No, Jesus didn’t ‘hang out’ with sinners

[Finrock]

I think Jesus hangs out with sinners. If "hangs out" means Jesus condones or approves of sinful behavior, then, I agree, Jesus does not hang out with sinners. However, I've never understood that phrase to mean that and I've never seen others use it that way. I understand that others have and I don't deny that. I'm just saying the way I've used the phrase is to show how Jesus is not afraid to be with people who are living differently than Him and that He is not self-righteous, haughty, or condescending.

When I say Jesus hangs out with sinners, I mean that Jesus condescends to be with and to interact with people who are living in sin or with sin. He recognizes people for who they are and He sees them from an eternal perspective. Neither does Jesus have the same worldly tendency to form cliques.

But, even if we take the idea that Jesus doesn't condone or approve of sin, that still doesn't mean that He looks at people who are sinning with disgust, arrogance, or with self-righteous superiority. I've seen the latter happen more often than I've seen people use the phrase "Jesus hung out with sinners" to mean He condones sinning. I've seen people, much like the brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, who feel that they are better than those who are living in sin or who are, as Pres. Uchtdorf said, "sinning differently" than they are. Since I'm a life long member, my experiences are mostly with members of the Church, but I'm sure this happens in other circles too. I mention this so people don't think I'm just picking on members again. I am just limited to the frame of reference that I exist in.

In any case, I see members who go to Church each Sunday, they pay their tithing, go to the temple weekly, do their home teaching, go to most activities of the Church, are meticulous about their callings, do family home evenings, they pray each day, etc. They use these activities as a means to feel like they are righteous. They believe that because they are doing these things, they are, in essence, better than the person who smokes cigarettes, or only goes to the temple once a month, or what have you. I've been in enough correlation meetings, quorum meetings, and listened in on enough discussions to know that some members feel the way I'm describing. I've also been the target of some of these individuals in the past.

I will say that I personally don't condemn this behavior because I recognize that most people who are feeling this way (self-righteous and condescending) aren't even aware of what it is they are doing. Or, they are just a product of their environment and culture. So, I get it and just like any other sinner, like myself, I try to have compassion and I try to be understanding of their condition. And, this is ultimately, what I think Christ does. I know this sounds like I'm patting myself on the back, but I'm not. Trust me, I have my own issues. But, I think Christ isn't afraid to get His hands dirty, so to speak. He is very much in the thick of things. I don't feel that He is as worried about us sinning as much as we are worried sometimes about others sinning. And, when He "worries" about us sinning, I don't think it's with disgust, superiority, or with any kind of selfish or self-centered motivation. I think He just wants us to be happy and to have joy and so He is interested in turning our hearts around. But, the way that He goes about doing this is not by judging and condemning, but through love, understanding, and compassion. Yes, sometimes when we are chastised, our pride makes it feel like its some sort of a retribution that is being inflicted upon us, however, the chastisement of God comes from a place of love, goodness, and kindness.

I think we must always understand and remember that there is no action or "works" that we can perform that will take away our sins. God condescended to be with us not because of our righteousness, but in spite of our righteousness. No matter how good we think we are, we never are profitable servants. We never earn salvation. We never are in fact "worthy" of the good that we receive from God. So, we should never treat others any differently than God has treated us. If we always retain in our minds our own filthiness and our own weakness and our own unworthiness, then we will look upon others who might be sinning differently than we are (or perhaps they are on a different stage of the path), with mercy, compassion, and kindness and not be afraid to get in there and show that mercy, compassion and kindness by hanging out with them and uplifting them the best that we can and know how. That is how God treated me and treats me. He loved me first and so I try to love others as He has loved me (and I fail most days, but just saying I'm trying :)) ).

-Finrock

[Rose Garden]

A lot of people on this thread know a lot about Jesus.

[EmmaLee]

Fascinating. Thank you for all your responses. Someone should do a study or write a paper on all the different versions of Jesus people with various links to Mormonism believe in.

[Rose Garden]

I grew up in a family where "don't judge" was preached above all else. It is a false doctrine. There were many situations I could have avoided had I used judgement. Righteous judgement, like the kind I heard from the prophets. For example, being wise about choosing friends. I thought I was following Jesus' example by not judging, but unhappy experiences taught me I was missing something and then I saw the Joseph Smith Translation of Matthew 7:1JST Matt. 7:1–2 Now these are the words which Jesus taught his disciples that they should say unto the people. Judge not unrighteously, that ye be not judged; but judge righteous judgment.

A significant difference from the KJV of the Bible :"Judge not, that ye be not judged."

Then I read the True to the Faith Pamphlet put out by the Church for the youth and later adapted to the Topics portion of lds.org.

Topics: judging others: https://www.lds.org/topics/judging-others?lang=eng

"Judgment is an important use of our agency and requires great care, especially when we make judgments about other people. All our judgments must be guided by righteous standards. Only God, who knows each individual's heart, can make final judgments of individuals.

Sometimes people feel that it is wrong to judge others in any way. While it is true that we should not condemn others or judge them unrighteously, we will need to make judgments of ideas, situations, and people throughout our lives. The Lord has given many commandments that we cannot keep without making judgments. For example, He has said: “Beware of false prophets. … Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16) and “Go ye out from among the wicked” (D&C 38:42). We need to make judgments of people in many of our important decisions, such as choosing friends, voting for government leaders, and choosing a spouse.

The Lord gave a warning to guide us in our judgment of others: “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother: Let me pull the mote out of thine eye—and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye” (3 Nephi 14:2-5).

In this scripture passage the Lord teaches that a fault we see in another is often like a tiny speck in that person's eye, compared to our own faults, which are like an enormous beam in our eyes. Sometimes we focus on others' faults when we should instead be working to improve ourselves.

Our righteous judgments about others can provide needed guidance for them and, in some cases, protection for us and our families. We should approach any such judgment with care and compassion. As much as we can, we should judge people's situations rather than judging the people themselves. Whenever possible, we should refrain from making judgments until we have an adequate knowledge of the facts. And we should always be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, who can guide our decisions. Alma's counsel to his son Corianton is a helpful reminder: “See that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually” (Alma 41:14)."

I am teaching my kids to use righteous judgement. They are, thus far, avoiding many of my mistakes. Lesson learned, lesson taught.

That, I really believe, is what Jesus did. Loving someone doesn't mean going along with whatever they want.

When Jesus "hung out" with sinners, it was sinners who wanted to be saints, but recognized their sins. He didn't hang out with those who gloried in their sin or had no intention of listening and learning from him. From what I read, Jesus had three main responses: answer the sincere seeker; answer the wicked, if the righteous might hear and learn from it; remain silent if only among the wicked and no change would come from contending with them.

Thank you, Michelle. That was a great post.

In some languages, there will be more than one word for a single word in English and vice versa. I believe that the word "judge" should have two different words for it, one to depict condemnation and one to depict making sensible choices. That would clear up a lot of confusion. Unfortunately, in English we only have one and so we need to learn to "judge" between the different meanings of the word. ;)

[Rose Garden]

Fascinating. Thank you for all your responses. Someone should do a study or write a paper on all the different versions of Jesus people with various links to Mormonism believe in.

That would definitely be an interesting paper, eh?