If God will leave the 99 in Luke 15:4-7, and the 10 in Luke 15:8-10, and if God will welcome back with open arms and great rejoicing as shown in Luke 15:11-32, how much more does He seek out His own children who are born again of Holy Spirit?
God doesn't leave the 99. He is in heaven seated upon the throne.
It's up to us, to go after the lost.
That is what He was teaching His disciples.
Jesus is describing what we are to do, about sheep who have wandered away and become lost.
He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” John 21:16
That's why it's called the ministry of reconciliation.
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and
has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God were pleading through us:
we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20
James says it this way -
Brethren, if anyone
among you wanders from the truth, and
someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will
save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. “
Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
Matthew 18:12-17
- If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?
- And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
Jesus defines the steps to take,
to go after a person who has sinned against you to get them to repent:
- “Moreover [likewise] if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
- If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
- But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’
- And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
JPT