Exclusion

'But now I’m writing to you so that you would exclude from your fellowship anyone who calls himself a fellow believer and practices sexual immorality, or is consumed with greed, or is an idolater, or is verbally abusive or a drunkard or a swindler. Don’t mingle with them or even have a meal with someone like that. What right do I have to pronounce judgment on unbelievers? That’s God’s responsibility. But those who are inside the church family are our responsibility to discern and judge. So it’s your duty to remove that wicked one from among you.' 1 Corinthians 5:11-13 (TPT) 

If it is written in the Word by Paul, then we should consider what he is saying and do it. 

Don't these words appear to contradict what we are called by God to do? Love the sinner and hate the sin! And yet, Paul writes these words to warn us, that we are not to mingle with or even have a meal with a fellow believer that is a practicing sinner. We all sin, yet, it is our duty to discern and judge and remove the wicked ones in the church family from among us. Remove them, regardless of world view, or even what the culture says is acceptable and condones. It should be our heartfelt desire to have significance over success and by establishing that ours will always be a God that demands holiness over substance and exclusivity over popularity or selfish gain we become the wanderers along life's narrow road, the road less traveled, the people set apart for the hard work of a Holy God.

We do not judge a man's heart for we cannot know what is in a person's heart, only God can know that, but we can judge them by their fruit. That which I speak is in regard to the forgotten and very hard Doctrine of Church Discipline.

Let's call it what it is, Church discipline is an act of exclusion, meant to expose the sin among us. It is a matter of great importance to the family of believers. It's the way the Church body protects the name of Jesus. His name is Great. His people are called by that Great Name. Jesus.

Exclusion is, therefore, an act of love toward the brother or sister that has fallen into sin. Sin, we all deal with our own sins on a daily basis, but this is meant as an act to save, in hopes that the offending party will repent and be reconciled back to God and His Body.

Exclusion, is an act to preserve the purity, and to protect the innocent, as sin not removed, sometimes spreads quickly like a disease or a flood to infect and to destroy. The disease is sin and it is specific. We are told to exclude the one that ought to know better, the believer  that practices sexual immorality, or the one consumed with greed, including the idolator, the verbal abuser, the drunkard and the swindler. In eash case, this sin has been taken to the next step by the sinner and they have crossed over the line. When we fail to address these acts of sin in the body, we are failing our obligations. To fail is to appear weak. When we fail one another we fail God. This type of failure just might lead us to where we are today, an unhealthy Church.

An unhealthy Church affects our witness to the nations. How harmful it is to face a church split such as the one we see now happening to the second largest church denomination in America, The United Methodist. I grew up in this church. This hurts me personally. Our fathers knew best, they made the tough decisions to protect our sacred honor and they followed the very Word of God that they proclaimed to believe. They addressed the sins of their day and it seemed to result in less of it. We should do likewise.

Dear Father. Redeem and restore back to us what the enemy has stolen. Bring to justice the liar and the thief. We pray for purity. We pray for healing. We pray for strong leaders in the Church. We pray for Holiness. We pray for the kind of believers that are sold out and on fire for You. We pray for the United Methodist Church. We pray for the Spiritual health of the United States of America. We pray for the eyes of the Church to be opened again to Your Word! Truth! Wisdom! Power! We will not bend the knee to secular humanism. Lives and souls are at stake. Raise up a Standard that we can believe in. His name is Jesus. We will honor You with our lives. In Jesus's name. Amen.

Source: 'Drummingthemessagehome', January 25, 2020 blog post.