Acceptance a friend of ‘tax collectors and sinners’

​What's the value of Acceptance?

Acceptance ties together two other core Biblical values of diversity and love. To truly value diversity and truly practice love requires accepting people – not people as you might prefer them to be, but as we really are.

Our example in all things is Jesus. His acceptance of others was off the charts and for this he earned the reputation of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners, and being a glutton and a drunk. To put it another way, they believed he had rejected God by hanging out with the kinds of people that surely God could not like and therefore Jesus too must be an enemy of God.

We know Jesus was none of these things. He knew how to uphold the highest standard, yet make himself completely accessible to those living by the lowest standard. His love expressed in acceptance of the person beyond the behaviour was so compelling he attracted those who perhaps felt they were furthest from God’s love (while strangely repelling those who thought they were closest).

I think we’re a church that generally does want to accept people. We do make room for people from all walks of life and with all sorts of backgrounds, and help them feel welcomed into the loving community of Christ. I’m not expressing something that is foreign to us. Perhaps the challenge though is, ‘How far should we go to accept people?’ Well, how far did Jesus go? Try this on: think of someone known for committing the most heinous crimes, of doing the most wickedly depraved acts. Now consider exchanging places with them – giving them the right standing you have found in Christ, and taking their place in condemnation. We don’t actually have that ability, but this is the acceptance of Christ. He went as far as actually accepting all our sins as his own so we could have a way made open to the Father.

We need to keep this value before us, for it’s a major challenge in a world that delights in shocking us with its depravity. We will need all of God’s love to see beyond this to the person for whom Jesus died and calls us now to extend this ministry of reconciliation, not counting their sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).