Skip to main content

The Church


                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.” (I Corinthians 5:9-13)

                I suspect there are a lot of people who would love to cheer for Paul. How dare Christians impose our morality on the rest of society? Why doesn’t the Church address the sins that are in our midst? And to an extent, I agree. The Church should be dealing more, and more effectively, with our sins, including my “favorites,” gluttony, anger, fear, and pride.
                One problem is that the world does not do any better. It doesn’t say to the Church, “we won’t judge you; we’ll leave you alone.”  Does the world shrug its shoulders and say that the sexual abuse found in the Church is none of its affair? No, the world judges. What’s more, the world judges the Church if the Church stands by and says nothing – consider the criticism of German Christians who did not speak out forcefully enough against the Nazis. 
                More importantly, when the world declares something to be acceptable, it imposes that morality on the Church. This was my argument against granting legal status to some groups. I don’t care what they do on their own, amongst themselves. That’s between them and God. However, I warned some friends that when it happened, it would result in that group trying to force its morality on the Church and its members. I was told that it would never happen, but when it did, I just got smiles. And when I do what they scold the German Church for not doing in World War II, they scold me for doing it and tell me that I’m the Nazi, not they.  This is to be expected. We’re talking about the World. 
                The second problem is that the Church often wants to be just like the world. It’s so much easier. And the first step in dealing with the Church is to deal with ourselves. We can't expect the Church to be the Church while we're cozying up with the world.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...