Pharisees and sinners

I feel guilty about doing this, but I am going to copy an entire post off another blog. I only do it because I fear if I do not I will forget about the point made before I have time to mull it over. This, I suspect, is important to our interpretation of the Gospels and I must not forget it even though it is 2am.

Here we go:

Luke 6.32: "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them." Jesus knew that everyone was evil (except him) and that everyone sinned. Nevertheless, he used the term "sinner" for an identifiable class, just like the Pharisees. (Matthew, Mark, and Luke do the same as narrators.) When the Pharisees objected to fellowhip with sinners, they were not claiming that they never sinned.

Thanks Mark Horne