What does it mean for us to "not accept any amount of outward sin" for someone who isn't even in our church? Who is asking us if we accept it? How can we every know enough to be sure that we are judging wisely?nett wrote: ↑Sat Dec 17, 2022 5:40 pmA few things about this specifically.Bootstrap wrote: ↑Sat Dec 17, 2022 5:03 pm If someone is outside our church, we know that people in the world are worldly, but we are not called to be their judges, to sit in judgement on them, to tell them that we are too pure to have anything to do with them. ( Again, this needs to be compared to other passages that raise concerns about who we associate with. )
Just because someone is not in our local church does not mean we should accept any amount of outward sin, even if their congregation is not dealing with it. I think our first and foremost duty is to the local church, and there are bands of responsibility that radiate out from there. The further removed someone is from our daily life and locale, the harder it is for us to judge their spiritual state accurately, and the more cautious and gracious I believe we should be. But that does not mean an automatic get-out-of-jail-free card.
You don't want them to have a get-out-of-jail-free card. But what authority do we have to put them in any jail? Or act as judge and jury for them?
I think Paul is saying they simply aren't in our jursdiction when he says this:
We have neither competence nor authority to judge them. God is their judge. (1 Corinthians 6 has more to say about jurisdiction, FWIW. )For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
What does this passage say about these questions?nett wrote: ↑Sat Dec 17, 2022 5:40 pmRegarding judging unbelievers, liberals have a great deal to say about what they perceive as injustice in the world, for instance, slavery, racism, hate crimes, the list goes on and on. Yet, to show the obvious evil that is the LGBT agenda is immediately met with objections of not judging unbelievers.
Personally I believe that this behavior is explained by Jonathan Haidt's research on liberal vs conservative minds, and finding that liberal minds are unbalance and underdeveloped in 3/5 moral foundations. Still, from a Christian perspective, this must not happen. Christians are allowed to call out evil when they see it. it's not the same as judging a fellow believer who is living in sin, it's merely speaking the reality of what is happening, which is one of the things Christians are supposed to do.
Reminder:
I would like to request that people in this thread follow these rules:
1. We will focus on this passage. We will use other threads for other passages.
2. We will start by asking and answering simple answers about what the passage says - objective things that we expect we can probably agree on.
3. We will talk about the text, not about other people.
4. We will focus on how we apply the text ourselves, not on how other people should. But we will start by understanding what the text meant when Paul wrote it before we go on to application.