John 13:34-35 English Standard Version

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

There is a saying that has been floated around in the Christian community for a very long time. It goes something like this. “You may be the only Jesus they ever see.” While it is a nice sentiment it can place too much emphasis on a believer to act a certain way around sinners.

All people in the verse above are everyone outside the family of God. One another is everyone within the family of God. We should understand that being a family member holds a greater responsibility than just preaching the gospel. If we say we love Jesus and then treat each other poorly, it reflects poorly on Jesus.

In my early experience Christians would tell me “I love you with the love of God.” What I heard was “I don’t have any love for you myself.”

What attracted me to Jesus most was being invited into a family and seeing how they loved one another. I wanted that. I wanted to be a member of that family. For me, I wanted a new family.

That doesn’t mean every sinner wants the same thing. Some might, some might not. The essence of love shared between family members is where the love of God is most easily seen.

Inviting a sinner into a church family setting allows us to love one another with a support system. Entering into a sinners’ den alone puts us in a position of trying to shine love on people who have no experience with the love of God. They will mistake it for you being you rather than you loving Jesus.

We are who we are and do what we do because we love Jesus. That point cannot be made and seen at first glimpse if we are alone with sinners. Perhaps this is why Jesus first sent out His disciples in twos.

Colossians 1:10 English Standard Version (ESV) so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Isaiah 19:21 English Standard Version(modified)  And the Lord will make himself known to sinners, and the sinners will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.

We just learned that John the Baptist’s calling was to introduce the bride to the bridegroom.

Sinners might find a marriage to a Lord to be an extraordinary opportunity but why would a Lord take a bride from a pool of sinners? It is because that is all that is available to select from.

Romans 3:22-24 English Standard Version

22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

There is no distinction, nothing special about any sinner, none of us are worthy of being betrothed to the Son of God. If we think we have to clean up our act in order to be chosen for the Lord, we have missed the point that God the Father justifies His choice in which of us sinners become betrothed to His Son.

The gift of grace comes through faith in Jesus Christ by belief. Think of it as a dowry. 

This all supposes that we as sinners have come to know the Lord. How can we make a vow, worship Him and make sacrifices and offerings if we do not know the Lord?

Someone is going to play the role of John the Baptist in a sinner’s life. If we are lucky it will be a maternal grandmother like Timothy’s. Having someone we know, love and trust is the gentle way to come to know the Lord. 

Life has a gift for the rest of us that feels like a kick in the teeth. Life is harsh and relentless in trying to keep sinners trapped in an endless cycle of self-indulgence and disappointing us because no matter how much we gorge ourselves it doesn’t fill that hole in our heart.

Someone will come into our lives and tell us a tale of fulfillment that will ring true and we will begin to listen. That is where the gospel message is planted as a seed of hope and begins to grow in a heart to heal the wounds that worldliness left there.

The world tries to fill that hole with things which only make the hole larger. That emptiness cannot be filled with anything but Jesus Christ because God created us that way.