In the last post I laid out an argument that fellowship is all about love. Tonight I will posit a corollary concept, that disfellowship is also all about love. Consider this question, "Why do we disfellowship someone?" There are 4 reasons that I am aware of, each of them motivated by love.
1) We disfellowship an erring brother or sister because we love them and want them to see how seriously we take their choice to step off the path God has chosen for them.
2) We practice disfellowship because we love the church, and want to keep her the pure bride of Christ. Just as one bad apple spoils the bunch, one sinner left in the fold can bring many to their destruction.
3) We disfellowship because we love all the sinners in the world, and want them to see that we take such concepts as the sanctity of God's message (which tells us it is sometimes necessary to disfellowship an individual) very seriously.
4) We practice disfellowship because we love ourselves enough to recognize that at some point we may be in error, and therefore we need to examine ourselves. Also, we love each other enough that we are conscientious to correct a brother or sister when we first see a potential problem, and pray that they will do the same for us.
Disfellowship is an often uncomfortable topic, but if we truly understand the love that motivates it, it becomes less so. When talking about fellowship I mentioned the concept of family. If we love our children, we discipline them. If we love our parents, we correct them when they overstep their boundaries and start meddling in our lives. If we love our brother or sister, we let them know when we are concerned for them and the decisions they are making. If we love our Christian family the same way, we should have no trouble expressing our love in the same way.
Disfellowship - It's a Love Thing!
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