A week ago a few friends we discussing the topic of habitual sin and discipline within the Body of Christ. At the time I was pretty blah on the topic and just wanted to have happy thoughts, but tonight God led to me the same passages that were being discussed that night and gave me some pretty powerful insight on the topic.
The scripture discussed that evening were 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 (with some others here and there). As Paul is writing to the Corinthians he sees a large flaw in their congregation. He sees how they have no form of discipline and how they fail to deal with sin within the body. Paul knows that the church has no authority to judge those outside the body because that is God’s duty, but he knows that the inside the body believers are to come together in love for one another to rebuke those who do not live according to their title of ‘Christian’. The way it works out in the church at Corinth is that since they didn’t have any plan for discipline, there was no discipline. When you have a lack of discipline you create a breeding ground for sin and this is exactly the opposite of what the church should be. Paul writes about rebuking those in sin and purging the evil from among you and this got me thinking.
If we don’t confront our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ concerning their sin which they flaunt, then we are only furthering their sin’s progression. Also according to the scriptures we are not supposed to act like everything is okay around and we aren’t supposed to have fellowship with them until they decided to clean up their act (5:9-13). I know a lot of people that read this will be shocked/angry/confused but it is what we are called to do, but we often fail to do it because it is hard to do and because we are afraid of the repercussions. Recently I have been in the position to confront friends on their sin and have done nothing about it. I sat back and let them do as they pleased, hopefully I can help those around me who need me and do what I should do in the future. I hope we all do.
I think that you should, for once, have a blog entry that isn’t serious and deep and right-on. It’ll make me feel good about the superficialness of my blog.
July 28th, 2008 at 4:58 pmi liked this. i think that when it comes to stuff like this it’s all in the approach. just as was said in the conversation, you first need to talk to the person one on one and in love…as opposed to having a self-righteous powwow about the person/group without them there.
July 28th, 2008 at 8:47 pmI am the worst at this. I hate confronting people, especially my friends, about sin I see them in. Lately, I have been put in situations that I know I should be tough on the people I love the most, but I find it so unbearably hard because its not my personality to get involved in the problem of other people’s sin. I guess what I am trying to say is I am having to change my approach to helping my friends see what people on the outside of their live’s see in them.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:41 pmMy problem is not a lack of personal confrontation with the person who I need to confront, but my lack of self control in venting to other people about it when that person does not respond like a Christian, with repentance. The next step is outlined in Matthew 18…we take it to the person with another person, and then if there is no repentance, we take it before the church. Another problem is deciding just what “taking it before the church” means. So if you confront someone, and then bring someone else in, and there is no change, what do you do practically? Also, if that person is a minor, there may be additional complications.
Additionally, I agree with Kim, in that you must first appeal to the person in love, pray for them, talk to them with others, and then “take it to the church”.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:17 pm