The Bible makes it clear that
Christians should avoid close fellowship with professing Christians, i.e.,
people who call themselves Christians, who are unrepentant of serious sin,
including the sin of teaching heresy.
BIBLICAL PASSAGES
Here are some biblical texts
on this subject:
Matthew 18
In Matthew 18:15-17 Jesus teaches
His followers:
“15 If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
(Scripture readings in this
article are from the English Standard Version.)
In this passage Jesus tells
His followers during the time of His earthly ministry to treat an unrepentant
sinner within the community of His followers like a Gentile and tax collector.
It is true that today we
can’t follow this teaching without any modification. We live in a different era
now, when Gentiles are included within God’s people, on an equal footing with
Jews. So the command to treat someone like a Gentile no longer directly
applies.
Nevertheless, there is no
doubt that this passage contains a principle that is relevant for the whole
Christian era. If it didn’t, there would seem to be no good reason why Matthew
– or the Holy Spirit – decided to include the passage within this Gospel.
And this principle is
surely that if a professing Christian obstinately refuses to repent, that
person should be expelled from the church they are part of, and other
Christians should avoid close fellowship with them.
Romans 16
In Romans 16:17 Paul says
to the Roman Christians:
“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”
Paul is clearly referring
here to troublemakers within the visible Christian community.
And note how he tells his
readers to keep away from such people.
1 Corinthians 5
In 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 Paul
writes to the church in Corinth:
“1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.”
Here Paul tells his readers
to expel from the church a man who is unrepentant of serious sexual sin.
In verses 3-10 Paul
continues to speak on the same general theme. And then in verses 11-13 he
states:
“11 . . . I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.’”
In this passage Paul instructs
the Corinthians not to associate with any professing Christian who is unrepentant
of any of the sins he mentions.
2 Thessalonians 3
In 2 Thessalonians 3:6 Paul
tells the Christians in Thessalonica:
“Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.”
And then in v. 14 he says:
“If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.”
In these verses Paul directs
his readers to keep away from any professing Christian who is living an
undisciplined life or who doesn’t obey Paul’s instructions.
2 Timothy 3
In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 Paul writes
to Timothy:
“1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”
Note Paul’s reference in v.
5 to “having the appearance of godliness.” It seems that the people Paul has in
view in this passage are professing Christians. Or, at the very least, they
must include professing Christians.
And Paul is clear that
Timothy should avoid people who commit the sins he mentions.
Titus 3
In Titus 3:10 Paul tells
Titus:
“As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,”
The wrongdoer Paul has in
mind here is obviously someone within the visible Christian community.
2 John
In 2 John 1:9-11 John
instructs his readers:
“9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”
In v. 10, when John says,
“If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching,” he is referring to professing
Christians who teach heresy.
And note that John tells
his readers not to welcome such people into their houses or even greet them.
Revelation 2
In Revelation 2:14-15 the
risen Jesus rebukes the church in Pergamon with these words:
“14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”
It is clear that those in
this church who held the teaching of Balaam were unrepentant of eating food
sacrificed to idols and of practicing sexual immorality.
We don’t know exactly what
the teaching of the Nicolaitans was. Nevertheless, in view of Jesus’ reference
to “the works of the Nicolaitans” (Revelation 2:6) in his message to the church
in Ephesus, this teaching must have involved sinful practice of some sort.
And note how Jesus criticises
the church in Pergamon for allowing among its number people who did such
things. He is clearly implying that they should have been expelled.
Summing up
The Bible teaches us, then,
to avoid associating closely with people
who call themselves Christians but who are unrepentant of serious sin,
including the sin of teaching heresy.
WHY SHOULD WE DO THIS?
This raises a question, however. Why should
we avoid close association with such people? What are the dangers of having close fellowship with them?
There are two big dangers.
Bad influence
First,
there is the likelihood that we will be badly influenced.
Paul refers to this danger in
1 Corinthians 5:6. In this verse, in the context of telling his readers to
expel a sinning brother from fellowship, he asks:
“Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”
Later in the same letter,
at 1 Corinthians 15:33, he makes essentially the same point when he states:
“Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’”
We should also remember
Solomon, who started off so well as king, but whose idol-worshipping wives led
him astray (especially 1 Kings 11:1-13).
