How do we approach brothers and sisters in Christ who boast of their sin?

yeshuaslavejeff said:

Pair a Dox

Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return.


Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

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That doesn't say we should appoint non Christians as leaders in our outreach programs. I'm not suggesting that they're enemies, but it is totally inappropriate to condone pretense. You do not assign people who are not in the church with any responsibility for preaching the gospel.

Al Touthentop said:

That doesn't say we should appoint non Christians as leaders in our outreach programs. I'm not suggesting that they're enemies, but it is totally inappropriate to condone pretense. You do not assign people who are not in the church with any responsibility for preaching the gospel.

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I agree. The paradox is that .... what IS done is not in line with Scripture, and instead is contrary to Scripture. What is totally wrong and inappropriate is frequently , all too frequently, done, even 'officially', by leaders, boards, etc ....

yeshuaslavejeff said:

I agree. The paradox is that .... what IS done is not in line with Scripture, and instead is contrary to Scripture. What is totally wrong and inappropriate is frequently , all too frequently, done, even 'officially', by leaders, boards, etc ....

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We concur!

Why didn't I concur?

How do we approach brothers and sisters in Christ who boast of their sin?

The answer is Jesus!! but what do I mean?

Jesus said His sheep hear His voice - that should be us!
Jesus said He is always with us and would never leave us - so you can talk to Him about anything!
Paul explained He took all thoughts captive to Jesus Christ!
Jesus said He did and said only what the Father told Him, and prayed we would be one with Him like He was one with the Father!

So the answer is always Jesus, meaning that when we have a question we need to ask Him!

Ok - lets give give some examples:

What church should you go to?
Answer - The church Jesus Christ tells you to go to!

What store should you go to?
Answer - The store Jesus Christ tell you to go to!

So - what do you do when you run across any sinner?
You ask the Lord your God how He wants it handled!

And guess what - you find out that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God - meaning you. All unrighteousness is sin, and since the right thing to do is to seek the Lord and listen to Him, we sin when we go to a church the Lord didn't ask us to. We sin when we try to handle a problem we see in another person without seeking the Lord, also.

In a nut shell - we are sinners in need of Jesus Christ. His mercy, grace, and forgiveness covers all that failing to seek Him and us doing that first! But that does not change what we should do! We should seek first the Kingdom of God, which includes the King of kings and Lord of lords - and He is call the Great I AM, and His name is called "The Word of God" (not our Bible but Him). So He is always with us and always willing to talk to us, but who is seeking Him?

There is a statement that goes - "If you have to ask"

We do have to ask Him, but if we are asking others what to do are we missing something.

Note: I am not saying we shouldn't get others thoughts also. He works through others. So maybe I seem a bit harsh on this, but others sin and so do we. Our problem often is that we see the speck in the other persons eye and miss the log jam in our own. And that is why we need to make it a habit of seeking Him, instead of a habit of worrying about the other person's sin. So, point everyone to Him, and what better thing can you do for them. If they listen and seek Him you have helped them. If they didn't, you at least gave them good advice that perhaps you too will listen to, because you know what the good advice is.

K2K said:

How do we approach brothers and sisters in Christ who boast of their sin?

The answer is Jesus!! but what do I mean?

Jesus said His sheep hear His voice - that should be us!
Jesus said He is always with us and would never leave us - so you can talk to Him about anything!
Paul explained He took all thoughts captive to Jesus Christ!
Jesus said He did and said only what the Father told Him, and prayed we would be one with Him like He was one with the Father!

So the answer is always Jesus, meaning that when we have a question we need to ask Him!

Ok - lets give give some examples:

What church should you go to?
Answer - The church Jesus Christ tells you to go to!

What store should you go to?
Answer - The store Jesus Christ tell you to go to!

So - what do you do when you run across any sinner?
You ask the Lord your God how He wants it handled!

And guess what - you find out that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God - meaning you. All unrighteousness is sin, and since the right thing to do is to seek the Lord and listen to Him, we sin when we go to a church the Lord didn't ask us to. We sin when we try to handle a problem we see in another person without seeking the Lord, also.

In a nut shell - we are sinners in need of Jesus Christ. His mercy, grace, and forgiveness covers all that failing to seek Him and us doing that first! But that does not change what we should do! We should seek first the Kingdom of God, which includes the King of kings and Lord of lords - and He is call the Great I AM, and His name is called "The Word of God" (not our Bible but Him). So He is always with us and always willing to talk to us, but who is seeking Him?

There is a statement that goes - "If you have to ask"

We do have to ask Him, but if we are asking others what to do are we missing something.

Note: I am not saying we shouldn't get others thoughts also. He works through others. So maybe I seem a bit harsh on this, but others sin and so do we. Our problem often is that we see the speck in the other persons eye and miss the log jam in our own. And that is why we need to make it a habit of seeking Him, instead of a habit of worrying about the other person's sin. So, point everyone to Him, and what better thing can you do for them. If they listen and seek Him you have helped them. If they didn't, you at least gave them good advice that perhaps you too will listen to, because you know what the good advice is.

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I think the answers to those questions are ... if you can say ‘amen’ from within then you are in the right place.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns with us. I’m truly sorry for the situation you are going through. For one hand it is good that you want to be coherent with your faith and give a coherent testimony. But for the other, we need to understand that in order to follow Jesus involves that you have a meeting with Him, that you know Him, and want to feel, think and act like Him. Only God is the just judge. It is understandable that you are concerned of your fellow leaders and you are right when you say that it is not our role to judge others however, we can pray for them that they can see the light of truth in their life, repent and turn to God. It is good to have a good discernment of the human works but maybe for focusing in others weaknesses or vices we can suffer from distractions in our own conversion. All of us are sinners and I encourage you to focus in your conversion. We are not better than them just because they suffer from drunkenness, but yet we as individuals have our own sins and weaknesses to worry about. Remember that Jesus always treated sinners with pity and compassion. He never judges them. He came to the world for the lost sheep than for the 99 righteous. He is a God of a second chances. He asks us to do the same. If you read His Sacred Word, God asks us mercy and no sacrifices. We can address this situation by giving a coherent example and most importantly working in our conversion or testimony. Maybe you can be the only Gospel that they can read through you. Please my sister in faith, I encourage you to pray with all your heart that Jesus can give you more humility, patience, mercy and discernment to treat others as He did and that can make a big difference. I hope this helps. Sending you hugs. I will keep you in my prayers, my friend in Christ. God bless you!