There was a phrase from seminary that’s always stuck with me.

It was something that Dr. Barry Bryant, my professor of United Methodist Studies shared with us in one my classes.  I don’t remember the class, and I don’t remember what brought the statement about.

He was talking about John Wesley. And he said Wesley believed that everyone was equal.  But, their equality was not based on their “worth” but on their sin.

The logic flowed like this.  Everyone is equally sinful. Everyone is equally in need of a savior. Christ died for everyone’s sin.  So, we are called to love everyone the same.

Because God did.

We are all the same, because we all need a savior. We are all the same because we are all equally in need. Each of us. There are no “better thans” in God’s family. We are all equal, for we are all equal in sin and in our need for salvation.

We need to remember that, so that we never become like the Pharisees:

30The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ 31Jesus answered, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.’

They thought they were better than the tax collectors. They thought they were better than those sinners. They though they were not as needy as they were.

They didn’t see their sin. So, they needed see their need. They didn’t see they were just as needy for a savior as those they regarded as sinners.

Today, let’s not forgot our need for Christ. Let’s forgot our need for a savior. Let’s not forget that we are each in need of forgiveness and salvation.

You are.  I am.  We each are.

Even those folks that we think that we are better than. We are not better than. There are no better thans in God’s kingdom. We are all equal in sin.  We are all equal in our need for salvation.

And God loves each of us.  May we love each other just the same.