14 févr. 2021
Marius KOUNOU

“But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him” (Luke 15 v 29-30).
While there is no consensus in the body of Christ on whether a Christian can lose salvation, there is at least no debate on the fact that a Christian is an imperfect human being who can fall in his walk with Christ (1 John 1:8). The Bible teaches us that Jesus is always ready to forgive our sins if we confess them (1 John 1:9). Furthermore, he is also happy to accept any disciple with a sincere heart who has turned away from him. He gave a nice illustration of this situation in Luke 15.
In the story of the prodigal son, we see a young brother who decides to leave his family to another place just because he owned the wealth his daddy gave him. The same son decided to come back later because he lost everything and his father was happy to accept him. However, the elder son was not happy with the honor the daddy gave to the younger after his return. We found a similar reaction with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law in Luke 15:2 when they criticized Jesus because he welcomed sinners and ate with them.
Though the elder son or Pharisees’ attitude seems incorrect after reading the passage, that attitude is not too different from that of many of us in Church as we literally tend to push a brother in fault far away. The attitude of leaving the house of the daddy is similar to the attitude of any brother or sister who committed sin in the church or put Christ aside after (s)he has become successful in life. The majority of us have witnessed such a situation in the church and most of us reacted with criticism. Apart from criticism and several reactions that we may adopt against the younger boy in this situation, the reaction of his daddy which is consistent with the attitude of Jesus Christ is supposed to be a lesson for all of us who aspire to be in the image of Christ.
May God give us the strength to see the lost sheep the same way He sees them.