What Does It Mean to Disfellowship?

Good afternoon, brethren. It feels really odd coming up here early. I was about ready to pull out the announcements. But actually, Mr. Call and I conferred some time ago, and with the subject matter of our messages, we thought it would be better for me to lead off and him finish up, and I think they're going to blend together, hopefully pretty well. But I'll hold off telling stories. I'm used to getting up here in Ad Living during the announcements, which Sue tells me is one of the worst things I ever do. So I'm going to get right into my message instead. Now, if you talk to a lot of members of the church, especially if you go back in years, you can hear some pretty interesting stories about how people came to know the truth. How they first were introduced, and how they learned about the different teachings that we hold so dear.

I think of one person in particular, I remember years ago hearing him describe how he would sneak out of his home at night, go out the back through the cornfields, and meet his older brother in the middle of a cornfield with a corn up high where no one could see and get booklets and magazines and literature.

Now, the reason for all the secrecy was this particular fellow was Amish, as the older brother had been in the past. So he wanted to learn about what the church taught, but he realized that if the Amish bishops knew that he was reading this stuff, he'd be put out of the church. He would be shunned, is the term I believe they use.

He was taking a substantial risk, so he wanted to be certain that this really was the truth before basically having all of his family and friends permanently cut off contact with him. Now, he's been a member of the church and actually currently is an elder, so he did come to that conclusion. But this Amish practice of shunning is one of the aspects of that religion that I think is most intriguing to people. I've even seen, once again on cable TV, I guess there are so many channels now they've got to fill them up with something, but there have been a number of shows based on that whole concept of people leaving that faith and what a dramatic experience it is, or some even trying to go back and a lot of different things. Where would they get the idea that they have to break off all contact with someone that leaves their religion?

Well, actually, from the Bible. At least their understanding of the Bible. And their understanding is different, but not as different as we might think from some of what we used to do in years past. And some examples do to some degree now, but we didn't use the term shunning, we used the term disfellowship. Catholics and other Orthodox churches use the term excommunication or excommunicate. Now, we don't talk about that doctrine or teaching of disfellowshipment very often.

Matter of fact, I'm not sure if I've ever heard a sermon on the subject, and if so, it's been long enough ago that I don't remember. And I thought, well, that alone provides a good enough reason, perhaps, to talk about it. It's worth asking and trying to answer the questions. What does it mean to disfellowship someone? Why and how is it done? What's the scriptural basis for it? And I could add, has our practice changed in any way? And if so, how and why? But before I go further, I want to make a pretty strong disclaimer.

I was not inspired to speak on this subject because of anything going on here or anywhere else in the church. Absolutely not. So to give an idea, oh, and I wanted to say also, not because there's any change of doctrine being contemplated, at least none that I'm aware of. So let me tell you how the idea did come to me.

It was actually preparing for the days of Unleavened Bread, sweeping out my car. And I've had a lot of sermon and sermonette ideas come while you're doing that. You know, you get, and you're in there, and so your mind tends to run towards spiritual analogies. And of course, you're thinking, okay, what messages can I get out of this?

And I thought about how I was using that vacuum cleaner. And probably a lot of you have done this, and I'll bet it's more of a male trait. But you get so attached to that vacuum, it's a nifty tool, you start pointing that nozzle at everything. You know, I'm going to use this to clean up anything and everything, you know? And it is useful, but you'll tend to use it in things where it might not be the best thing. It reminded me of an old saying. I think I asked Mr. Helterbrand if he'd heard this one.

To a man walking around with a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. That's what the vacuum made me start thinking of, so I thought I'd bring a little visual effect here. And I thought, I wonder if there's a message hiding in that somewhere. Have we as a church had a tool that we've used sort of like the man with the hammer, that everything starts looking like a nail?

Now, disfellowshipping somewhat fits that. At least has at times. And I don't want to go too far. I think the analogy would break down. I don't want to presume that everybody's going around hammering people with being disfellowshipped. But I think there have been times in our history, especially decades ago, when men carrying the hammer might have been a little more quick to use that rather than look for the other tools that were in the toolbox.

