Jesus in sharp contrast, got involved. He sought always and in all ways to help, to heal, to save, to restore. Rather than running from evil, He ran to toward good. And Jesus got close enough to unholy people for the spark of holiness in Him to jump. He took the tax collectors, the rough fisherman, the harlots, the demon possessed, and gave back to them dignity and life. The Pharisees avoided these people lest they were infected with their sin and overwhelmed by their evil.

The tragedy is that we have often preferred the ethic of the Pharisees to the ethic of Christ. We have become self-obsessed in our doctrine of sin, as though sin were merely a personal flaw like acne, plantar's warts, or crooked teeth. As though sin merely about personal victory or defeat. We seldom see sin as a brokenness that's bone deep and creation wide, and which ruptures (everything in our lives).

I believed him then. I no longer do. The question Christ would have us ask is not, "How will this or that act affect my witness?" His question is "What can I do to HAVE effective witness?" There is a vast and fundamental difference between those two questions.