To Encourage You

1 Corinthians 5:9-11 “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.”

2 Thessalonians 3:6 “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.”

One of the words we hear thrown around so much today is “tolerance.”  Another one that is closely related to this is “diversity.”  Often, when we hear these words, it is in the context of not judging another person’s behavior. We are told that we should not be “close-minded.” We should have a “live and let live” attitude. We should all just get along.  We hear it all the time.  So, is that the attitude a Christian should have?  

We all know that Jesus spent time with those the religious people looked down on. Derisively, they called Him “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19).  On the other hand,  we are told that “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20).  So, what’s the Bible telling us? What’s the Christian to make of these, seemingly, conflicting admonitions and examples?  

It is to this that the verses above from 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Thessalonians 3 speak.  In both passages Paul is speaking to the church about their associations.  In the first passage Paul is speaking about people who are immoral, greedy, dishonest, or drunks. In the second he is speaking about people who are lazy. Clearly, in both of these passages he tells us that we are not to associate with such people, but then he clarifies. He says that we are not to associate with such people if they call themselves Christian brothers.  He is not saying that we should live as monks and cut ourselves off from anyone who does not call himself or herself a Christian. He is not saying that we shouldn’t have non-Christian friends. Obviously, Jesus himself had such friends (although we should note that while he associated with them, He never participated with them in their sin).  He was an example of righteousness in the face of their sin.  And He loved sinners by the supreme act of giving His life on the cross for them, for “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the message of His great love to everyone. Often, it is only by developing a friendship with unbelievers that we can ever gain a hearing with them about that message. 

But regarding those who call themselves brothers and sisters in the Lord, yet live like unbelievers, our attitude and actions should be very different.  We are commanded to avoid them. You see, we should not expect an unbeliever to think and act like a believer.  Why in the world would they?  They are being true to themselves when their actions are consistent with what they profess to believe. On the other hand, we are to expect a person who calls himself or herself a believer to act like one. If they (or we) don’t, we are hypocrites, a condition of which the Bible takes an extremely low view.  

In His teaching in Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus instructs believers as to how they are to deal with sinning brothers within the body of Christ. He tells believers that they are to confront the person in a stepwise process of discipline, but if the person refuses to repent, we are to not associate any longer with them (unless or until they do repent). It’s the same message Paul gives us in the verses above.  It’s a message of love – loving an unbeliever, even our enemies, with friendship and acts of love, while seeking to share with them the message of God’s great love for the world, and loving believers by holding them accountable to a much higher standard in a process within the church that includes confrontation, discipline, and when necessary, disassociation.  It’s a command given to us by the Lord Himself.  

May God help us to follow His direction regarding our association with others rather than the voices of this world that speak from a perspective void of the counsel of an all-wise and loving God.  And may he help us, as believers, to walk our talk.  Otherwise, we may undermine any message that we, or other believers associated with us, might preach and thereby, tragically, cause the only message that gives anyone the hope of eternal life to fall on deaf ears.