Now, that has led some to conclude that the church should never disfellowship anyone for any reason. I don't agree with that. I think just as there are times when the hammer is the appropriate tool, there are times when the practice of disfellowshipping a person is appropriate.

As long as, as I said, we don't become like the man with the hammer thinking everything looks like a nail. So again, we come back to the question. What is disfellowshipping? What should it be? And of course, what does the Bible say? Now, most of us have heard that term, and it's not unfamiliar, but I think most English-speaking people are more familiar with the term excommunication. Several churches that call themselves Christian use that term, but it goes back to Orthodoxy. As a matter of fact, the first Orthodox church, the Roman Catholics, now disfellowship, I'm going to back into this in a sense, but I want to circle around it, disfellowship means to cut off normal participation in church activities and literal fellowship with a person.

Excommunication means that plus excluding the named person from what are called the sacraments administered by the church. Sacraments is a term that we don't use very often. That's why I wanted to back into it. That's what the Catholic church and the other Orthodox churches use to name specific rituals that are administered by a priest. Things like baptism, christening—I know they have seven, and I don't think I've got them all on my list— christening, baptism, marriage, last rites, which they call extreme unction.

I like that term, but most people have no idea what it means. But the most common is what they call communion, taking the bread and the wine, which they, like us, see as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice.

They believe that you could take communion as often as every day. We see it as something we do on Passover. And another thing that we, I think, understand more clearly than they is that Passover—it is best to meet with the congregation and to have the service officiated and administered by an ordained minister. That's the ideal. Yet, we realize that if a person, for health reasons or otherwise, can't meet with the congregation, it's God's participation that matters the most, not an elder. And so we sometimes have people who take the Passover at home.

We have written instructions provided for that, where they pray and ask God to bless the wine, to bless the unleavened bread, and they go through the ceremony. As I said, that's far—I didn't think through how I wanted to say that. That's not the first choice. That's the second, third, or fourth choice. But if you think of that as a possibility, then you could say, we don't have the actual ability to truly excommunicate someone the way Orthodox churches teach.

But all of us working together as a group do have the ability to disfellowship someone, to cut off fellowship. And there's scriptural basis for the practice. Now, there's a variety of interpretations that can be put on some of these scriptures, but let's look at what the Bible has to say about the subject, and we can quickly discern two main reasons for disfellowshipping. If you'll turn to Romans 16, and we'll begin in verse 17.

I'm being conscious that I'd better not drink all the water while I'm up here. In Romans 16 and verse 17, Paul says, Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you've learned, and avoid them. For those who are of such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. Now, we often combine that passage with Paul's admonition to Titus. If you'll flip back to Titus chapter 3. Titus is just before Hebrews. Titus 3, beginning in verse 9. Paul says, Now, this hints at a process, but I don't want to talk about the process right now. We'll come back to that later. But for now, we'll note that a person who teaches false doctrine, or who causes contention, and usually division over doctrine, should be avoided. Now, again, put on hold, if you will, just what that means until after we consider the other reason that a person might be disfellowshipped. And that second reason is what we call well-known and or habitual sin. And by habitual, I mean sin that's ongoing without any real effort at repentance or change. We see this example in Paul's strong address to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I know all the people who've been in the church a long time probably expected me to go here early on. And of course, it's one of the classic cases. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and remember throughout this book, Paul had to strongly correct the Corinthians, and this is the one case where he basically advocated someone being put out of the church. He says, it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you. And such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife, that we would presume stepmother.

