Jesus Allowed Sinners To Eat With Him

MARK 2:13-17 "Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. "Follow me,"Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?"On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
This is one of the most abused verses in scripture. Time and time again Christian and non-Christian alike have used this verse to excuse socializing/participating with sinners, in a sin filled environment,simply for the sake of socializing. What does this verse actually say?
As Jesus walked along, teaching the lost, they followed HIM. They wanted to hear His teaching! They were seeking truth. When it came time to eat He went into a seekers home and continued to share with the people. When he answered the Pharisees questions, He said that it was because they were sick and needed a doctor. He was there to teach them that they needed change, they needed healing.
Tell me, when you go into that bar, are you there with the mind set that those around you are sick? Are you there to reach them for Christ? Are you telling them that repentance is the first step to 'following' Christ; to healing? Are you showing them the way out?
Or are you there to join in the sickness? Are you giving the impression that Christianity is just a 'get out of jail free card' that has nothing to do with needing healed from the sickness of sin? Do you think Jesus would go into the bar, ask for a cold one and then watch the game all night, then get up and leave? Can you seriously call that 'witnessing'? Of course not, that would be ridiculous!
Yes, Jesus ate with the sinners. There is no place that He wouldn't reach for one who is reaching back.

John 12:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me"

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4).


"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. 'And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' Says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
“Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning.” (1 Timothy 5:20)
“He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it… Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith.” (Titus 1:9, 13)