THE CHURCH AND THE SINNING BROTHERS
Let's consider few passages:
1Co 5:11 but now I write unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat.
1Co 6:9 Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men,
1Co 6:10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they which practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Eph 5:1 Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children;
Eph 5:2 and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell.
Eph 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints;
Eph 5:4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks.
Eph 5:5 For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.
Eph 5:7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them;
Rev 22:15 Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie.
Some are concerned that if we apply these verses the church would be empty. True. Even people like
Noah, who “drank of the wine, and was drunken” (Gen. 9:21),
David who committed adultery and murdered an innocent man (2Sa 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the word of the LORD, to do that which is evil in his sight? thou hast smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.)
Peter, who denied the Lord three times (Mat_26:75 And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.), and
John, who for two times bowed down to worship (did he really worship him?) an angel (Rev 19:10 And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Rev 22:8 And I John am he that heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9 And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow- servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them which keep the words of this book: worship God.), would have to be removed from its midst (and would have no part in the kingdom of God).
Now it is clear from the Word that David, Peter an John (can we include Noah?) would be in the kingdom of God, and even have a prominent position. So what did Paul mean in his epistles when he listed those sinners? He was referring to people (brothers) who didn't not just slip few times in an horrible sin, but that habitually were living and practicing them ( that they which practise such things, Ga:5:21).
Noah was drunken, he was not a drunkard.
David committed adultery and killed an innocent man, he did not practice those sins as his habit (he repented, see Ps. 51)
Peter denied the Lord once (three times), it was not his practice to deny the Lord (see how he testified to the high priest, Acts 4), and he repented.
John fell two times in trying to worship an angel, it was not his practice to worship other beings).
1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 1Jn 2:2 and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
WHAT, THEN, IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH'S DISCIPLINE.
The church should be holy as God is holy. It cannot tolerate a brother who lives continually in sin. The church should admonish the sinning person few times first, but if he/she doesn't listen to the church, the church cannot have fellowship with the sinning one.
This seems so tragic, but there is still hope. Hope that the brother would repent and be reinstated in the fellowship. That seems the case with the sinning brother in 1 Co. 5. Let's see what happened.
2Co 2:1 But I determined this for myself, that I would not come again to you with sorrow.
2Co 2:2 For if I make you sorry, who then is he that maketh me glad, but he that is made sorry by me?
2Co 2:3 And I wrote this very thing, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
2Co 2:4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
2Co 2:5 But if any hath caused sorrow, he hath caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) to you all.
2Co 2:6 Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many;
2Co 2:7 so that contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow.
2Co 2:8 Wherefore I beseech you to confirm your love toward him.
2Co 2:9 For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.
2Co 2:10 But to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for what I also have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes have I forgiven it in the person of Christ;
2Co 2:11 that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
From this passage, the sinning brother in 1 Co. 5, after been “punished” he repented with much sorrow. So Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth to “confirm your love toward him”, to forgive in the person of Christ .
The church's discipline should aim at regaining the sinning brother.
Praise the Lord for the forgiveness, and for the love of the saints!