I’ll be the trouble maker on this subject. I think that you do need to show love to those people just like our Lord Jesus Christ who ate with “tax collectors and sinners”. He didn’t come down hard on them and force them to change their ways before he associated with them, as the Pharisees did of that time. It was the love of his Sacred Heart that won peoples hearts.

Yet for those of us who are Christians, who are part of the Church, the expectations have been raised and are continually raised. We are called to be Holy.

[i:45r6z3by]Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, “Be holy because I [am] holy.” 1 Peter 2.13-16[/i:45r6z3by]

It is with Christians that we need to be firm (by Christians I mean Catholics). Remember the Corinthian church that was started by St. Paul? In his first letter to that church, he heard of the tolerance of a completely open immoral act that was committed by one of the [i:45r6z3by]parishioners[/i:45r6z3by] and said to “deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord”.

St Paul writes about not associating with other immoral Christians and warns against not maintaining moral purity.

So my conclusion is to love those who are lost and need to be cleansed, since Christ “did not come to save the righteous but the unrighteous.” But when dealing with fellow Christians, they have been called to a new life and are a new creation through baptism and they need to live in cooperation to God’s Sanctifying Grace.