Last night at my Thursday night Bible Study, we talked about sexual immorality and discipline in the church. Now, we didn't talk about sexual immorality in the way you think we might have. We talked about it in more of a , "How should the church respond to sin within the church?" It's an important distinction to make. Yes, people outside of the church have sin, but they are not held to the same standards that Christians are. Because they have not accepted Christ, why should they have to follow our rules? We are not to condemn them or judge them. Paul states in 1st Corinthians something (I don't have my Bible on me....oh yeah, have internet = have Bible.) 1st Corinthians 5: 12: " What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?"

Christians within the church who have unrepentant sin are a completely different story. Christians have always been told not to judge or condemn anybody. However, it seems that Paul might have something different to say. 1st Corinthians 5:12 Paul continues on saying: "Are you not to judge those inside? ". Now, when Paul says judge, he does not mean condemn. Instead, our group came to the consensus last night that Paul meant that it is ok for us to go up to someone and say, "Hey, have you noticed that you're doing _______ ?"(insert sin here) and confront them in love. But what about when things don't change? How should the church respond? Paul actually makes it quite clear. We are to put that person out of our fellowship. When I first heard that...I was kind of shocked. Me: "What? Kick someone out of church? Isn't that exactly where they should be? That doesn't sound like love to me.  and etc." As we talked though, it began to make sense. Remember, this is the case of the unrepentant person committing blatant sin with zero remorse. How could we allow such a person into the house of God? How can we call such a person  brother or sister in Christ? It hurts our witness to associate with those in the church who do not follow Christ's teachings. It also hurts the church as a whole. 


There was a lot more to all of this that I don't have the brain capacity to think of right now. I guess for now, just think about how your church handles sin and how you respond to sin in other Christian's lives.

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