Your association with the ungodly mirrors your own godliness

Do you treat the ungodly ones the same, or perhaps better, than you treat others? I’m talking about those people who are unholy, godless, irreligious, impious, blasphemous, immoral, corrupt, wicked and evil. I’m referring to those who don’t have the same religious beliefs as yours, who steal, cheat and kill. Let me bring it closer and personal: Those who are homosexuals, the teenager who likes to smoke Marijuana, watch porn and masturbate on a daily basis, the father and husband who was a church leader and ended up getting caught paying for prostitution services, and perhaps even the individuals who have hurt you deeply.

Please, think and identify them in your life. Again, the question is: Do you treat them the same, or perhaps better, than you treat people “your kind”? I ask this question because Jesus did, and this reflected his godliness and close relationship with God the Father

“Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and SINNERS also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for they were many, and they followed Him.”[i]

I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t like to be labeled as a sinner. Yet, Mark here calls sinners those who Jesus hung around with. Interestingly, Jesus liked to do this. He would not only talk but also walk and have lunch & dinner with them. He loved them regardless of their sinful behaviors, and that is why “they were many and followed Him.”[ii] While Jesus accepts sinners as they are, He doesn’t leave them the same. This kind of love is genuine, and is the type of love that accepts, transforms, and begets love.

We Christians are often called hypocrites. I believe is because we try to love with anything else than with the love of Jesus. Additionally, it is also the same reason why we fail in ministry and in evangelism. People can tell if you are being real or not, and that is why it's so difficult to witness to your own family.

I encourage you to evaluate your behavior in all of your relationships. If needed, go back to the basics, to the beginning of your relationship with God. Fall again in love with Him. Remember, the ONLY way we can love the sinner is through the genuine love of God. Such action will awake their souls. In this process your life will also be transformed, and no longer can anyone call you a hypocrite Christian.

In Christ,

Pr. Sergio Ochaeta

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[i] Mark 1:15

[ii] Ibid