:10-13 “Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.””

So the first part of the introductory statement is indeed correct. Jesus did spend significant time with sinners. Actually, if we got technical about it, Jesus spent His whole earthly life surrounded by people who deserved to go to hell for their sin. Because that’s all of us. But if we set that aside for a moment and use the conventional 1st century understanding of the word “sinner” as it was used to describe someone who rejected God’s rules (prostitutes, adulterers, thieves, etc) then yes, even with that distinction, Jesus did spend significant time with these people.

But the key here is WHY He spent significant time with these people. Was it to affirm their choices? No. Was it to tell them they were acceptable to God “just as they were”? No. Was it to make them feel “loved and accepted for who God made them to be”? No.

“But how can you say that,” I hear you asking me. “Why are you so hateful?” I’m not being hateful. I’m reading what Christ said and applying it as I believe He intended. Our culture today demands to know why we won’t accept sinners as they are. The Pharisees came from the opposite direction. They asked Christ why He didn’t automatically reject these people.

The answer to both parties is to look at what Jesus said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” He tells the Pharisees that these sinners were sick. Doctors spend time with sick people for the express purpose of moving them from sickness to health.

What would you say about a doctor who goes onto a cancer ward and spends all day there telling these patients that having cancer is amazing and they should be happy that God made them with a body that is sick? That’s horrible, I hope you agree. Doctors don’t spend time with sick people to celebrate their illness, but to help them no longer BE sick.

Jesus Christ didn’t “hang out with sinners” because He thought they were fine the way they were, but because they were the ones who needed His healing touch so they could repent, walk away from their lives of sin, and turn to God, trusting in Him for salvation.

If you are living a life of willing, open sin right now, you are rejecting the God of the Bible, and setting yourself up in opposition to Him. That is a very dangerous place to be, and I appeal to you, please read the Word of God, study it, and let God show you that there is a better way: HIS way! Don’t give in to your sickness, because there are consequences for rejecting God. I Corinthians 6:9-10 tells us that “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” That means if you are choosing sin over God and have no intention of fighting against your sin, you are not saved. But the good news is that it’s not too late for you, because Paul writes in I Cor 6:11 “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” Such were some of you. In other words, some of you believers in Corinth WERE homosexuals, thieves, adulterers, etc, but you trusted in Christ and have now rejected your sin.

Repent while you still can.