Mark 2.16 observes He was eating with sinners and tax collectors.

When God lived among us as a man in Jesus the Christ He befriended those whom the religious leaders considered unworthy of God.

Those religions leaders taught and lived that because God is holy so only holy people could be a friend of God. When God came He turned this teaching on its head and set the record straight!

God in Jesus routinely condemned the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of the religious and instead welcomed and encouraged the sinner.Regrettably the religious today continue the evil of their forefathers.

Many sinners still believe God cannot accept them because they have done too many bad things in their life.

They go further in their ignorance of God by believing they must get better before they can approach God for a relationship.

Meanwhile the religious remain cloistered in their holy huddle never breaking-out to welcome, love or encourage the broken and the sinner toward God.

God demonstrated in Jesus that He is a pursuer of the sinner and that all the sinner must do to reconcile with God is to earnestly and humbly seek reconciliation.

God will forgive all sin no matter its length or depth – no sin is bigger than the forgiveness of God.

Those who love God are now the means for making God known in the world.

Therefore, like Jesus, the Christian must befriend the sinner in order to reconcile them to God.

We know we are religious when we have no friends who are sinners.