I tend to believe that words are only as concise as understood by the listener. Even if every word I use is correct by definition it is a waste of time unless my listener understands what I mean. It is kind of like I used to tell my wife. You need to hear what I mean and not what I say.
The words church and brethren are more intimate to me than father, mother, wife,or chrilren.
Mat 12:48 But he answered and said unto him that told him,
Who is my mother? and
who are
my brethren?
Mar 3:33 And he answered them, saying,
Who is my mother, or
my brethren?
Mat 12:50For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Church discipline starts in our house.As the married head of a House church, I am expected by God to adhere to his word and am accountable to him. When my children became adults with there own minds and monies I had to depart from them because they turned to the world for a time even as I have done in the past.
It was a painfull purging and caused my wife much heartach, I still consider them brethren but we do not have close fellowship. We must all learn to fear God.
Act 5:1 But a certain man named
Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
Act 5:3 But Peter said,
Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back [part] of the price of the land?
Act 5:5 And
Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
Wow,
It is amazing how much misinformation is out there regarding the practice. I think people watch too much TV
When we avoid something or someone we are shunning it. Its the strongest tool of church discipline.
2Ti 2:16 But shun profane [and] vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
1Cr 10:20 But I [say], that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
2Cr 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Eph 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove [them].
1Jo 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth
1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
The purpose of shunning is to impress the unrepentant sinner to return to the Lord by establishing limits and boundaries on them. Shunning is the opposite of licentiousness, not the opposite of love and acceptance. By setting and enforcing limits on a person, you encourage them to behave appropriately. It's a lot more unloving to just let them do whatever they want without discipline. It's like letting an errant child continue doing something bad--eventually, they are going to hurt themselves or someone else if they don't learn to stop.
You don't bother shunning someone you don't love.
I've been part of a church that had to shun a small group of women for immoral behavior because they had determined in their own hearts that a) God wants us to be happy and anything that makes you happy is good, and b) they didn't want to repent.
Their sin made the whole congregation sick and we lost many longterm members because of them. By going through the process of dealing with their sin culminating in shunning them when they refused to repent, we showed them how much we cared about them--too much to let them continue to harm themselves.
All but one of those women eventually repented and returned to the congregation.
Shunning is a last resort, and it works!
I think placing first emphasis on the hearer to understand messages is very selfish. We need to have the humility and incarnational and missional attitude (Phil 2:5-7) that speaks into the worlds and understandings of others using their own langauge and conceptions.
Here we seen to be mature adult christians, and can understand the meanings of banning, shunning and avoiding.
I think that if people realized it wasn't an act of hatred or exclusion, but a request for the person to change their mind and adhere to the rules of the community, it would make more sense to them.
Shunning isn't a permanent exile, it's a temporary sanction.
The emphasis should be on communicating with our listener and using language they understand. This is the point I was trying make. It doesn't matter how correct our use of a term is unless those we are speaking to understand what we are saying. It can be summed up in the phrase.
Understanding your audience.
Cat, I wasn't trying to pick a fight. I don't know why this has to become an agrument.
I was saying that a church shouldn't ignore sin, any kind of sin.
I editted my post so it wouldn't upset you.
Sin is to know to do right and not do it.
Love one another
brother daniel
