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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Hypocrite and refused to be saved same? | Bible general Archive 3 | jlhetrick | 192390 | ||
jesusfreak- Just a thought and response to your post here. I'm not sure why you and others might interpret this passage as teaching "excommunicating"? There is nowhere in Scripture that I am aware where Christians are given the authority to "excommunicate" another Christian. I am well aware that certain groups have somewhere along the continuum taken upon themselves such authority and or assigned it to the church- but I don't find it in Scripture and certainly not in this passage. If the Lord has saved one and included him/her into the family, there's no hope (even if some would desire it) that any man might expel them. Please refer to Romans 8:31-39. I believe the lesson here is one of Paul's teaching the spiritual truth of these issues. That is, a christian is certainly capable of sinning and even for a time allowing sin to prevail. The church has a scripturally supported responsibility to apply discipline to these situations (see Matthew 18:15-17ff). See also 2 Thess. 3:6-7. My understanding is that we are to love our brothers/sisters in Christ to include exposing sin and following a responsible method of helping him/her to correct it. What Paul seems to warn against is a temptation to try and change another. We have to keep in mind that it is only the Father who calls and the Spirit who draws and creates the change within us. The biblically supported discipline carried out by the church is strictly limited to the holding up of the standards of truth in Scripture alone. If the sinning Christian is unwilling to respond to that, a man certainly has no power over him. Beyond the scriptural approach, the matter should be left to God. We can not pull a man from his sin, but perhaps the resulting destruction caused by that sin might turn his heart back toward the Lord. Furthmore, I can say with some certainty that there is no time frame (be it 'a few months or in some cases a year') in which the process should be held in consideration. Rather, there is a clear sequence of events (again refer to Matt chapter 18). We can't be in the business of setting periods of time in which we will tolerate the sin and then finally divorce the person from the family. Hope this is somehow helpful, Jeff |
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2 | Hypocrite and refused to be saved same? | Bible general Archive 3 | tron613 | 192401 | ||
Thank you it was very helpful after I reread and got enlightenment from God | ||||||