The same could be said of the forgiving father in the story of The Prodigal Son. The father focuses all his attention on watching for the lost son, and seems relatively unconcerned about the safe son. Then, when the lost son has returned home, the father focuses all his attention on celebrating with him, and almost none on the other son, whom he expects to join in the celebration.

My feeling is that if the Church actually did imitate the Master by focusing on saving the lost, that the "safe" members would complain about how we spend too much attention on the lost and not enough on them. We are a selfish, selfish people. We have everything we need in Christ, and yet we want more. We resent the lost, even though they have nothing. We resent Christ's interest in them. We are too much like the older son in the story of The Prodigal Son.

We cannot spend too much attention trying to save the lost, because Christ spends everything for them. And He is our example.



Text © 2007 Waitsel Smith. All Rights Reserved.