The self-righteous Pharisees mistook Jesus association with sinners as his endorsement of their sin (Luke 5:27-32). Jesus operated under entirely different principles of dealing with people than did many religious leaders While they considered it their duty to judge, shame, ostracize and condemn sinners, Christ’s focus was on compassionate love, healing and saving us (John 3:17; 12:47).
If Jesus came to your community today to give a talk on “My Secret for Motivating Sinners to Repent,” he probably would begin by telling the audience that his tactics for dealing with people were as true in the first century as they are in the twenty-first century.
Christ would explain how being critical of others, shaming them, and making sinners feel worse about themselves is never a good tactic for developing rapport and encouraging them to repent from their sins. What is needed is compassionate love, attentive listening, understanding, and a caring and warm disposition.
Additionally, Jesus would mention that, because people resent being lectured and dictated to, but love a good story, he had been able to captivate their attention by telling parables or acting them out to get them thinking about their own attitudes, behaviors and beliefs, in order to effectuate the process of positive change within individuals. This method allows people to freely draw their own conclusions about the meaning from each lesson.
It was Jesus’ charismatic demeanor of being friendly, welcoming and caring that drew people to him and made them feel valued and loved, and created an environment in which they sincerely desired to repent and turn to God in faithfulness. We can only imagine the profound effect Christ must have had on all the people whom he healed and had personal conversations.
The power of love is Christ’s key to motivating people to repent and change their behavior. By his example, we learn the importance of embracing, not disgracing; accepting, not rejecting; including, not excluding, and of encouraging one another and building each other up without exception (1 Thes. 5:11).
Walking with Jesus Series, Refl. #131, Jan. 2026
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