"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went.
The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go.
Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. "
From the Gospel some might assume that there is no need to avoid bad company. Just as Jesus hung out with obvious sinners, we should do the same. It is a bit more complex than that, because we have to avoid bad company, almost by any means, as it is written by Apostle Paul to the Corinthian congregation (I:15:33) that “ Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character.”
Once upon a time there was a rock band in England, called The Clash. One of their albums, the London’s Calling, released in 1979 was declared a decade later by The Rolling Stone music magazine as the supposedly best new wave rock album in the eighties.
It was destiny that in 2003, the members of the band, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, The Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Clash as a band, the number 28 on its list of the 100 greatest music artists of all time.
I think that it is a little exaggeration of a sensation hunting magazine, but The Clash definitely had some impact in the youth subculture a couple of decades ago.
They started as a non-conformist music group, fighting the authorities and the establishment in their lyrics. However they went down on the same way as almost every other successful music group. Because it is true that not only the power is able to corrupt someone, but as it should be evident that money has the greatest ability to corrupt especially not-really resisting people.
Success in the western lifestyle, also observed in the East nowadays, mostly measured in money mountains, thus people who entered show-business they were aware that it is ultimately a business first, talent and art just after or maybe never. So it was evident that the non-conformist stand of the band will melt down, and it did indeed after when they met commercial success. That’s Life sang Frank Sinatra to many generations worldwide. He was ironic, because life is supposed to be not like a box ring, or this far from paradise as it is or so close to hell. Accordingly, the tiresome debates within the band emerged almost immediately when big money started to be involved in their every days.
Their mood might have been mirrored in one of their hit songs titled “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
This dilemma or sometimes a lamentation has a great echo in many people’s life.
An other song from an other country says that if you feel that your boots are too tight, then you have to discard them and get a new one without hesitation.
A couple of parables from the gospels became twisted in the popular imagination . Some people think that this story suggests as if Jesus would have liked to appear as a person who tends to regularly hang out with lawless people, obvious sinners, especially with the hated tax collectors and the despised prostitutes as if it should have been the new normal of a new testament.
The biblical truth is actually quite the opposite. Tax collectors and prostitutes and other sinners may enter Heaven only if they repent, they stop sinning, they stop being a tax collector or a prostitute or other sinner, for ever. When Jesus was approached by scribes and Pharisees grabbing a married woman with them accusing her with adultery they asked Jesus what they should do to her according to the law of Moses. The law is very clear stating that when a married woman is caught by lawful number of witnesses in committing adultery, then the punishment is death by stoning.
It is not an astonishment, it was the regular sentence at that time. However Jesus said nothing to them as he squatted over the ground and began to write something into the sand. According to the sensible tradition Jesus drew a list into the sand making an inventory of the sins of the audience.
When they kept pushing him, he finally and famously said that he who has no sins should throw the first stone. And Jesus kept writing into the sand.
The already lined up men, holding the stones, left the scene one by one after each other, being ashamed of themselves, until nobody remained. Jesus asked the woman who committed adultery, and it was proven according to the requirements of the law, that where are your accusers?
The woman answered, nowhere, Sir. Jesus said, thus nobody condemned you and also I do not condemn you, you can go in peace, but you shall sin no more.
According to the popular but twisted sentiment, Jesus by nature, I mean by his super-nature, he just had the compelling duty to cover the sin of the woman, assumedly almost saying, that dear adulterer, I know your sin, however as the Son of God, I love you just as you are as a sinner, I love you together with your sin, for it is just a human thing to sin. You can see, all your accusers left, because they all are sinners, for it is innate in the human nature, to sin.
So now I saved you, he could have told her, but do not be afraid, if you sin again, I will be here for you, always, to forgive you.
Actually this would be a twisted picture. Only the repenting sinners may be offered forgiveness on Earth and in Heaven. Repentance includes making amendments and an essential change in conduct and life. The Greek calls it metanoia. It is usually translated into English as conversion, but it should be rather understood that it is the return of the prodigal sons and daughters to the Father, to God.
Jesus hung out with the obvious sinners not as their pal or an accomplice or a brother in sin, but as a doctor, visiting the sick, in order that they might be healed.
If you are not a doctor, it is advisable that you should not try to heal the sick, but ask a doctor’s help, especially the help of the ultimate and wonderful physician, Jesus, as it is written that when Jesus was accused with eating and hanging out with the sinners, and “Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’ ”
Nonetheless, and rightfully, The Apostle Paul is quite strict, some might even assume that he is even quite judgmental in his advice, writing that “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ” (Corinthians II:6:14) Moreover he goes even beyond this, in regard of avoiding obviously wanton sinners even in the church, as he wrote concerning unrepenting sinners within the Corinthian congregation stating that “ But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. ”
Of course that Christians must pray for the sinners to repent and change their ways and lives, but we should avoid bad company by any means. As Jesus, himself, warns us in the Gospel of Matthew that "Don't give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
We must be zealous to keep the Commandments of the Lord, in order to give living example to the wicked and ungodly World, that they may see our godly manners, and they might repent and they may be saved from peril by the grace of the Lord, and have eternal life at the end, AMEN.
