Oh, the grasp that our Enemy can have. Oh, the devastation our own evil human nature can cause. How painful to really see the heart-deadening, Truth-hiding, entirely entangling, numbing effect of sin. Sure, sin is all around us and within us. We must live in a constant state of awareness, of turning from our sin to our Savior. But tonight our church was faced with the serious wreckage of a selfish, unrepentant heart.
I've never before had the unsettling, eye opening experience of participating in our Lord's plan for church discipline in this way. I'll admit, I've even wondered if it really takes place anywhere anymore. The plan I'm referring to is laid out for us in Matthew 18, specifically verses 15-17:
15"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector."
This evening, our church was forced to take that last step with one of our own who has been unrepentantly engaged in a specific sinful behavior for an entire decade. All other steps to call him to repentance had been followed to no avail. He's to be cut off from fellowship (not hated on or treated badly, but rather regarded as an unbeliever) in hopes that the consequences of his sin may lead him to turn back to Christ...and in order to preserve the purity of the Body. Wow.
Tonight I feel amazingly humbled and protected and thankful to know that I belong to a local body that takes accountability and repentance seriously. I also feel overwhelmed with thankfulness for the gift of God's voice in my own life, for the saving grace of His hand on me, for His undeniable call that has fairly recently brought me back from my own dark season of sin and hardness of heart, for His very Spirit in me that is the only reason I could see beyond my own selfish desires enough to long for Him again. I don't know why, but in the darkness I heard Him call my name. It wasn't what I wanted to hear. He wasn't what my evil heart wanted to cling to. Yet His pull on my soul was undeniable and irresistible.
I'm lost tonight in the thought that this unrepentant heart we mourned over tonight could so easily have been my own. This family, destroyed by one person's selfishness, left to pick up the pieces and pray for eventual repentance, could have been my own sweet family. How much further would I have had to walk for God to turn me over to my sin? How many times does He call our name before He lets us suffer the full consequences of our sin without the fellowship of the Body? I have a new awareness tonight of the real and terrible danger of sin in the life of the believer. And a corresponding determination to flee from even the most "harmless" offenses.
Let's not fool ourselves, dear friends. Christ is indeed victorious, but the prince of this world does not merely sit back and sulk in defeat. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (I Peter 5:8) Don't let it be you!
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3 comments:
I didn't know that there were still churches out there that practiced this way? I know that is how the Bible says to do it....but I didn't realize some still did.
Wow... it is painful to see a believer turn their back.
That was me about 10 years ago. Just continue to pray. KNOW that this person will come face to face with God again and again. Whether they will allow Him to catch them... that is another thing. But we hope... and stand firm in love even at a distance.
Okay already....I'm missing you!
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