Romans 16:17-20
“16 Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you. 17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”
As the Lord's Churches, how are we to “mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned”? The Apostle Paul tells us here to avoid them. How so? The correct way and the way the same Apostle taught here and in some of his other letters was through church discipline with excluding those offenders from fellowship and membership with the local church. This has been the practice for Baptist churches since the days of when Jesus spoke of this same matter in His ministry on the earth. To let those who are causing problems in the local congregation continue undisciplined goes against the very commandments of our Lord for His churches.
But notice in verse 16. “The churches of Christ salute you.” Another way to mark them that cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine we have been taught is to let other churches of like faith know of these things. A common practice today is if a person causes problems in one church and is excluded they just go join somewhere else with no questions asked or if questions are asked they are only asked from the side of the offender and the church which they were disciplined from is never consulted. This is a grave problem in the Lord's churches today. This is how the seed of discontent between the Lord's churches is sown and trust and fellowships between churches is broken. All because we didn't follow the scripture as pertaining to church discipline.
The purpose of church discipline is likened unto the parent's discipline of their children. It is a correction for some wrong. It is out of love and hope that one will repent and return into full fellowship. But first there must be reconciliation and repentance. Other churches of like faith, like other parents, are to honor the disciplinary actions of other churches or parents on their own membership or children. How would we feel if we discipline our child for something they had done wrong and another parent whom we were close friends with stepped in and received our child into their family and let them continue on with the wrong we had disciplined them for? Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Of course it does. So why do we think it's okay for the Lord's churches? When we have disciplined someone from our own congregation, how would we feel if another church accepted them into their membership? Is it worth it to lose fellowship with others over such a one?
Just my thoughts this morning.
Praise ye the Lord!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment