Alisa Childers I Blog

Did Jesus Ever Label or Exclude Anyone?

10/23/2017

It's inevitable. I post something on social media that challenges the status quo of post-modern relativism, and someone comments something along the lines of, "But Jesus never excluded anyone!" or "Labeling people is wrong!" or "Jesus promoted tolerance!" When I hear claims like this, I often wonder if the commenter read the same thing I did in Matthew's gospel that morning.

If you get all your information about Jesus from second-hand sources like devotionals, popular speakers, blogs, memes, tweets, and Facebook posts, you may find yourself a bit uncomfortable when you encounter the actual Jesus of the New Testament. If you only rely on social media to tell you who Jesus is, you might find yourself praying to a New Age Jewish hippie guru who sings Strawberry Fields Forever while demanding nothing of the super cool sinners He so loves to hang out with, and accepting everyone just as they are—except those nasty Pharisees of course. (Who just so happen to represent everyone who might disagree with whatever agenda is being peddled in the post.)

But this is not an accurate picture of the real Jesus. The Jesus of history is arguably one of the most divisive people who has ever lived.

In fact, He described His purpose like this: "Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division" (Luke 12:51). He went on to predict that even families would be divided against each other because of Him. He said in Matthew's gospel, "I didn't come to bring peace but a sword" (10:34).

He didn't mince words, and He wasn't afraid to address people's pet sins.

After all, we're talking about the One who will eventually separate people into two groups: sheep and goats. (Talk about labels!) In fact, Jesus will return to judge every single person who has ever lived...even you and me.

Did Jesus label people?

I recently found a very helpful article that lists the labels Jesus used. Here are some of them:

Enemies (Matthew 5:44)
Pagans (Matthew 5:47)
Devil (John 6:70)
Robbers (John 10:8)
Hypocrites (Matthew 6:2)
Thieves (Matthew 6:20)
Sinful generation (Mark 8:38)
Adulterous generation (Mark 8:38)
Dogs (Matthew 7:6)
Pigs (Matthew 7:6)
Evil man (Luke 6:45)
Unbelieving (Luke 9:41)
Perverse (Luke 9:41)
Foolish people (Luke 11:39)
False prophets (Matthew 7:15)
Dead (Matthew 8:22)
Unclean (Mark 7:23)
Wolves (Matthew 10:16)
Blind guides (Matthew 15:14)
Satan (Matthew 16:24)
Perverse generation (Matthew 17:17)
Murderers (Matthew 22:7)
Whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27)
Serpents (Matthew 23:27)
Brood of vipers (Matthew 23:33)
Cursed (Matthew 25:41)

Did Jesus exclude people?

In Matthew 21:12-17 and John 2:13-22, Jesus drove the money-changers out of the temple for making God's house a "den of robbers." In John's account, he used a handmade whip and also turned over their tables.

In Luke 10, Jesus condemned three entire cities to hell. He pronounced "Woe" upon the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and explained that the day of judgment will be more tolerable for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (famously destroyed by fire from heaven for their immorality and their blatant rejection of God's ways) than it will be for them.

In Matthew 7:22-23, Jesus explains that anyone who does not do the will of His Father will be excluded with these words: "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."

When considering the exclusive nature of Jesus, we can't ignore the book of Revelation. In His letter to the church at Thyatira in chapter 2, He actually criticized the church for the sin of tolerance. They were "tolerating" the false prophetess Jezebel, and He went on to pronounce judgment on her.

The bottom line....

Of course, this is just one aspect of who Jesus is. Jesus is unapologetically intolerant of sin, but He is all-inclusive in His offer of salvation for those who repent and put their faith in Him. It's important that we understand Jesus the way the Bible actually presents Him, and not in a caricatured or myopic way. He was divisive and exclusive—but He was also the most compassionate, selfless, and truthful person to ever walk the earth.