And you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. Taken away means excluded from fellowship and participation. For I indeed as absent in body but present in spirit have already judged, as though I were present, him who has done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, delivers such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And if you skip down to verse 13, because that could be a little confusing, it says, those are outside God judges, therefore put away from yourselves the evil person. Now, this is a pretty extreme example, but it certainly demonstrates the idea of fellowshiping. A leader is a person who's sinning and not repenting, and members of the church were instructed by Paul to stop keeping company with him. Now, in the modern era of the church, we've gone through different variations of how we've done this. And I wrote this up partly from my memory of the youth and partly by looking at some old papers. But I remember every now and then being at Sabbath services and hearing the minister say something like this, It is my unpleasant duty to inform you that in accordance with Scripture and our tradition, we sometimes have to announce that certain people have been disfellowshipped. And at this time, Mr. John Doe has been marked. John Doe, meaning not a real person, marked for cause, and we should no longer have normal fellowship with him. The next part is the part that sticks in my memory. The church does not, and you should not, bear any ill will towards Mr. John Doe. Rather, you should pray that God will grant him repentance. Now, some people would be in that situation and couldn't care less if members of the church stopped fellowshipping, if they're going down a lifestyle of sin. But for a person who believes that this truly is the called-out body of Christ, that could be pretty devastating. Being systematically and deliberately excluded from fellowship would hurt and be something you'd want to avoid. Thus, disfellowship can be a pretty powerful tool, just like the hammer. And in the same way, as I said, as a person carrying around the hammer starts seeing every problem looking like a nail, I've got to watch out, I don't see any up here, it'd be easy to get to work, to a pastor wielding the tool of disfellowship, you know, any time a person's causing trouble, they could, you could easily start saying, oh, it's division, it's habitual sin. Now, having said that, I don't want to imply motive for anyone in the past. I'm not aware, personally, of anyone using that tool when it shouldn't have been done or for the wrong reasons. But, you know, I've read articles, actually, in preparing this, I dug out some of my old good news articles, and actually, thanks to Red Ruggles, I've got them going back to the 50s, which is kind of neat to look at some of those. And some of the articles explaining the practice emphasize government, strict compliance.

Enough so that they might have been a little off-balance. But I also went online and read some articles by people who were no longer in our fellowship, explaining why they believe there's no such thing as disfellowship. And I found balance lacking there, and I think denying the Scripture. So we want to have the correct balance and look at what the Bible does say. The United Church of God does have an official policy explaining what we call suspension and or disfellowshipping of individuals.

And like me, I'll bet most of you, if you think about it, haven't heard anything about that very often. And I think that's very good. Actually, I can't help but laugh at typos in my notes. It says, that's very goo. Somehow I left a D out, but when you're talking about disfellowshipping, it's good to get a laugh now and then. So it's not something we use all the time. We're not walking around with hammers pounding nails.

But we should understand the scriptural purpose and teaching for disfellowshipping.

Now, I didn't set out to have a series of twos, but there are two main purposes, two reasons for excluding someone from normal fellowship.

And we could say two goals to accomplish. The first is included in the example that we should still have our Bibles open to. Here in 1 Corinthians 5, we'll see that the goal should be repentance in the person who's disfellowshipped. Look at verse 5. Paul says, Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Now, he's not talking about torture or death, but you could say he's referring to the physical consequences that come from sin, and they can be pretty unpleasant.

But this is always with the goal and intent of the person changing, that they're experiencing something unpleasant, so they say, Oh, I've got to change what I'm doing. If you'll turn back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, I think we'll see that. 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 15.

This is a little less severe sounding than the destruction of the flesh.

2 Thessalonians 3, did I say 15? I meant to start in verse 14. He says, If anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person. I think the old King James says, Mark, which is where we get the term from. And do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet don't count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Here the goal, as I said, isn't physical pain or suffering. It's for the problem to be brought to someone's attention, so that they'll feel guilty, maybe even a little ashamed, or possibly a lot ashamed, and want to make a change. To stop having that feeling. To not be cut off anymore.

Now, who is to do this and how? I want to come to a little bit later. But before we consider that, let's consider the ultimate result that's hoped for. If you'll go back to Corinthians, but this time 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, when Paul wrote his next letter to the church at Corinth, he didn't wait very long before addressing that issue, because a change had happened. And he wanted to address that early on. 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 6.

The punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, is sufficient for such a man. And I'll just tell you, he's speaking about the same person back in 1 Corinthians 5 that we said was disfellowshipped. So, saying the punishment is sufficient. It's worked its goal. It's accomplished what it was meant to do. So that on the contrary, in other words, instead of continuing to fellowship him, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him. Lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you, reaffirm your love to him. For to this end, I also wrote that I might put you to the test whether you're obedient in all things. Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ. Lest Satan take advantage of us. We're not ignorant of his devices. So in other words, when Paul said to deliver the sinner to Satan, again, he didn't mean for torture and an ever-burning hell. God wants to keep us safe from Satan. And repentance will accomplish that.

When we repent, draw close to God, which in James 4, we would say, he says, resist the devil, draw close to God. Those are two sides of the same coin. When you resist the devil, you're drawing close to God. When you're drawing close to God, you're resisting the devil. And that's one of the things we want. The purpose for disfellowshipping, to bring repentance.

There is another one. Another one that's important to do even if the person would not disfellowship. And that's to protect the rest of the congregation. And that comes out particularly in the case of habitual or unrepentant sin. We want to be...let me start saying that again. We want to be sure that we realize that that behavior is harmful. Eventually, it leads to eternal death.

If the church tolerates it, it says, oh, it doesn't matter that you're carrying on that way. It sends the message that, okay, that is all right. And other people might begin to follow that unhealthy example.

That's where the matter of how well known the sin is, is important.

We could say, if any of us, any of us, it could be me, could commit a sin, repent, be forgiven, and it's over. It's between me and God, and nobody else has to know about it. And I thought, come and think of it, a person could sin and not repent, and if nobody else knows, it's still between that person and God.

And by that, I want to emphasize, it's not the job of the church or any of its members to go searching for people's sins. We don't do that. And I've told people when I counsel for baptism, I don't want you to come and confess to me. I want you to confess to God and repent and change.

But, you know, the need to disfellowship someone to protect the congregation occurs when a sin is known, when it's out there, and if it's just tolerated, as was happening in Corinth, it implies that it's okay. You start getting puffed up. Look how tolerant we are.

The other thing the congregation has to be protected from is false doctrines.

False doctrines that could lead people into unhealthy beliefs or sin, especially when they cause division.

And when that false doctrine or division is coming from a trusted source, it's especially important. That's what Paul meant when he told Titus. I think we read this earlier. Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure. In Titus 3, verse 9, I want to read it again. So you can just let me read it if you don't want to exercise your fingers.

Titus 3, 9, avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, strivings about the law. They're unprofitable and useless, so reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing such a person as warped and sinning, being self-condemned. Now, verse 9 and 10 aren't unconnected, or I should say disconnected, two separate things.

He's saying that the division is caused by these foolish disputes about the law. People can get upset and go on a stray. Now, I want to stop and say, does that mean there's no room for differences of opinion within the Church of God? Are we not to discuss the different meanings of Scripture? Of course not. That's not our goal. Matter of fact, one of the best programs we've had here recently is the roundtable discussions that Mr. Call started, where we discuss the meaning of Scripture. Matter of fact, we had great success with the interactive Bible studies that we've done in the in-home groups. Matter of fact, I'll comment. I appreciate those of you a couple years ago when we were going through James. I'm using those notes now to help me prepare for teaching class next fall. The research I put in and then the input from the others has been a lot of help. The trouble is when a person has a different teaching or understanding that he or she feels that he must convince others to accept. I know people like to discuss different things like when and where is the marriage supper? What and where is the place of safety? Should or shouldn't Christians ever pay to eat at a restaurant? And it goes on and on. We could probably come up with dozens of different subjects. And we don't need to squelch sharing of ideas or thoughts. We do need to prevent some members condemning others for their beliefs or assumptions. We need to prevent the creation of sub-sex within the church, based on contentions and striving about the law. Let me give you an example that I became aware of several years ago before I was in this area. There was a congregation where there were a few men who had some different opinions, different understandings about the sacred calendar, and also strong ideas of what the church should be teaching concerning some prophecies around Christ's return. Now, for a long time, it wasn't a problem. The men got together, and there were several, and they would sit around a table, before and after services, drinking coffee and eating cookies and discussing things, and people would come in and out of the circle. And the pastor was aware of it and didn't see any harm. People were discussing different ideas.