Weakened effectiveness
Secondly, if we join forces
for Christian work with people who are unrepentant of serious sin, it will very
probably weaken the effectiveness of what we are trying to achieve. Sin and the
Holy Spirit don’t mix, and in all likelihood the power of the Spirit in our
ministry will be hindered.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED
Despite all the biblical
teaching on avoiding close fellowship with professing Christians who are
unrepentant of serious sin, you will often hear Christians giving reasons why we
shouldn’t in fact avoid this.
The church’s reputation
Firstly, it is often said
that we shouldn’t distance ourselves from any professing Christians, even if
they are unrepentant of grave sins, in order to avoid visible disunity that
would damage the church’s reputation in the non-Christian world.
Of course, it is good to
avoid visible disunity where reasonably possible. In relatively minor matters,
there is a place for agreeing to disagree with other Christians and for
overlooking things.
However, in important
matters, as we have seen, the Bible makes it very clear that we should separate
from those who are in serious sin. It is not that we are unaware of the harm to
the church’s reputation that this might cause. It is just that the harm caused
by closely associating with such people is so much greater.
Trying to change people
There are also believers
who say that it is good to have close fellowship with professing Christians who
are in serious sin so that we can try to change them.
Again, the priority here is
wrong.
It is true that it is sometimes
right for us to discuss things with such people to try to get them to change
their views and practices.
However, we shouldn’t
associate closely with them. The Bible is clear about this, and the dangers are
too great.
More people
Another reason given for
closely associating with professing Christians in sin is so that we will have
more people to do Christian work.
Once again, the priority is
wrong. The problems caused by closely associating with unrepentant professing
Christians far outweigh what we gain by the increase in numbers.
We must bear in mind too
that in God’s economy it is not always the case that more people means better
results. Remember Gideon’s army. At 10,000 strong it was not fit for God’s
purposes. However, when its number had reduced to 300, He was ready to use it
(Judges 7:1-22).
It is the quality of our
relationship with God that is most important, not how many of us there are.
Finance
There are also believers
who approve of close fellowship with unrepentant professing Christians, when
this will solve financial problems.
For example, sometimes the
following sort of situation arises:
A church of devout
Christians has financial difficulties. There is another, wealthier church in
the neighbourhood that is not true to the Bible in all important matters. This
wealthier church is willing to join forces in some ways with the devout church
and help with its financial problems. The devout church agrees to this
arrangement.
Yet again, the priority
here is all wrong. What is most important is for God’s people to remain close
to Him and to move forward spiritually, even if financial difficulties arise. There
are many wealthy churches in the world where spirituality is weak and little is
achieved. On the other hand, there are many materially poor churches, where
much is accomplished.
We would do well to consider
the words of the risen Jesus to the church in Smyrna
“I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich)” (Revelation 2:9).
Here Jesus is contrasting
the material poverty of this church with their spiritual riches.
It is also worth bearing in
mind that once a church has decided to put spiritual matters first, God might choose
to solve its financial problems.
Summing up
None of the above
arguments, then, is at all convincing. Instead of making excuses for not
following biblical teaching, we should do our best to put it into practice.
EXCEPTIONAL SITUATIONS
Despite all that I have
said, it does make sense to think that there may occasionally be exceptional
situations when it would be right to associate closely with professing
Christians who are unrepentant of serious sin:
First, there may be rare occasions
when those in a church who are unrepentant are the majority, and the faithful
minority is not really in circumstances that allow separation. This could be
the situation of the church in Sardis
Second, I think God may occasionally
call Christians to work within a compromised church, to try to change things
from within. This, however, would only be a task for strong, mature believers.
Third, there may be rare occasions
when joining forces with those in serious sin is right because it would open an
important door that would otherwise remain closed.
Even if there are rare
exceptions to the rule, however, we must not allow these to obscure the rule.
As a general principle we should avoid close fellowship with professing
Christians who are unrepentant of serious sins, including those who teach
heresy.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Christians in Western countries
today often closely associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian, even
when they know that that person is unrepentant of serious sin. Similarly, close
fellowship is often offered to churches that teach heresy or condone sinful
behaviour.
However, this willingness
to welcome and put our arms around every professing Christian is far from being
a biblical attitude. The first century believers were taught not to do this,
and the same principle applies to us today.
It is true that there may
occasionally be exceptions to this principle. But unless we are sure that an
exceptional situation has arisen, we should aim to follow biblical teaching in
this area.
See also:
