And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 5:31-32

As a Christian, what kind of people do you spend your time with? Do you only associate with those of like faith or do you hang around people of ill repute? Ask the old question, what would Jesus do? What did Jesus do?

Jesus rarely spent time with those in and around the temple and, when he did, it was often to rebuke them. Jesus could often be found in crowds of people who clamoured for his attention. Were they all believers? Not at all. Were they all worthy? Rarely.

This verse makes me think of my own church. Our building is located in a less-than-reputable area of town and we often have homeless people setting up camp on our property, drug addicts shooting up in our stairwells, vandals attempting to break in and, last week, someone coming in to the building to case out the place during a prayer meeting. In most cases, we see trouble-makers. They’re up to no good and have not made it on to our land to seek help.

But there are a few who are genuinely down and out – the ones who apologise when we tell them that they can’t sleep in front of an emergency exit. Those are the ones we invite in for coffee or bring a bottle of water.

Are we looking to fill our churches with more Christians? Or are we, as Christians, reaching out to the broken world Christ came to save?

Daily Bible reading: Joshua 19-20, Luke 5:17-39