Until, over time, some of the men started becoming more aggressive and teaching others about certain beliefs, especially when it came to alternate dates for Holy Days. They even came to the point of inviting members of the congregation to join them on another date at an alternate commemoration. Well, eventually, well, before I get to...that was one reason to put a stop to that.

It also came to where the men would come together before services, getting their conversation. Oh, you know, it gets to where it's like 225, let's move in for services. But they would stay there and actually carry on their conversation all through, instead of going and joining services.

Things were going too far. The pastor went to them privately and asked them to stop. Stop doing what had become divisive behavior. Now, I learned that he did not insist they change their views. He said, you're going to believe what you believe, and the policy of the United Church of God is anyone who wants to meet peaceably is welcome to meet with us, peaceably. But we can't have people come in and start teaching differences. We can't have division. Well, some of the men couldn't or wouldn't keep quiet. So, eventually, the pastor had to ask them, well, okay, then we need to ask you to stop coming to services. It's causing a problem.

Now, even then, there was never an announcement. The only way I learned about it was later speaking to a family member of one of the men. I had no idea that was going on. It makes an interesting story. And that leads directly to my next point that I want to discuss. And I think this reflects some of the maturity that we come to in the Church. The recognition that not every problem is a nail that needs hammered. There are different tools that can be used. And we tend to think of fellowship or not fellowship as solely a matter of church government. That it's the minister who suspends someone or who disfellowships them. And sometimes it happens that way. And sometimes it should happen that way. I mean, we have a policy for a reason, but fortunately it's a pretty rare occurrence. And I hope it stays a very rare occurrence. I don't know how long it's been since I've heard one of those announcements. And I know I've never made one. I think the most I've had to do is ask some members to refrain from coming to services until a problem was worked out. I think what happens most often now is probably what Paul meant to happen in most cases. And that is, on an ongoing basis, members of God's Church themselves choose who to fellowship with and not to. And eventually, if enough people realize someone's causing a problem, don't fellowship with them so much. Or at all. Let's go back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. That reminds me, we had May the 4th recently. If you're Star Wars fans, my version of May the 4th, Be With You, sounds like the thing from the movie only with a lift, which I'm not good at doing. 2 Thessalonians 3. Let's get back on topic.

Paul doesn't name an individual here. He just says, you could say, if you notice a Christian's not behaving as he should, withdraw. Don't spend time with him.

Along those lines, let's go back to the scripture that we started with. In Romans 16 verse 17, I deliberately didn't discuss it further at the time, but Romans 16 and verse 17 says a similar thing. I urge you, brethren, note or could say mark those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you've learned and avoid them. Someone's causing divisions, not walking the right way. Avoid them. It's interestingly not an instruction to make a report to the pastor or even for him to make any sort of public proclamation to cut off contact with whoever's doing this. It says, notice if someone has some of these unpleasant traits and then for your own good, don't spend time with them. Now, and I want to be careful to make sure that I say there are times when the pastor might need to make an announcement and share with others, but in a lot of cases, perhaps not. Solomon gave some similar advice. I'm going to turn back to Proverbs chapter 14. Now, this isn't speaking about fellowship in the church or not, but I think it's a principle that should guide us in how we spend time with anyone. Proverbs 14 and verse 7, Solomon said, go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge. So just don't hang out with a foolish man. Go away from him. Don't fellowship with him. Across the page of my Bible is Proverbs 13 and verse 20. This is one of my favorite scriptures. It says, he who walks with wise men will be wise. You're going to be affected by the people you spend company with.