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22 Comments

charlene capodice

10/24/2017 07:07:32 am

I was so happy to read this today! After just trying to explain that to someone, I was beginning to think I was wrong. If you read the actual bible you will understand this. Most people never have read the bible, but they claim to know all. Thanks for posting!

Jesse King

2/19/2021 02:50:15 pm

I've been called hipocrite for challenging others to turn away from their sin nature. It is because i have been redeemed, forgiven, washed in the blood, born again to the newness of life, should i not labor for Christ in calling out the sin nature i see in those i love ? My hearts desire is to share my testimony of Yeshua to all who have ears to hear that some, many, all, be saved. I am encouraged by reading this article

Ginger Diane Russell

11/28/2021 08:26:19 am

Thank you for this post. So many think of Jesus as this Love hippie that did not speak out and address the sins and evil of the day. Today that is considered unloving.

Jay

6/3/2022 11:04:12 pm

Impressive. Indulging in division feeds the soul.
This savior you make out sounds like a real fun and sweet guy. Have fun with that one.

Alexandru

1/22/2024 11:26:00 am

Yes ! Jesus was kind and merciful but also tough when need be. I never thought anything else. In Zeffirelli's miniseries , Robert Powell's portrayal was super badass. Particularly in the scene based on Matthew chapter 23. Where He denounced the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.

Great that you mentioned the tough side of Jesus at the start.

David Furlong

10/24/2017 07:50:33 am

Thanks Alisa, good blog!

Jesus is unapologetically intolerant of sin...

I saw a little quote the other day that I had not seen before (where have I been right). "Give the satan an inch, and he will be come your ruler."

Ray Ciervo link

10/24/2017 09:44:16 am

Alisa - thanks for not pulling any punches, staying true to the Scripture and telling it like it is.

Stephen Howard

10/26/2017 03:27:20 am

Thank you Alisa, for airing the truth. It took me nearly 40yrs looking for the truth, after departing from the RC liars , and although I tried to read the Bible at various times, I could not get far into Genesis. This is what I feel is a major flaw in its presentation. The New Testement should be first , for 2 reasons. 1) This is the last Testement, that we are to live by , and 2) It is the first port of call for new readers.
PS. I was baptised in 2008 , and that is a story all by itself.

Diane Woerner link

10/30/2017 09:21:47 am

Oswald Chambers writes:

The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sin not by sympathy, but by identification. He was made to be sin. Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy with us. We are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, or because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and in no other way.

We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Fatherhood of God, the loving-kindness of God; the New Testament says He came to bear away the sin of the world. The revelation of His Father is to those to whom He has been introduced as Savior. Jesus Christ never spoke of Himself to the world as one Who revealed the Father, but as a stumbling block.

Kim Williams

11/2/2017 02:02:42 pm

I have also encountered this same issue. People think they know the God of the Bible without ever reading his word. I've found out if you challenge them people get very offensive, even if you do it lovingly. It breaks my heart...

Tom link

1/16/2018 01:40:37 pm

I very much enjoyed your article, but have a different perspective on some of your points.Your article asks the question of whether Jesus labeled or excluded anyone. You give good examples of labeling. You also mention the division that Jesus would cause as described in Luke 12:51.

Concerning exclusion, you give a couple examples... one being the example of Jesus chasing out people in the temple who were selling goods. I agree with that example... but it is a rather weak example of exclusion. While I guess you could say it IS exclusion, would ANYONE argue that Jesus should NOT have chased them away... that his "exclusion" was a bad thing in this instance?

In the other example, you mention Luke 10. I really didn't see Jesus excluding anyone there. He described judgement that will one day occur to those people excluding others, but I didn't really see exclusion actually occurring. Jesus' instructions said to wipe the dust off their feet and walk away... didn't really say anything about excluding people from those towns.

The Matthew 7:22-23 example, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." is a good example of exclusion... AT THE TIME OF JUDGEMENT. It says NOTHING about how such people should be excluded in this life by other Christians.

