loving the unrepentant to life
This verse has often been used to justify the excommunication of those who don't make it through the gauntlet of confrontation. If they remain unrepentant they are to be treated like a "Gentile and tax collector" which at a glance seems to indicate that Jesus is giving us a license to hate the unrepentant.
That is until you look at how He treated Gentiles and tax collectors, and if we are to be as He is, then unrepentant people are to be anything but hated. The short, tree climbing tax collector, Zacchaeus, was Jesus choice of dinner guest when He went to his town. And Matthew, the tax collector, got a personal invitation by Jesus to join His personal ministry team. When the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostle Paul, he was called to go to the Gentiles, and Peter's view of the Gentiles was dramatically corrected by a vision of things formerly considered unclean by law.
Bottom line, if you confront someone, and they remain unrepentant, love them more. Their condition is an indication that they're in need of the very thing that human nature wants to withdraw. And God help you if you use this verse to justify it. If you do, you missed the point.
Created 10 months ago
