"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
"This man receives sinners."—Luke 15:2.
The ironical taunt of proud and censorious Pharisees formed
the glory of Him who came, "not to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance." Publicans and outcasts; those covered with a deeper than any
bodily leprosy—laid bare their wounds to the "Great Physician;" and as
conscious guilt and timid penitence crept abashed and imploring to His feet,
they found nothing but a forgiving and a gracious welcome!
"His ways" were not as "man's ways!" The "watchman," in the
Canticles, "smote" the disconsolate one seeking her lost Lord; they tore off
her veil, mocking with chilling unkindness her anguished tears. Not so "the
Chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls." "This man receives
sinners!" See in Nicodemus, stealing under the shadows of night to elude
observation—a type of the thousand thousand who in every age have gone
trembling in their night of sin and sorrow to this Heavenly Friend! Does Jesus
punish his timidity by shutting His door against him, spurning him from His
presence?—"He will not break the bruised reed, He will not quench the smoking
flax!"
And He is still the same! He who arrested a persecutor in
his blasphemies, and turned the lips of an expiring felon with faith and love,
is at this hour standing with all the garnered treasures of Redemption in His
hand, proclaiming, "Him that comes unto Me, I will in no wise cast out!"
Are we from this to think lightly of sin? or by example and
conduct to palliate and overlook its enormity? Not so; sin, as sin, can never
be sufficiently stamped with the brand of reprobation. But we must seek
carefully to distinguish between the offence and the offender. Nothing should
be done on our part by word or deed to mock the penitential sighings of a
guilty spirit, or send the trembling outcast away, with the despairing feeling
of "No hope." "This man receives sinners," and shall not we?
Does He allow the veriest dregs of human depravity to crouch unbidden
at His feet, and to gaze on His forgiving countenance with the uplifted eye of
hope, and shall we dare to deal out harsh, and severe and crushing
verdicts on an offending (it may be a deeply offending) brother? Shall
we pronounce "crimson" and "scarlet" sins and sinners beyond the pale of
mercy, when Jesus does not? No, rather, when wretchedness, and
depravity, and backsliding cross our path, let it not be with the bitter taunt
or the ironical retort that we bid them away. Let us
bear—endure—remonstrate—deal tenderly; Jesus did so, Jesus does
so! Ah! if we had within us His unconquerable love of souls; His yearning
desire for the everlasting happiness of sinners, we would be more frequently
in earnest admonition and affectionate appeal with those who have hitherto got
no other than harsh thoughts and repulsive words. If this "mind" really was in
us, "which was also in Him," we would more frequently ask ourselves, "Have I
done all I might have done to pluck this brand from the burning? Have I
remembered what grace has wrought, what grace can do?"
"Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one
convert him; let him know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of
his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins!"
"Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind."