Many church websites today display the motto: Come as you are! This is an encouragement for people to understand that Jesus (and their church) welcome and love them, no matter what their past lives have been or their present lives are.
Jesus, of course, demonstrated his love for sinners and societal outcasts throughout his earthly ministry. He stayed at the house of Zacchaeus, a tax collector who was looked upon as pond scum by Jewish synagogue leaders. He stopped to drink from a well near an adulterous Samaritan woman. He healed a woman (Mary Magdalene) of demon possession. He chose a ragtag bunch of fishermen and another tax collector to be his first disciples.
Jesus’ example should cause every church to boldly proclaim: Come as you are whatever sinful baggage you carry with you! But churches are remiss if they don’t remind us that Jesus also said, “Now you are well; so stop sinning” (John 5:14 NLT).
Come as you are doesn’t mean that Jesus loves us just the way we are. It means that he loves us despite the way we are. He loved the woman at the well (not her adultery) so much so that he offered her “living water” (John 4:10). And once she (and others who encountered Jesus) experienced his message of grace and forgiveness, they left desiring to change the way they would live going forward.
We can always come as we are to Jesus, but once we fully encounter him, we will want to live as he is!
