“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4).
“That person is so sinful that they will never come to God!” Although we would be reluctant to admit it, we sometimes categorize people as “savable” or “unsavable,” We base our assumptions upon their speech, actions, or appearance. They just “don’t seem like the type to serve God.” Would they even listen if I tried to tell them about God?
One lady shared how she and her husband were not invited to church by those who knew them because they were thought too sinful to be saved. God thought differently. I met her several years later as a mature Christian, and it was difficult to imagine how this beautiful, godly lady was once considered “unsavable.”
JESUS REACHED OUT TO ALL
During His time on earth, the Lord did not gravitate to only those considered socially acceptable or leaders in society. He was just as likely to speak with beggars, harlots, lepers, and other social outcasts. He loved them all.
Luke 7 tells of a time when Jesus accepted a dinner invitation to the home of a Pharisee. As Luke relates, “A woman in the city, which was a sinner” learned where He was and entered uninvited. Approaching Jesus, she began to wash His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Then she took an alabaster box of ointment and anointed His feet. The Pharisee, knowing the woman’s reputation, was quick to judge. If Jesus were really a prophet, he thought, He would know what kind of person she is. Jesus knew; but instead of reproving her, He extended mercy. “Thy sins are forgiven” (verse 48).
On another occasion Jesus and the disciples encounter a mentally ill man tormented with evil spirits (Luke 8:26-39). The man lived like a wild creature, naked and uncontrollable. Verse 29 tells us, “He was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.”
A candidate for deacon or Sunday school teacher? Hardly. Yet Jesus did not consider this tormented soul as hopeless. Instead, He cast out the evil spirits and set the man free. We next find him “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind.”
Jesus met others during His earthly ministry that we might reject as unworthy.
- Matthew was a hated tax collector.
- The ten lepers were considered unclean.
- A woman had been caught in adultery;
- The woman at the well had numerous relationships.
None was so sinful that the Lord refused to reach out with love and mercy. Can we do any less today?
ALL HAVE SINNED
Romans 3:23 says that “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Our condition was no more acceptable in God’s sight than the prostitute, the drug addict, or the drunkard. However, it’s not only the “lowest of the low” who need salvation. Look around at those who seemingly have it all—the professional, the rich, the admired. They too need God.
God never intended for the church to be an exclusive social club where only the good and the beautiful could come together. He commissioned us to take the gospel “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Yes, He meant to the farthest regions of the world, but He also meant for us to take it to the uttermost levels of society—high, low, and all in between. No one is excluded from God’s plan for salvation.
Jesus looked beyond what someone was to what they could become. Can we do the same?
Devotion by Mary Loudermilk
