Socializing with the "sinners"

Many christians today have a problem socializing with other people that drink, or smoke, or have sex, etc. Sometimes a pastor or fellow believer might hold them accountable by saying something like "during Jesus' ministry on earth he hung out with sinners. He spent time with tax collectors and prostitutes and drunks, so its ok to spend time with them as well". If you think about it though we are all sinners. We all struggle with some sort of sin, whether it be porn, or lying, or stealing, or whatever it is that has a hold on you. So isn't this kind just like saying "Jesus hung out"? So why not just hang out with people. Get to know them for who they are, not for what they do. As much as we'd all like to be, we're not perfect and we never will be so there is no point in holding yourself above anyone else. All that usually does is push unbelievers farther away.

Jesus, the Man

Ok, so I this doesn't have too much to do with anything we've discussed in class or read about, but its something that's been on my mind a whole lot lately. I know its not really anything too significant in and of itself, but it has really come strong and hit me quite hard. Jesus was a man! Can you believe that? He was more than just this character in a story that we read. Its almost as if we can only think of his life as a movie that we can watch on television. The problem with this is that it leaves out his humanness. Jesus was more than his miracles or his teachings or his following. He was a person. He ate and drank, he pooped and peed, he cried, he bled. He did meaningless, everyday tasks that we all do today. Its kind of hard to think about that considering any written accounts we have about his life so glorify him by showing his noteworthy ideas and actions. We (at least I) forget a lot of the time that he was truly a man. This, like I said, is not very significant at first, but once you start pondering this fact it really starts to become quite revolutionary.

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:5,6 (NLT)

In this passage Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life. As we were discussing the meaning of truth in class and Tim brought this passage up I started wondering. Was Jesus was making three independent, declarative statements or was he just clarifying his statement with each word? He could have been telling us that he is three completely different things, or one thing in three different forms. To explain my point lets look at it in terms of elements. He could be telling us that he was water, fire, and dirt. Or he could be saying that he is one element expressed in three different ways: water, also ice, and also steam.

So does this mean that the way is also the truth and the life; and the truth is also the way and the life; and the life is also the way and the truth? Or are each of these independent of each other?