So spend time with wise men, but the companion of fools will be destroyed. That's something I'll probably want to teach my boy when he gets to be a teenager, especially. Teenage boys tend to quickly become fools in certain senses, and you spend time with ones that have that, you can get that way. Putting that principle to work, deciding who you fellowship with and how much, that would lead us to stop spending time with someone who might be or want to be a member of the church who's behaving badly or who's trying to convince us of a false teaching. I thought of an imaginary scenario. Now I made this up out of the clear blue sky. I'm hoping... well, I hope it's not something that ever happened, but imagine you've made a friend in the congregation and he invites you over to his house after Sabbath services one day. So you accept, you go over, and you discover that actually he wanted someone to come and watch a college football game with him. And you go, ah, that's not really what I had in mind. Now, I know there might be varying opinions among us as to if and how much your TV should be turned on during the Sabbath, so I don't want to get into discussing that, but most of us aren't going and watching football games. Say, if this happened, probably wouldn't take very many times, one or two or three times, and you realize this guy wants... you know, besides going to church on the Sabbath, he spends all the rest of his time watching sports on TV, you probably would not accept invitations to his home. You would withdraw. You'd start avoiding. And, matter of fact, you probably would tend to not spend time on other days, either. You wouldn't necessarily feel the need to publicly mark him and make an announcement, but you may want to talk to him to explain that you're not sure that he's understanding how this whole Sabbath thing works.

Now, I'll come back to that in a moment, but I imagine the same fellow progresses from watching the games on the Sabbath to taking a part-time job at the stadium so he can watch in person. I'm pretty sure all of us know we draw the line there. Working on the Sabbath isn't what we do. If you do consider him a friend, at least by then you would probably be doing what it describes in Matthew 18.

Matthew 18 and verse 15, Moreover, if your brother sins against you, and I've heard some people discuss, well, you could just say, if he sins, period, we don't need to worry about that right now, but say he's got a problem, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. So explain to him. I'm uncomfortable with this. I think you're hurting yourself. And if he hears you, you've gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

What if he still won't listen? Well, it progresses from there. In verse 17, if he refuses to hear them, that's you and two or three others, or one or two others, tell it to the church. Now, well, I'll finish. If he refuses to hear, even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. I've heard different opinions and even some scholarly explanations of what tell it to the church means. On one hand, there's the opinion that that means go to the ordained ministry.

On the other hand, some people say, no, it means tell it to the church literally to all the members. Fortunately, for my purpose today, I don't have to decide on one side or the other, because I'm going to assume it goes on to where he won't listen in either case. So, what do you do then? Do you stand up and make an announcement?

In accordance with Scripture and our tradition, sometimes we have to announce that certain people have been disfellowshipped. Well, that's not what Jesus says here. Jesus doesn't say specifically that. What he does say is treat him as a heathen and a tax collector. What does that mean? What's a heathen or a tax collector? Well, I presume that it means treat him as someone who's not a member of the church.

He's acting that way. He's acting like he's not a member of the church. He won't heed instruction or admonition. So, treat him as though he's not a member. Now, in this case, it's not hard to do. Matter of fact, I figure the guy is going and working at the stadium on Sabbath. He stopped coming to church and all those other things. So, in some cases, it's not difficult at all. And I'd say his decisions and lifestyles will lead you to not... I probably wouldn't invite him to join your family for the night to be much observed. Probably wouldn't invite him over from any other functions, at least not in the activities that are for members of the church.

But what I wanted to circle around to is, does that mean you can have no contact whatsoever? Do you need to shun that person? Interesting thought. Now, for most of us, the no contact will happen naturally. Right? He stopped coming to church. If you don't work together or whatever, you just don't have contact. But my thought is, is that a command from the Bible? Let's look again at Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 5. I think this might shed a little light on it. 1 Corinthians 5. As I said, I'm not dismissing that sometimes the hammer has to be used, but I'm making the point that maybe it doesn't always have to be used in a certain way, or it might not extend to certain things.

