Tax collectors were among those who were ostracized because their work was considered dishonest or immoral.
Can I help you explain this? Romans did not collect taxes like we do in the USA or the West. First, the taxed had no say in what the taxes were. Rome set how much you had to pay and there was no way to get it changed.
But it's worse! Rome did not have an IRS or anything like that. Instead, they "farmed" out tax collecting. What they did was hire individuals to collect taxes. The individuals got a small percentage of the taxes, but but whatever they collected above that was the tax collector's. Think about that for a moment, everyone.
The tax collector made his money by collecting taxes above and beyond what Rome wanted. That is a setup for greed and violence. The tax collector can hire goons (perhaps legionaries earning a bit of extra money) and collect the taxes as sword or spearpoint. Whatever he can get. And there is really no check to his greed. So no wonder everyone hated tax collectors: 1) they were working for the occupier, 2) they had no restraint, 3) they could collect whatever they wanted and 4) they were not above using violence to do so.
In OT times it was taken for granted that God's people DID NOT consort with sinners, just as you have suggested that the Church of Jesus Christ should not. But what do we see? We see Jesus doing exactly that, and he tells stories to imply that this is the very attitude that God seeks of those who truly follow him, that we would not wait for the lost to come to us, but that we would go seeking them.
Couldn't agree more. Jesus took the "unrepenetant" into his circle of disciples and never ceased associating with those others at the time would call "unrepenetant".
This isn't to excuse the actions of either son, but what we have is a father who shows mercy as a unilateral condition of who he is, not at all dependent on the actions of the sons. The Church can have no different attitude toward sinners today, than God has toward us.
Again, totally agree. If Jeremiah wants to think Methodism has lost its way, then I hope he finds a denomination that is more to his liking. I presonally want Methodism to stay like you present it.
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