Bible Question:
1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. 2And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature[a] may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. What would happen if we did this? For every person we know that openly sinned we booted from the church? In my opinion, our church numbers would dwindle, maybe we wouldn't have 12,000 churches in one city, but with what we had we would produce 100 times as much fruit of the spirit! First we approach this sinner, one on one. If they repent, then great! If not, we get a couple more members. If they still do not repent, then we bring forth the whole church! (I apologize, I cannot recall exactly where these instructions are written in the Bible, someone help me?) However, here Paul has already passed judgement! Don't you think we ought to do the same? For one who proudly walks through the doors of a church, who professes to be a Christian yet rebelliously and openly sins, we ought to sadly boot them out so that they might be ashamed. Am I the only one that thinks to show our love we must also be very harsh, if the situation calls for it!? To sit there and say, "I love the Lord!" but not do His will is obscene, you are practicing faith without works, which is impossible. Paul hadn't even met this man and passed judgement. How can we do any less? Even if it is our own child? Do we love our children more than the Lord God? |
Bible Answer: Dear Truth, I suspect that some of your questions are rhetorical. But I'll try to answer some of them. You asked, "I cannot recall exactly where these instructions are written in the Bible, someone help me?" Matthew 18:15-20; Galatians 6:1-5 You asked, "Don't you think we ought to do the same?" Many churches attempt to implement Church Discipline. They do so in a variety of ways. Some succeed more than others. For example, in the 1644 London Baptist Confession of Faith it states, "Christ has likewise given power to his whole Church to receive in and cast out, by way of Excommunication, any member; and this power is given to every particular Congregation, and not one particular person, either member or Officer, but the whole. (Acts 2:47; Romans 16:2; Matthew 18:17; 1 Corinthians 5:4; 2 Corinthians 2:6-8)" For a modern Baptist discussion of the topic you might be interested in reading the following: http://marks.9marks.org/Mark7/LessonA/Slide1of1 Nevertheless, keep in mind that every form of church discipline has, at its roots, a restorative objective. Our purpose is to follow the Scriptural mandate to maintain the purity of the church -- although it will contain wheat and tares continuously until the return of our Lord. We show our love for Him, our love for His church, and our love for the wayward by exercising a Biblical church discipline. In Him, Doc |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Bible general Archive 3 | Author | ||
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TruthInGod | ||
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DocTrinsograce | ||
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LoriLu | ||
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Aretha |