1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
“A holy man is an awesome weapon in the hands of God.” – Robert McShane
A lot of times people tell us not to judge others because of what they are doing. They will say thing like, “It is between them and God, and we are not to judge.” Is this true? Are we not to judge anyone? What does the Bible say about it? “12For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” (1 Cor. 5:12). Seems to me this is saying something completely opposite, that in fact we are to judge those that call themselves believers. Paul here was telling them to throw someone out of the church for sinning. Could you imagine if we did that today? A pastor could be lynched for such a thing.
Why is that today? I believe one reason is that we do not take sin a serious as we should. If anyone preaches on it then they are being to judgmental, so a lot of people tend to shy away from it. We would not want the congregation to be too uncomfortable. But isn’t that exactly what we need? We need someone to hold us accountable to God’s word, and to teach us what sin is so we do not continue in it.
Sin is not only damaging to the person who commits it, but it hurts the whole body of believers if one is allowed to continue in it and especially if that person is in leadership. Paul in Corinthians was talking about a man who was just in the congregation being kicked out. What do you think he would say about a leader who was sinning? I am guessing the same thing; get rid of him immediately. Paul a verse before, 1 Cor. 5:11, gives us a directive of how we are to act, “But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.” How many people in the church who claim to be Christians fall in this category and nothing is done about it?
Better yet, how many people in your church are leaders and fall in this category? I am guessing just about everyone reading this thought of someone. Why has our church come to this, or for that manner Christianity in general, where the people Paul tells us not to associate with have more power in church then we do? It is because we are afraid to step up and take the hit for the Kingdom of God. We are afraid what people will say: prude, judgmental, tea-totaler, goody-to-shoes.
It is time to step up and walk the line that God has set before us as believers. If you know a Christian brother or sister who is living in sin as described above then call them out, or report it to the church to call them out. If you are a leader of the church and living a life like this you need to step down or repent now and get into accountability. If church leadership knows of people doing this then they need to get these people off leadership and out of the church before the corrupt others.
We need to stop making excuses for sin, and start making expectations of living your faith that you claim to have. If you are for Jesus then strive to live like it and do not make excuses for your sin. If we find someone that is then they need to go and not be associated with any longer. Sinners do what sinners do, but the believer is no longer part of that world and should not be proud of living in their sin, nor should they be allowed to be part of the community of believers if they continue to do so.
1 John 1:6-7, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Joshua 24:15, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
8 comments:
Greetings in the name of Jesus! I happened across your blog and your sinner post and I had a few comments and questions. You mentioned that "If church leadership knows of people doing this then they need to get these people off leadership and out of the church before they corrupt others."
Now, shouldn't they still be in church? Shouldn't they still get to sit in church are participate in worship? But to kick them out of church seems harsh. What is your reasoning behind this? Can you please elaborate?
I'm not saying that they should be in leadership but to say that we as believers can't fellowship with them and can't encourage them to help them and encourage them to change?
Greetings in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Great comment and thank you for the challenge. I hope I clarify a little for you in my follow up comments.
You are correct that it seems harsh, and at times it needs to be that way. I would agree that if a leader is taken out of leadership they should still be part of church, but unfortunately history demonstrates that it rarely works at the church they are at as too many things said and done. If they were to stay there would need to be strong accountability.
Again, though I would go back to 1 Cor. 5:11 where Paul was talking about just a member of the church and he wanted him kicked out.
Now we all sin, and I am the first to say that. This blog is talking about blatant sin and habitual continual sin. Sins as mentioned in the verses I used.
Can a leader be restored to leadership? Yes, after a time of restoration and accountability. We all live because of grace, but as leaders there is a higher calling. Timothy tells us that those who teach will be judged more harshly.
Thanks again for your comments. I will be writing more this weekend on sin, and that may clarify more for you as well, as this is a series in my blogs on this topic.
aahhh...habitual sin. That is different from the sin you mentioned in your post. From your post it appeared that you mentioned sin as in just plain old sin.
Not just habitual for leaders, but blatant as well (which is for congregants as well). From my post you can see the blatant sins from the verses used. As from my previous comment and my blog there are blatant sins as well that would excuse one from leadership and at times from fellowship with believers.
It is not different from what I said in the post or my comments previous.
But do you believe they should be excluded from church?
1 Corinthians 5:1-8, "1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even £named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord £Jesus.
6Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed £for us. 8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
If I were to follow the standards of Scripture and what this is saying then yes there are times Christians need to be excluded from the church.
You would not even typcially have to worry about doing it yourself, because just confronting someone for sin as talked about in 1 Corinthians will typically either bring someone to repentance or they will leave anyway because of conviction and/or guilt and/or stubborness.
It's true that the early church held doctrine that said once someone sins they should be removed from the body of believers. They even said that the person should only be readmitted once. When Constantine became the first Christian emperor, however, there came the question of what to do with leaders who had sold out their faith to avoid persecution under previous emperors. For this and other reasons it became less reasonable for all sins to be treated this way. Public confession slowly turned to private as well.
I would ask this question based on your posts below and above: Which is more like Christ: A person who is a servant to all, befriending the overlooked, giving to those who have nothing, making those who are seen as sinners feel welcome, and fellow human beings? Or one who divides those who are found to be sinners from the community? Where are compassion and grace?
I will ask you this first before I will reply, though I think my original and follow up comments clarify all my answers to your questions. You are comparing to very different things, so I would first ask that you stay in the same argument. Big difference between Non-Saved and Saved.
I would ask where you Biblically find your argument? What verses do you base your thoughts on? Give me something to comparet to just your opinion that is based in the inerrant Bible and then I will gladly look at it and follow up with my responses to your answers. Opinions are just that unless they are founded on Scripture.
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