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!
Showing posts with label disfellowship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disfellowship. Show all posts
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
It's a Love Thing
I had the privilege of teaching the adult Bible class tonight. Our topic was 2 Corinthians 2. We spent very little time in that text, but it was still a good study. Well, I think so, at least. In 2 Corinthians Paul is dealing with the aftermath of his first letter to Corinth in regards to the sinful man mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5. The church there had done such a good job of correcting the sinful man, that they were in danger of pushing him out of the congregation even though he had repented.
Having given you the background, can you guess what our discussion involved tonight?
We spent the entire class discussing the concepts of fellowship and disfellowship. Disfellowship is talked about a lot, but practiced infrequently, and often very poorly if it is done at all. Why? It comes down to a couple reasons, but we will confine ourself to what must be in place first - fellowship!
What is fellowship? In the New Testament we can look at Acts 2:44-47 to get an idea. There we find that the first Christians: were together, had all things in common, were eating their meals together, and had gladness & sincerity of heart. How many so-called congregations or "churches" have that kind of fellowship? How many congregations seek to spend time together, share with each other, eat their meals with each other, enjoy spending time with each other? If that were the case, then fellowship would exist and disfellowship would be so much more effective!
When we look at the book of John 15 we see Jesus explaining the concept of abiding in Him. Over in 1st John 2 and 3 we see over and over the idea of family, through the use of terms such as children and Fathers, but tied back to the love and abiding in Christ.
We have no problem understanding the concept of love when it comes to our physical family, and the actions that love motivates us to perform. We want what's best for our family, and will sacrifice to make sure they get it. When that kind of love exists in the church, and then someone is cut off from that, that is when disfellowship is effective. If there is no fellowship, there cannot be effective disfellowshipping.
Fellowship - It's a Love Thing!
Having given you the background, can you guess what our discussion involved tonight?
We spent the entire class discussing the concepts of fellowship and disfellowship. Disfellowship is talked about a lot, but practiced infrequently, and often very poorly if it is done at all. Why? It comes down to a couple reasons, but we will confine ourself to what must be in place first - fellowship!
What is fellowship? In the New Testament we can look at Acts 2:44-47 to get an idea. There we find that the first Christians: were together, had all things in common, were eating their meals together, and had gladness & sincerity of heart. How many so-called congregations or "churches" have that kind of fellowship? How many congregations seek to spend time together, share with each other, eat their meals with each other, enjoy spending time with each other? If that were the case, then fellowship would exist and disfellowship would be so much more effective!
When we look at the book of John 15 we see Jesus explaining the concept of abiding in Him. Over in 1st John 2 and 3 we see over and over the idea of family, through the use of terms such as children and Fathers, but tied back to the love and abiding in Christ.
We have no problem understanding the concept of love when it comes to our physical family, and the actions that love motivates us to perform. We want what's best for our family, and will sacrifice to make sure they get it. When that kind of love exists in the church, and then someone is cut off from that, that is when disfellowship is effective. If there is no fellowship, there cannot be effective disfellowshipping.
Fellowship - It's a Love Thing!
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