A Friend of Sinners

"The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’" Luke 7:34 

Is it a sin to befriend a gay person?  This was the question someone was seeking an answer to online recently. To support their question they wrote, "one thing that bothers me is how many Christians attacks [sic] people for being gay. You can say something is a sin but to make someone feel less than loved is not good way [sic]. Trying to make them less than feeling loved by God is wrong. I try to go with the path Jesus takes and befriend others. Not attack ..." I understand what this individual is trying to convey. Christians are to interact with others in love. However, the question must be asked, "What do they mean by Christians attacking people for being gay?" This is a subjective use of language. An attack could be anything from physical harm to simply saying that homosexuality is a sin. Often times it is the so-called victim of the "attack" that is the one who is allowed to define the terms. But, I digress. Is it a sin to befriend a gay person? The short answer is, "No." To befriend someone means to offer help or support. Depending on what you are offering help and support for, this is not a problem. Of course, you want to be careful that you are not encouraging or endorsing their sinful behavior. One way to think about the question is to look at it in context of other sins people commit. Let us rephrase the question. How about if we ask the question like this: "Is it a sin to befriend a jealous person, a murderer, an angry person, a deceitful person, an evil person, a gossiper, a slanderer, an atheist, a rude person, an arrogant person, inventors of evil, people who disobey their parents, the ignorant, the unfaithful, the loveless, and merciless?" This question paraphrases Romans 1:29-31 which reads, "They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy." It is Romans 1 where the Apostle Paul makes firm and absolute statements regarding homosexuality. He goes so far as to say, "God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another (Romans 1:24)." However, Christians oftentimes seem to stop at homosexuality as if it is the only sin a person commits worth separating over. I can understand this given the way the sin is flaunted by those enslaved to it and used by politicians to force acceptance of it on the masses. However, with that said, if we were to ban the befriending of people trapped in sin, you could argue we would all be alone.

Like with anything you have to use discernment with those you keep company with but always keeping in mind that these people are those who Jesus died and rose for like He did for us. There are not too many of us who weren't befriended by someone who knew the Lord when we were trapped in our sins and needed them to share the love of God with us. For example, shortly before I came to Jesus, I was reunited with an old friend. From what I recall, she prayed for me and talked with me on numerous occasions. She, for all tense and purposes, "befriended" a sinner. My problem wasn't homosexuality, but drunkenness, fornication, and a list too long to write are what had a grip on my life. Most of our interaction took place over the phone and it wasn't long before she was again out of my life. I haven't spoken to her since, but will always be thankful for God using her, or putting her in my life, at a time I needed it the most. Anybody we befriend is a ________ person. We are all dealing with sin in our life to one extent or the other. It is just that most of us don't identify ourselves by it like others do. It is our "little secret." However, we all need someone we can confide in and who will listen to us; slowly guiding us to the Lord. Imagine the "tax collectors and sinners" that Jesus Christ was criticized for associating with during His ministry. How would He answer the question, "Is it a sin to befriend a gay person?" Jesus gave the answer to this question Himself. "When the scribes who were Pharisees saw Jesus eating with these people, they asked His disciples, “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:16-17).” Sin is sin. Before coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ we are all sick sinners in need of being made well. Those who were alive during the ministry of Jesus Christ had the privilege of having Him personally befriend them and receive His loving kindness.  Until His return Jesus uses Christians to befriend sinners and be His eyes He sees with, hands He touches with, voice He speaks with, and legs He walks with. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news (Romans 10:14-15)!" Christians are the only ones in the world with the beautiful feet that bring the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those most in need of hearing it. Befriend a sinner. Reap a saint!

A Friend of God

A Friend of God

By Aaron Budjen

The sin in the world during the time of Noah was very profound.  In Genesis 6 the Lord saw that the wickedness was great.  Evil intent was on people's hearts continually and the Lord recognized His part in the abomination He saw.  He was the one who provided them with the land to walk on and the food to eat.  He created the world and all that was in it for the people.  He was the provider, the one who ensured everything functioned so the people would be able to build quality lives for themselves.  He did his part but they used His generosity and love for them inappropriately, and used the resources He provided to build lives of horrific evil.  It is recorded that the feelings of God were deeply hurt.  He is a God of profound sensitivity and has feelings to a degree we will likely never imagine the depths of.  He was the one who provided the resources by which the people engaged in so much evil, and He repented by taking what he provided away from them.  He flooded the earth.  There was no land for people to put their feet on.  The food and clean water was so difficult to get that if some people were able to find something to float on they still would not survive.  They were adequately warned of what was coming.  They could have built a boat and stocked it with provisions like Noah did.  God did not keep any secrets and Noah was a testimony for many years of what was going to take place.  God took away what was rightfully His and being left on their own, everyone but eight people perished.

The Lord established a covenant in Genesis 9:12-17 that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood as He did.  We see rain from the sky all the time now and it can be easy for us to fear the flood again.  The Lord provided the rainbow for us to see in the sky as a reminder for us that we have nothing to fear from the rain.  He will not destroy the world with a flood like He did before.  It is not a covenant to suggest that what He did was wrong.  Some could assume that He perhaps reacted out of anger inappropriately and seeing the error of His ways He is promising He won't do it again.  The people on this earth have no legitimate claim on His property, His planet or His provisions.  What He gives is a gift and is not something He owes them.  They cannot extort Him through His goodness by proclaiming He better give them what they need or He is not a good God.  If anyone wishes to assert He is evil and reject Him as a person, He will probably be merciful and allow them to continue to live in His creation for a time.  However, just as He said in Genesis 6:3 that man would get 120 years, we will all physically die, and if we live all the way to the end, our lives will end when He does destroy the earth again.  He promised He would not destroy the earth with water a second time.  He gave the people a prophecy that He would destroy the earth with water once, and He has told us clearly that one day He will do it with fire.

