I recently was asked a question about whether Jesus is a friend to sinners. I was not asked the question by who asked the question, but by who saw the question ...asking me how I would respond to it.

Though the conversation began with discussing the meaning of friend ...it then moved to friendship, and many statements on the coattails of the initial question.  But, though the conversation talked mostly about what a friend was & to whom, the most confusion seemed to be distinguishing between sin and the sinner.

Mark 2:17, "When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

I Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."

Sin is separation from God ...we can't be with God if we are separated, and we have to be saved to not be separated.

I told our children long ago that there is a difference between being "buddies" and being friends ...a true friend does not consider whether you necessarily agree as the highest regard for the basis of the relationship, but by what is believed to be healthy. "Buddies" often get in trouble together because the relationship is based upon getting along, not necessarily doing what is right.

It seems to be a usual case of semantics ...and even the context of the question has changed from whether Jesus is a friend, to the idea of friendship. Someone can be a friend to someone else without the person accepting it ...therefore the friendship does not exist, but the friend does. Since God exists, and is a friend to us ...as none are drawn to Him unless He draws us, then it could be said that since all are unsaved at one time, He is our friend who knows what's best for all of us and who can be trusted (whatever definition of a true friend, He is to us before we are saved ...and the relationship comes about after we accept Him for who He is). I do not claim any standing of how I am to Him ...He is the glorious friend. And I'm thankful that I've been given relationships here on earth ...to which I attribute friendship, whether I earn it or not.

Saul, who became Paul was an accomplice to murder ...and God hates murder, yet loved the person of Saul enough to blind him. God never wants us to have friendship with sin, or the world ...He wants to save us from it. I disagree with the confusion of the semantics, and that may seem trite ...but I don't want the point made by me at least to be confusing.

Kenneth commented, "Was the good Samaritan being a friend to the stranger?"

Dennis commented, "He laid down His life for us, while we were yet sinners.  He is the friend of sinners since He seeks and saves those which are lost. "

Andrew commented, "As there are none righteous, no not a single one, he was a friend to sinners and still is and as it is God's patience that leads us to repentance, then God in all forms is a friend to sinners." 

 Grace, mercy, and love ...they do seem to be within the parameters.

Responding to those who contend that Jesus was not a friend to sinners, Cindy says, "In other words then, are we fickle friends ...falling in and out of favor according to whether we are obeying that day? No, we are sinners saved by grace. At times we do God's will, other times we willfully or ignorantly choose to sin. You're suggesting He only is a friend when we're good?"

Can a person be an anonymous friend?  I think so ...

If it is disputed that Jesus can't be a friend to sinners ...then, if Jesus can't be a friend, who is?  Can anyone claim to have a friend, or be a friend?

In a marriage, there is much to be said about friendship ...two people are friends, I believe ---then they decide to form a deeper relationship, with a commitment.  It is not just a commitment between each other, it is a commitment that they engage in that is sanctioned by God.  Too readily many people look to divorce to dissolve that commitment ...because they can't get along.   

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come ...

 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church ...

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

I see nowhere that God gets tired of us ...there is never any notion that He divorces Himself from us. He always divorces Himself from sin, but distinguishes that the sin and the sinner are not one in the same.

We hear so many pleas to please have a heart. So, how can the heart be where good comes from, and at the same time have the opposite claim?

Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

There is a similarity between our tongue and our heart. When speaking of our heart, we can be speaking of the physical heart or the emotional center ...which is actually the mind.  I am comparing the tongue and the emotional center of the mind.

The Bible says we have to bridle our tongue ...and I believe that we also have to bridle our heart, or emotional center.  Our emotions often have triggers ...our impulsive immediate reactions.  And these emotions are trained, and often manipulated.

The Bible says to train up a child in the way that he will go. Once trained, that child will have to find his way in the world ...and as more responsibility is expected, more independence is necessitated.

