If you lined up 1,000 people who don’t go to church and asked them why they don’t go, I bet 80% of them would say it’s because they don’t want to be judged by religious people. The worst part of it is that tons of those 800 folks know what they’re talking about from experience. They’ve been called out, excluded or even openly hated by some Christian because of some thing in their lives. The thing is, Jesus didn’t treat people that way. And look, it’s not as though He didn’t take sin seriously, because He did. He went to the cross for it! He allowed Himself to be tortured and murdered to pay the penalty of sin, but He loved sinners. In fact, they were His friends. He hung out with them... socially. Zacchaeus was an institutional thief and a national traitor. He was as low a person as you could find, but in Luke 19 Jesus loved him and reached out to Him when everyone else hated him. Folks mumbled and grumbled about it, but Jesus knew that love changes people, not hate. I love Jesus because He loves sinners; which is a good thing, because I am one.
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