29 Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. 30 And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Luke 5:29–32, NKJV)
Those who broaden fellowship to include those practicing and living in sin, allude to the fact that Jesus ate with sinners as their rationale for accepting into fellowship those who have gone beyond the “doctrine of Christ” (2 Jno. 9-11). By doing so they overlook a seminal point: Jesus used such occasions to call sinners to repentance, not to endorse their conduct. Jesus did not condone, compromise, tolerate and accept sinners “in spite of their sins.” Instead, He was calling sinners to repentance (Lk. 5:32). He came to save sinners from their sins (Lk. 19:10). There were sinners “drew near to Him to hear Him” (Lk. 15:1). The fact that those who plead for tolerance toward sinners today is a prima facie case of not doing what Jesus did. He taught sinners and called them to repentance. They do neither.
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