The difference between obtaining knowledge and experience ...is that experience grounds knowledge, and often defines it.  If someone allows minimal and solely personal experience to usher in judgment, then experience can skew points of view.  Experience can enhance our knowledge ...but without looking to the guidance of God, wisdom will be lacking.

So, with wisdom ...we bridle our heart, as well as our tongue.  This way, we save ourselves a lot of trouble ...and make the world a better place for others also.

Doesn't our heart react when we see people get away with things? Many people don't like it when people gain things legally ...if it is in excess of what they have. There is something very wrong when it gnaws at your heart. But, it is natural when we see something clearly wrong that someone is allowed to get away with. Yet, this narrative can also be selective ...and people who don't want something to happen to them, sadly, don't mind so much when someone else takes a hit. And the suffering is not just the concept of "what goes around, comes around", it also includes many emotional biases, prejudices, and even hatred.

We look at the Goliath-types of our day ...spewing forth defiance.  But, even with Goliath, to the Philistines ...he was a hero.

When I was working at the Institution, there were many cliques ...particularly involving those in administration and those underlings as myself.  There was a general friendship among us underlings ...as we were faced with the same tasks, and to a degree had to work together.  But, in an attempt to seek favor with administration ...some of the workers entered into cliques that belittled others.  I was generally liked by the other workers, but I did not like it when they isolated certain workers and did not treat them fairly.

Sometimes the unfairness can lead to verbal abuse ...but it can go even further than that when criminal elements are involved like in a Bonanza episode we just viewed at home.

With only one barber shop in the small Western town ...Little Joe had waited for an hour or so, for his turn for a haircut.  As it finally became his turn, Little Joe sat in the barber chair.  Three strangers came into the barber shop at this time, and one of the men said he was in a hurry and wanted a haircut first ...wanting to take Little Joe's place.

Little Joe said there were two other people also waiting ...and they all had to wait, that's just the way it was.

The man pulled a gun on Little Joe, and said he was telling him to get up, not asking.  The other two men who had come in with this stranger also pulled their guns.  Little Joe got out of the chair, but one of the other men of the town sat in the barber chair ...and the stranger gritted his teeth, turning his gun on the man now in the chair who contended, "No man is going to kill over a haircut."  Little Joe pleaded with the man to get out of the chair, the man's teenage son waiting just outside.  But, the man continued to sit there ...stating it just wasn't right.

When the man refused to move, the stranger shot him.

The three strangers attempted to leave town, and two were caught ...one of them being the one who'd done the killing, but the third man had escaped.

The two went to trial, with a hot-shot lawyer ...who got the third man's twin brother out of a neighboring jail, bringing him under custody into the courtroom for the witnesses to tell whether it was the third man that had escaped.  The prime witnesses thought the third man had just been caught, and testified that it was definitely him.  But, when the lawyer announced that it was a brother who was in jail at the time ...the jury could not view the witnesses as credible.

The townspeople were all upset, especially for the poor teenage boy who was still angered by the injustice. The three strangers went free ...but they went back into town, found one of the witnesses in a restaurant and said they wanted the table he was sitting at.  The one murderer grabbed the waitress, and did not relent until after her screams.  He then went back to that same barber shop, and demanded a haircut.

To say this man's heart was wicked, probably describes most people's feelings ...as it depicts the bad in this world, and makes us all angry.

But, most situations are not this extreme ...and we get angry over much less.  We don't often seek the best way to handle our emotions in a situation like this either.

If we look back to when Stephen was stoned, Saul was an accomplice. What he was doing was very bad, but the special ingredient that was missing in his heart was God.  God was pricking his conscience, but he was kicking against it.   And he said, "Who art thou, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."  Through blindness, Saul actually saw with the heart what he was being shown.

If we were blind ...we would not care about most of the things we seem to care about (Don't get me wrong, I'm not proposing you not comb your hair before you leave the house)

Yet, we should never be blind to the truths that God would have us see.