Mar 2:14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.

The call of Levi provides many rich lessons for us. 1. God is no respecter of persons. Jesus accepts people just as they are. The Jews hated the tax collectors. They considered them traitors because they worked for the Roman government, and with the support of Roman soldiers behind them, persecuted those who did not pay their taxes. They also considered them extortioners because they would over-collect and keep the “profit” for themselves. Hence, the tax collectors were very rich. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and he could afford to pay back four times to those he had cheated on taxes (Luke 19:8). Perhaps to the amazement of many, Jesus called out to the tax collector Levi to follow Him (v.14). Jesus saw something good in Levi. Jesus was right. This tax collector gave up his lucrative business to follow Him. He became the author of the gospel of Matthew. 2. Don’t Judge A Person By His Profession or Look. How about us? Who among our neighbours, friends, and strangers, do we think are most likely to receive the gospel? Is it our inclination to reach out only to the respectable and “beautiful” people? How many times have we missed winning a soul for Christ because we judged a person as someone who would not believe the gospel? Would you reach out to a Samaritan woman, Saul the persecutor, or Zacchaeus the chief publican? Christ reached out to them and they were converted. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). There is not a single person in this world who is so sinful that the blood of Christ cannot wash away his sins (John 1:29). 3. A Changed Man Levi left his lucrative business and followed Jesus. How many men do you know who were successful and rich but gave them up because they wanted to follow Jesus? Levi made a feast and invited his friends to meet Jesus (v.15). He was thrilled to know Jesus and wanted his friends to know Him too. The result was many of his friends became followers of Jesus. Are we willing to give up like Levi to follow Jesus? “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Have we been telling our friends about Jesus? “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). 4. Be Separate; not Isolate. The religious sects of the Jews were shocked that Jesus ate with sinners. They asked Christ’s disciples why their master was eating with sinners (v.16). Jesus replied: “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (v.17). If we say Christ is the Chief Physician, then the church is a hospital for sick people. A church can never grow by turning away sinners. We cannot convert sinners if we treat them like lepers. We must be separate from sin but not sinners. Paul says: “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world” (1 Corinthians 5:8, 9).         While we must be concerned about the influence of the wrong kind of friends (1 Corinthians 15:33), we must be concerned about those who are lost! Think about those who were Levi’s guests. Jesus met them and taught them and they were converted. Jesus loved Levi in spite of knowing his profession. He did not ask him to quit his profession first if he wanted to follow Him. He simply said: Follow Me.” When we ask men to follow Jesus, they will change.