EZRA 7:1-8:20
1 CORINTHIANS 4:1-21
PSALM 31:1-8
PROVERBS 21:1-2
1Corinthians 4:9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
I selected these verses this morning without writing until later in the day. During the day I was listening to the "Living Water Podcast" about "Is it ever okay for a Christian to cut someone out of their life?" Linked below. They referenced this verse.
I have said it before, but this verse tells us that we should not be surprised when non-believers live sinful lives. We should not live in judgement over them because that is up to God to judge as we read a couple of days ago. We are to love them and show grace and mercy. How can they come to know and understand the love of Christ if His people don't love them. So these are not the people that Paul is talking about.
He is talking about the Church. But not just people who have sinned in the church because we all sin every day. He is talking to the people who are living in sin and are unrepentant. Those situations should be handled as outlined in Matthew 18:15-17 and if they remain unrepentant, they should be removed from the church. One of the things I liked in the podcast is that they talked about the fact that when a person is excommunicated from the church it can be what brings them to repentance and they can be restored. Also, they talk about how the words "Do not even eat with such people" has importance because eating together in Jewish culture was an intimate and long amount of time to spend together. So, it does not mean that you never speak to someone but that you do what is necessary to protect yourself your family and the church while still loving and doing what you can to restore them. I don't see this example lived out in most churches today. Some just ignore the sin and never begin the process with one-on-one conversation about it. When we ignore when someone is living a sinful life we are harming the church. They represent the Church of Christ and young Christians and non-believers can look at them and get an inaccurate picture of what the bible is really teaching and what the church believes. The other extreme is they skip over the first steps and go right to severe judgement which turns the person away from the church all together which also harms the church. Those people frequently leave the church and speak badly of the church. So, discipline in the church needs to be handled as Jesus teaches and with love and grace with a desire to restore the brother or sister not just to condemn them.
When a brother or sister does repent, they should be shown grace, love and mercy. Today I was also talking to someone who is brokenhearted over a sin in her life that she is truly repentant for. She is not living in a sin she has acknowledged her sin taken responsibility for it and is accepting the consequences of that sin. In this situation the body of Christ should love her and support her. She is part of the body and she is suffering so the body suffers with her. Her Church family should be the strength that she needs to get through this time. The church is the place she can come to and reprioritize her relationship with Christ and to rebuild anything that has been burned up or charred by this fire. I was blessed to be able to love her and encourage her in her faith and I know that God will use her church family to bring her through this fire stronger with a testimony to share.
Either way the answer is grace love and mercy. The difference is the intimacy of the time together.
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