INSIDE - OUTSIDE
I Corinthians 5:11-13
"But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother ... not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging also those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person."
People who are outside of the family of God deserve our pity, not our condemnation, because they are only doing what their father, the devil, does (see John 8:44; I John 3:7), and will eventually face God's judgment. After all, Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save (John 3:17). Our job is not to judge the sinners outside the Church but to judge sinners inside the Church. We are admonished to note the difference between those who claim to be brothers (and sisters) who follow Christ, and weep for those who claim to be Christians but are really enemies of the cross, whose god is their belly, whose glory is their shame – who set their mind on earthly things. Their end is destruction (Philippians 3:17-18). Our approach to sinners in the world should be different than toward unrepentant sinners in the Church.
TODAY'S THOUGHT: The Church should judge sinners in the Church and let God judge sinners in the world.
Have an "inside" day. Love you.
I Corinthians 5:11-13
"But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother ... not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging also those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person."
People who are outside of the family of God deserve our pity, not our condemnation, because they are only doing what their father, the devil, does (see John 8:44; I John 3:7), and will eventually face God's judgment. After all, Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save (John 3:17). Our job is not to judge the sinners outside the Church but to judge sinners inside the Church. We are admonished to note the difference between those who claim to be brothers (and sisters) who follow Christ, and weep for those who claim to be Christians but are really enemies of the cross, whose god is their belly, whose glory is their shame – who set their mind on earthly things. Their end is destruction (Philippians 3:17-18). Our approach to sinners in the world should be different than toward unrepentant sinners in the Church.
TODAY'S THOUGHT: The Church should judge sinners in the Church and let God judge sinners in the world.
Have an "inside" day. Love you.
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