There is evidence to suggest that if one of those unwelcoming towns mentioned were to turn around and become welcoming, their fate would change. We saw that with Paul who had been persecuting Christians. After his "road to Damascus" experience, he became a changed person and welcomed into the Kingdom. Jesus never gave up on Paul even when he was persecuting Christians.

We also saw that with criminal crucified next to Jesus After humbling himself before Jesus, his fate changed.

Jesus hung around with the despised... tax collectors, for example. He hung around with them WHILE THEY WERE STILL DOING BAD THINGS.

While I loved your article and agree with most of it, I take exception to your conclusions regarding exclusion.

Sincerely

9/12/2019 11:22:26 am

Yes. I agree and like your observations. Very true

Julie Love

6/6/2022 06:43:14 pm

Thank you Tom. If we exclude others, we can’t love them.

Danielle

7/13/2022 03:13:50 pm

Jesus did not hang around with them like
We do our friends. He sat with them and taught them and called them to repentance . Too often people say Jesus hung out with these people to support their sinful lifestyle. And Christianity is exclusive in the fact that no one comes to the Father except through Christ. People want to
Have heaven be all inclusive by any means. Jesus will say to some that He never knew them and they will not be Included in the kingdom.
Also, Jesus had his disciples and his main 3 out of them. Some might argue that they weren’t included or this group of 12 could be like what we might call a clique.
The gospel is extended to all and whoever believes receives. But Salvation is not inclusive of everyone just because.

Randy Mullis

6/28/2018 11:47:28 am

Hi! One thing I notice is that all of the labels Jesus uses pertain to morality (except for Publican). In other words, his labels are not based on ideology or politics or nationality, but rather on whether someone is being a moral person.

Phoebe

6/15/2019 07:18:55 pm

Your argument is deeply flawed.

I notice that list is about sins (actions) that people commit and not specific people. So, he accepted prostitutes, lepers, rich, poor, unbelievers, people of different tribes, non-Jewish people, etc. He accepted everybody as they were, except for the blindly unrepentant and prideful.

I'd put presuming to know the mind of God in that latter category. Mote, beam, eyeball, all that.

Anthony Barber

7/14/2022 09:56:34 am

Are you saying Alisa should not judge?
Then why are you judging Alisa?
The point was Jesus was intolerant of sin and sinful living. He died to deliver us from it.

Rob Callicotte

7/3/2020 09:27:02 pm

Alisa, another thing you touched upon some, but not entirely is when the disciples of Jesus came to him to after he had soundly rounded out the lawyers, scribes and Pharisees for blocking entry into God's Kingdom and for being hypocrites. The disciples asked if he knew that he was offending them. Jesus said, "Every plant that my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Leave them alone, for they are blind leaders of the blind." The Greek word 'leave' is the same as forgive, but in this context means instead to send them (the lawyers, scribes and Pharisees) away...leave them be.

That sounds like a clear line to me.

Chadd Shaffer

3/21/2021 05:01:53 pm

You set all this up as a counterpoint to three statements. "But Jesus never excluded anyone!" or "Labeling people is wrong!" or "Jesus promoted tolerance!"

At first glance, your list seems to prove your point, but we’ve all learned that verses belong in context so, let’s dive in and see: Is Christ really labeling those who are outside of God’s grace and in intolerant or excluding people?

I’ve struggled with this question for awhile, and the more I’ve thought about it, a Christ who labels and rejects people for the reasons I see Christians labeling and rejecting people doesn’t align with the God I know. Since you conveniently provided a list, I decided to spend some time reading each verse you listed and see: who was Christ labeling? Was he really being intolerant or excluding people?

I’ve included my scratch notes below so anyone can check my work. A couple quick notes first:

1. Any time the same verse includes multiple labels about the same people, I combined them.
2. I think I missed one counting if someone could figure out which one I missed. I can’t try to count it all again for a fifth time...
3. Any Biblical scholars who want to correct specific instances or illuminate the unclear ones... that would be awesome.

