Like People and Draw Out the Best in Them

Who do you feel most comfortable being around?  Who do you feel most comfortable having at your church?  Who do you feel most comfortable witnessing to?  Now, let’s look at the “reciprocal” of these questions:  Who do you feel uncomfortable being around?  Who do you feel uncomfortable having at your church?  Who do you feel uncomfortable witnessing to?  You may find this to be a little bit of introspection that you don’t enjoy conducting, but it is necessary if you are going to Like People and Draw Out the Best in Them!

If we truly are going to be Christ-like, we do need to Like People and Draw Out the Best in Them.  For, as Matthew 9:9-13 shows us, He not only ministered to the dregs of society but actually befriended them.  As you undoubtedly already know, tax collectors in Jerusalem were the very bane of society in the time of Christ.  They were working for the Romans as part of the “occupation,” helping to collect the very financial support that kept the Romans there.  Then, anything they could collect over what the Romans demanded was theirs to keep.  In Civil War parlance, the Romans were the “Carpetbaggers” and the tax collectors the “scalawags!” 

Jesus knew, however, that there is more to a man than his occupation and ambitions.  As a result, He not only didn’t ignore Matthew the tax collector, He recruited him as a disciple and made him a friend.  Not only that, He spent time with, and ate with, other tax collectors and sinners of other forms.  When the Pharisees challenged Him in regard to this, He responded, “Those who are well have no need for a physician.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:12,13).

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