11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:11–14, NKJV)
Our throwaway culture serves convenience. It is easy to think of lost souls similarly. When we decide it is “no longer worth our time and effort” to try to reach the lost and restore the fallen, we devalue lost souls and call Christ’s work into question. How does this happen? We excuse ourselves from being stumbling block and refuse to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt. 18:10; 22:39). We expect people to be faithful to Christ without doing our part to teach, to exhort and to encourage them to be faithful (2 Tim. 2:2; Heb. 3:12-13; Gal. 6:1-2). We forget it takes sacrificing our time, energy, effort to search for lost souls (it cost Jesus His life). Such sacrifices are too inconvenient for many Christians. We are content with the ninety-nine. Yet, every single soul is valuable to the Father. So, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost – one by one. We cannot be content when even one soul is straying from God. The Father does not want one soul to perish. We shall “gladly spend and be spent” to help save the lost when we share the Father’s will that not one soul perishes (2 Cor. 12:15).
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