WHAT MATTERS MOST

 AUGUST 18, 2022

Luke 5:30-32

30But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?”

31Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. 32I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

14Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.


Jesus first disciples were a diverse “motley” crew. They were not from the polite corners of society, and they were not Bible scholars. The crew included several fishermen, a tax collector, and an outspoken pessimist. They were ordinary, common people. They disagreed with each other often, but they were united by the desire to follow and be trained and be taught by Jesus.

You have probably read or heard that Jesus loved people so much that He was often accused of keeping questionable company (Luke 5:30). What is important to note is that these accusations did not change His actions as He kept welcoming sinners to dinner with Him. Don’t you love Jesus’ response to those allegations we read above? It’s a classic: “Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (vv. 31–32).

Jesus understood that a physician must get close enough to the sick to bring any healing. Jesus is the Great Physician. So, he isn’t concerned about external rules and regulations as much as He’s concerned with healing the sick and caring for the wounded and crushed.

Author Bob Goff wrote in an Instagram post,

“Most of us spend our entire lives avoiding the people Jesus spent His whole life engaging.” 

I believe that it is correct to acknowledge that Jesus wants us to engage with others in need of a Savior, not to avoid them.

When Jesus followers open wide their lives, it’s amazing how people can sense the love of God through them. True, we may not even understand fully what God is doing in those moments, but there is a sense of God’s presence in the living rooms, at dining tables, in coffee shops, and in family and work life of every believer in Christ. If Christ is in every believer, it stands to reason that people will encounter the life of Christ in every experience. The location is not what matters; whether in park, coffee shop, or church sanctuary, what matters is that we extend Jesus’ love and Peace and rest to anyone, everywhere we are in this increasingly restless culture.


"Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them."

2 Corinthians 5:14–15