So, here’s the breakdown of who Christ “labels” with the number, then label I used in my notes:

Results
9 - (Pharisee) Directed at powerful religious leaders of the day
6 - (Other) metaphor or general term. No group specified. Usually talking TO disciples, but not about disciples.
3 - (Disciple) Directed at disciples
0 - (Specific Non-Religious Group)
4 - (Unsure) Three different gospel versions of talking about a perverse “generation”. Not sure if this is to the disciples, general for the entire culture including religious and non-religious, or something culturally more specific. One instance of “let the dead bury the dead”. Again, unsure if this is general for everyone, a pointed statement, or culturally specific.

Analysis
Notably absent is Christ using these negative labels for ANY specific groups outside of the religious community. The closest I can see are references to the entire culture which would include the religious community. At the very least, Christ spent most of his labels on religious people, especially leaders, who either followed him (disciples) or his Father (the Pharisees who were Jews). So where does that leave us, especially when the Pharisees are mostly known for condemning people for not following rules THEY deemed essential according to their scripture interpretation?

Maybe we’re free to intolerantly label ourselves and our religious leaders? But that seems like the most “intolerance” or “exclusion” allowed by this list of examples.

It seems like we would be better off trying to apply our criticisms to ourselves and see if there are lessons for us to learn, rather than labeling and condemning anyone outside our religious community.

Further verses to sanity check:
Now, maybe I’m reading too much into your list, so let’s double check how Christ addresses these issues directly. How DOES Christ respond to the people he encounters who interpret scripture to “exclude someone” or “label” others. Not surprisingly, the verses we need actually made your list.

Luke 11:39-46

39 Then the Lord(AH) said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.(AI) 40 You foolish people!(AJ) Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor,(AK) and everything will be clean for you.(AL)
42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth(AM) of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.(AN) You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.(AO)
43 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.(AP)
44 “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves,(AQ) which people walk over without knowing it.”
45 One of the experts in the law(AR) answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”
46 Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.(AS)

Hmm, he seems more concerned with the Pharisees and religious experts imposing too many rules which would exclude people, than with any sins the Pharisees might help draw attention to in others.

Let’s try again (again, with a verse from from your list)

Matthew 7:1-6
1“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge othe

Samantha

11/27/2021 06:19:46 pm

In addition to my previous comment, which I'm sure you won't post, I would like to add that there are many environmental factors today that weren't around in biblical times which cause mental illness such as: processed foods, chemicals in foods we eat and not to mention babies who's mothers used drugs while they were pregnant which undoubtedly cause mental issues in these humans, to no fault of their own. So your answer is to exclude them??? Shun them for something that is not in their control? No. This is wrong and against everything Jesus stood for.As Christians we need to understand that compassion is key. Human beings have souls that desperately need the love of God in their lives so they know they are not alone in their struggles. for. Them and shunning them is evil. Ooen your heart and you will feel the love of God directing you to stop exclusion.

Liz

5/25/2022 06:37:46 pm

I think this blog has broken the camels back. I no longer find just organised religion distasteful, but Jesus too. In fact he sounds like a real 'not so nice word'. I also didn't realise he passed judgement, I believed in him because I thought he didn't. I was under the impression he just have us the tools and opportunity to reach heaven. Love everyone, treat others how you want to be treated and all that jazz.

Susan

6/8/2022 01:24:16 am

Jesus cannot require you to love others while simultaneously not passing judgement on you, because he must judge whether or not you have actually loved others as he commanded, correct? Commands mean nothing if there is no judge to determine if said commandments have been followed.
Also, would you want to live in a society where someone could murder, rape, and steal, but then get away scot free because no legal system existed to pass judgment on those who did so? Most people would say no, and if that’s the case, then why should be expect God’s kingdom to exist in judgment-less anarchy?

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Did Jesus Ever Label or Exclude Anyone?

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