After the flood of Noah there was a time of quiet peace.  Where was the Lord?  What was He doing?  Besides the Tower of Babel incident, it was about 300 years before we heard from Him again when we look at the record in the Scriptures.  Consider what had taken place.  It was a very emotional experience for Him to go through what He went through.  He confessed His part in providing the means by which people made such terrible choices.  He genuinely wanted to provide for people so they could build happiness and joy for themselves.  He is such a loving and giving God and yet his love and generosity were used to violate Him and what He created.  Once he made the adjustments and gave the few people remaining a way to start over, He took some time off.

When the Lord rested after the flood, we know that He did watch to see what people would do.  The sons of Noah had a new opportunity to build a new world with the remembrance of who God is and what He had done.  Around a hundred years later the people began to build the Tower of Babel and a city where they could have a name for themselves and effectively declare their independence from the God who created everything.  In Genesis 11:5-6 the Lord recognized that through working together they would be able to accomplish most anything that would come to their minds.  While this can be an opportunity for them to build great goodness, it could also be an opportunity for them to build great evil.  I do not believe the Lord wanted to interfere with their ability to build great goodness.  Instead, He scattered the people by interfering with their ability to communicate with each other.  Miraculously, He intervened through the Holy Spirit so they could not understand what most others were saying.  They understood those who He allowed to have a common language with and they formed new communities accordingly.  This is similar in contrast to what He accomplished through the unification of people with the Gift of Tongues once the New Covenant went into effect.  This did not prevent them from achieving great things.  Instead He established an opportunity for healthy competition between the different groups of people as a system of checks and balances in case some of the groups decided to use their unity for evil.  If one group decided to pursue self destructive behavior there would be other groups who could decide to pursue something different.  When the whole world one day joins together in a new world order, this opportunity for competition will be eliminated.  If the leadership establishes policies that are self destructive for the people of the world there will eventually be no hope for humanity but the direct intervention of God through the return of the king, The Lord Jesus.

In addition to the record of the Tower of Babel incident, we could perhaps include the writing of Job as an example of our God's continual participation in the lives of people after the flood.  Besides these descriptions we don't seem to have any information about God speaking with or interacting with others.  It is as if He was there to respond when needed, but otherwise kept to Himself.  I can't help but wonder what He was doing during this time.  What where the projects He was working on and what were the works He was preparing for people to walk in?  Around 300 years after the flood there was a man, Abram.  Abram was certainly not perfect but God saw something in him that grabbed His attention.  God spoke to Abram and invited Abram to follow Him.  Abram could have easily refused and continued with the successful life he had.  To leave his home and community with so much uncertainty was a substantial risk, and the reward of having more may have easily turned out to be a life of wandering around various lands and living his life in a tent.  He did respond to the invitation and eventually left everything behind to build a new life with a God he barely knew.  I believe it was a special moment for our God that after all of those years from the Garden of Eden until Abram, He finally got to experience someone like Abram who went with Him to start a new life like they did.  It was of course a difficult relationship that was built over time but when reading about it I believe we can see that they shared a special relationship.  The depth and quality of it can easily be overlooked with all of the events and covenants but several hundred years later we were told through Isaiah who Abraham (Genesis 17:5) was to our God.  In Isaiah 41:8 He eventually told us who Abraham was to Him.  Abraham was his friend.  Through all that God had done and experienced, He had and still has a friend, one of many since then.

Final Greetings

“These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me (Colossians 4:11).” It is often overlooked or, at best, skimmed through, but the end of the letters in the New Testament, specifically those of the Apostle Paul, hold some telling information. For example, at the end of his letter to the Colossians, Paul writes about people like Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Justus, Epaphras, Demas, Nympha and Archippus. While they are Christians and have been blessed with having their names immortalized in the pages of the Bible, at the present time they are not much more than hard to pronounce names of people who lived nearly two-thousand years ago. However, to Paul, they are dear brothers (and a sister), faithful ministers and fellow servants in the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been my experience that in modern day Christianity too much focus is placed on going to church at the expense of developing relationships with fellow Christians. In Hebrews 10:25 we are told to “encourage one another” and “all the more as you see the Day approaching.” The best way to encourage each other is by first getting to know each other and then supporting one another through the daily events of life. Paul was writing his letter to the Colossians from prison. I doubt there was time for weekly fellowship at a local church. 

Furthermore, Paul didn’t have the use of modern comforts like cell phones to talk and text with, or computers to write and email. There wasn’t Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat to instantly post pictures or write posts informing others of the intimate details of his life. He didn’t even have a post office to quickly deliver his letters. Lord only knows how long it took to write a letter much less send it.  The times of loneliness and despair had to be frequent. Is it any wonder Paul grew close to Aristarchus, his “fellow prisoner”? Obviously, the time Paul spent with those individuals he mentions, in particular Aristarchus, is how Paul grew close to them, became friends with them and how they were able to be a comfort to him. True friendships are difficult to build once a week at a predetermined time and place where most of what you do is sit and listen to someone else preach. No, true friendships are built by daily interaction as you share experiences with each other and go through the ups and downs of life together. When is the last time you reached out to a brother or sister in Christ in order to encourage them or tell them how they encouraged you in the Lord? More importantly, do you have anyone to reach out to? The Apostle Paul, in my opinion, was able to name those close to him because they may have been the only people he had in his life to name. While we know there are millions of Christians around the world we only know and, dare I say, only need a few “fellow workers” to be a comfort to us. Perhaps one day many years from now someone will be reading what you wrote to your friends and be encouraged by your loving words to them.