Deliberate Rebellion
I Corinthians 5:6–13
"Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—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. 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. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Today I’m sharing an article instead directly related to the verses here on church discipline. So there’s this guy who claims to have been unlovingly dismissed by his local church. It’s good that he included the letter from the church elders, I don’t think it was unloving, neither is it terse nor unkind. Church discipline is a difficult tangle to unravel these days and it may also bring with it legal baggage of labour laws when considering a church as an organisation that employs staff (an issue that isn’t foreign to us in FCBC), here’s the guy’s side: “Watermark church dismissed me for being gay" http://bit.ly/2D9iSIl it isn’t difficult to parse the misunderstandings in this case. The Dallas church further clarified that there is a distinction between the church’s formal membership and anyone simply attending services: “An individual's formal relationship with us as a member is only changed when someone no longer desires to resist sin and refuses our help, care and encouragement. Even if someone's formal membership status is removed, they are always welcome to attend Watermark and be reminded of the grace and truth of our savior Jesus Christ.” It appears they don't remove people from church membership roles simply because they are struggling with sin. They recognise that we all stumble and fail. Rather, what prompted his removal was, I think, deliberate rebellion and refusal to submit to the church's requirements, counsel, and guidance. Many parts of Corinthian epistles tell us about the inner workings of church fellowship and community, the issues they faced, and this is one of the Apostle Paul’s earliest letters. Later, St. Paul writes about receiving anew those who have been under discipline, I’m not sure if it is the same person, but as harsh as todays verses appear to us, by the same measure and almost the same words, St. Paul forgives (I Cor 5:3 vs II Cor 2:10), this tells us about forgiveness and reaffirmation after repentance, despite the consequences, broken trust, wounds scars, and all; forgiveness is always a form of sacrifice, and if we harbour bitterness, we fall into the Enemy’s scheming: “If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent–not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote to you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven–if there was anything to forgive–I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes (II Cor 2:5–11).”
"Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—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. 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. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Today I’m sharing an article instead directly related to the verses here on church discipline. So there’s this guy who claims to have been unlovingly dismissed by his local church. It’s good that he included the letter from the church elders, I don’t think it was unloving, neither is it terse nor unkind. Church discipline is a difficult tangle to unravel these days and it may also bring with it legal baggage of labour laws when considering a church as an organisation that employs staff (an issue that isn’t foreign to us in FCBC), here’s the guy’s side: “Watermark church dismissed me for being gay" http://bit.ly/2D9iSIl it isn’t difficult to parse the misunderstandings in this case. The Dallas church further clarified that there is a distinction between the church’s formal membership and anyone simply attending services: “An individual's formal relationship with us as a member is only changed when someone no longer desires to resist sin and refuses our help, care and encouragement. Even if someone's formal membership status is removed, they are always welcome to attend Watermark and be reminded of the grace and truth of our savior Jesus Christ.” It appears they don't remove people from church membership roles simply because they are struggling with sin. They recognise that we all stumble and fail. Rather, what prompted his removal was, I think, deliberate rebellion and refusal to submit to the church's requirements, counsel, and guidance. Many parts of Corinthian epistles tell us about the inner workings of church fellowship and community, the issues they faced, and this is one of the Apostle Paul’s earliest letters. Later, St. Paul writes about receiving anew those who have been under discipline, I’m not sure if it is the same person, but as harsh as todays verses appear to us, by the same measure and almost the same words, St. Paul forgives (I Cor 5:3 vs II Cor 2:10), this tells us about forgiveness and reaffirmation after repentance, despite the consequences, broken trust, wounds scars, and all; forgiveness is always a form of sacrifice, and if we harbour bitterness, we fall into the Enemy’s scheming: “If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent–not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote to you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven–if there was anything to forgive–I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes (II Cor 2:5–11).”
Comments
Post a Comment