It's amazing to me that all my friends are such sinners, even my Christian friends. Most of them have been following Jesus for over thirty years now, and you'd think they would be more perfect than they are, but they're not! And I'm no different. My friends are just as keenly aware of my faults as I am of theirs, and yet we still enjoy each other's deep, warm and intimate friendship. We accept the good with the bad in one another, because the good we see and enjoy far outweighs the bad that occasionally flares up in our social exchanges.
Whenever my friends or myself become "Sinning Christians," we still remain faithful to one another and to our friendship. Not a single one of my longstanding friends has ever rejected me because of my own periods of unchristlike behavior, nor have I rejected them. By comparison, the Church of my youth had nothing but contempt for the Sinning Christian, and we were as mean-spirited towards little sins as we were toward big ones. As I look back on it now, it's amazing to me at how much hatred we generated towards our fellow believers if they didn't carefully follow all the rules about Sabbath keeping, diet, drink, reading, playing, dressing, etc. My church literally trained us all to hate the Sinning Christian.
I have seen how the Church treats the Sinning Christian, and it is mostly with meanness, criticism, harsh retribution, judgment and condemnation. But what about Jesus? How does he feel about the Sinning Christian? This has been a most pressing question for me, since I frequently find myself wearing that title. No matter how hard I try to attain to perfection, I continually and regularly fail miserably in my attempts to reach those desired moral heights. Fortunately for me and all my sinning friends, Jesus is not like most of the Church, for one of his names is "Friend of Sinners." Matthew 11:19
As a Sinning Christian, it's a scary thing to know Jesus as Judge, which he also is, but it is very reassuring and comforting to know that he also calls himself "Friend of sinners." Tell me, is it even remotely possible that I'm a better friend than Jesus is? When my own friends sin, I don't just tolerate them, I LOVE THEM! I would rather they not sin, but I still love them. And when they willfully say things they shouldn't, or do things they shouldn't, or watch things they shouldn't, or eat things they shouldn't, do you think I desire for them to go to Hell? NO! A thousand times NO!
How is it, then, that our Church has gotten this vile and perverted idea that Jesus is so quick to throw his friends into Hell? Where did this schizophrenic idea come from that Jesus somehow loves us a whole lot better as Sinning Pagans than as Sinning Christians? As a sin-damaged human being, I love imperfectly, but the love my Jesus has for me is so great, that it literally "surpasses knowledge!" Ephesians 3:17-19 When I sin, Jesus is STILL my friend, and not just any common, ordinary friend, but rather "A friend who loves at all times." Proverbs 17:17
Jesus is my friend when I'm being good or bad. The love my Jesus has for me as friend is a "Love that covers over a multitude of sins," 1 Peter 4:8 and it is a love that "keeps no record of wrongs." 1 Corinthians 13:5 Because Jesus is my friend, he does not expose my sin to others, and he keeps no record of my failures of even a few moments ago!
Jesus is my friend, even when I'm a Sinning Christian. Jesus is also Judge, which is the example of Jesus the Church models the most, but with cruel and disastrous results, for we have failed to remember that:
"Mercy triumphs over Judgment!" James 2:13
Also "God's kindness leads us to repentance." Romans 2:4
And "He is not willing that any should perish." 2 Peter 3:9
If you are a Sinning Christian, and all the Church has shown you is shame and harshness, then take courage and take hope, for our beautiful and patient and loving Jesus is not like that, for he truly is a "Friend of Sinners."