1 Corinthians 5 and verse 9, and this is after addressing the fellow that he says, put him out, I wrote to you in an epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet, I certainly didn't mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with covetous or extortioners or idolaters, since you would need to go out of the world. If the rule is you can't have any contact with people who commit sin, you better set up a Mars colony, because everyone does sin. But now I've written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who's sexually immoral or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person.

What do I have to do with judging those who are outside? Meaning, non-church members? Paul says, I'm not judging them. Don't you judge those who are inside? Those who are outside? God judges. But put away the evil person. In other words, you might move the person from inside to outside if they're an evil person.

And in a sense, it seems to be describing a little bit of a double standard. If someone wants to be considered a member of the church and fellowship with us as such, he needs to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. And we welcome that type of fellowship. If a person doesn't want to do that, if they leave our fellowship, then we don't necessarily judge or condemn that person.

We probably will say, I wish you weren't doing that. But I don't see a command to shun that person. Of course, those principles of Proverbs would still apply. Go from someone that doesn't have, when you don't perceive wisdom, walk with wise person. My thought, I believe a person who's led by the Holy Spirit within him, someone who's seeking God's kingdom, will spend most of his time with and be close as friends with those who are also filled with God's Spirit in seeking that.

Speaking for myself, I just can't imagine having a close friend who's not in God's church. I haven't had such a friend since I was in junior high school. And it's not that I look down my nose and I despise people, but you build close friendships with people you have the most in common with, with shared experiences. So I'm good friends with people that I might see at the Feast of Tabernacles, people I know are keeping the Sabbath, and, you know, how did your D-11ing go, and things like that.

My next-door neighbors, we have some things in common, but I'll probably never get to be real close friends with them. And it's not that they're bad people. They seem to be pretty nice. Now, there is a different category of people that it's worth addressing, having said all this. What about your family? You do have some connection to them, a very close one.

What if a member of your family leaves the church, or never was in? What if a person gets caught up in sin, or in causing division, and is asked to not attend church services? Now, there are some that might say, bring down the hammer. You know, the Amish have it correct. But I don't see it that way, and I don't think that's the teaching of United. I haven't seen that in our official policy. I would see it as a need to do what it says in Matthew 18.

That we do go to that person when it's early enough to do that, and if that person continues, then you treat him or her as a non-church member. You don't have to call him heathen and tax collector. That was the vernacular of the day. But, okay, you're choosing to not be a member of God's church. I'll treat you as not a member of the church, but not by shunning and never speaking, but as a different type of relationship. It might not be as close a relationship as it was. And that's something I've been accustomed to.

It's the way it is with me and my sister. She left the fellowship of the church so long I'd have to take off my shoes to count. And it's similar for Sue and her older brothers. They were raised in the church, decided to leave. There's no shunning going on. But it's the relationship as though they're not church members, but they are still family. Your brother is your brother. Your children are your children and always will be.

And I'm very glad that's the case. I mean, I've had this discussion informally with people, and I think it's something, as I said, we've matured as a church. It's that I think there are some in other organizations that see it a bit differently, but I don't want to get into that discussion or point at others. As I wrap up, I wanted to say again I didn't feel the need to address this subject because of any problem that I'm aware of. So if you feel like I'm talking to you, blame God, not me.

As I said, I really got this idea while I was sweeping out my car. But as with all aspects of Christianity, it's something we should understand. It is something in the Bible. But after having spent this much time talking about who to not fellowship with, I'd like to encourage all of us to note those among us who are not divisive. Note those who don't walk disorderly or cause division.

And hopefully that's pretty much all of us. And let's make a point to not avoid them. We need the fellowship and encouragement that comes from spending time together. So we need fellowship with our fellow Christians, and let's not neglect that.