Categorizing sins

Luke 7:36-50 finds Jesus dining in the house of some Pharisees, when he’s approached by a woman who is known to be living a sinful life. The Pharisees were so convinced of this woman's ungodliness that they actually call into question Jesus’ status as a prophet when Jesus does not reject the woman outright. They have apparently concluded that the woman's sin is so great, that she can't even be touched.

Such a blatant response would be rare in our context, we're thankfully too familiar with these verses to act on this impulse. But we will consider letting "those people" keep with others like them. Who "those people" are tends to be people who don't sin the same way we do. We might not go out of our way to insist they keep to themselves, but we can be just like the Pharisees in our passive rejection of people we see as “those people.”

Where is God asking you to extend the same grace that you’ve been given? Where have you been invited into the greater freedom of loving instead of bearing the responsibility for judging?


Luke 7:36-50