scum

Luke 5

27 Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth.

"Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him.

28 So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.


29 Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor.

Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them.

30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples,

     "Why do you eat and drink with such scum?"


31 Jesus answered them,

     "Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do.

32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous,

     but those who know they are sinners and need to repent."



We're not like Jesus, are we?

We don't hang out with "scum", do we?

We only hang with Christ followers, don't we?

We don't want to be seen with people that our Christian friends would consider marginal or unseemly, do we?

We don't do that because we think people will think we're friends with them, & maybe are like them,don't we?

We're afraid it will "harm our witness", don't we?



What would our lives be like if the people who influenced us to follow Jesus had felt the same way as we do about hanging out with people who aren't Christ followers?