From Tim Chester and Steve Timmis:
Jesus’ eating with sinners is a wonderful declaration of the riches of God’s grace. But notice how this grace plays out in practice. It results in Jesus spending time with the despised and marginalized. It means Jesus has time for the needy. They are his priority. He does not focus on the professional classes, the lawyers, the doctors, the respectable middle classes. Such people are welcomed if they will associate with the ragtag group who makes up the community of Jesus–after all, Luke himself is a doctor. But Jesus goes out of his way to welcome the poor, the marginalized, and the needy. (emphasis mine)
Have you ever thought about Christ-likeness in this way? If the goal of the Christian life is to be transformed into His image, to become more like Christ, then shouldn’t our lives display margin for the marginalized, making the poor and needy our priority? Does our community of believers look anything like the community of Jesus? Are we demonstrating the grace which we have received vertically from God in a horizontal way to others in our city?