A friend of mine shared this with many of us on his Facebook time line and I wanted to share it with you. It is from Bob Russell and was copied from http://www.churchleaders.com/ Church Leaders Web site. I hope you share this with those you know!
Occasionally church leaders email me, asking
for my opinion on various personal or church problems. This spring, I received
a note from a church leader in another city. The location isn’t important,
because the situation he outlined is common across the nation.
He wrote of how a number of members ages 25 to
35 had reached the conclusion that premarital sex is “OK.” Some even play on
the praise team, teach in the children’s program, or film videos for weekly
announcements.
“The problem is that some of them will tell me
that they cannot find anything in scripture that says that what they are doing,
having sex with someone, is wrong,” he said. “I have taught on the subject, but
they do not see a direct statement against premarital sex.”
Dealing
with sin.
He asked for other scriptures he can use, as
well as about the church’s stance.
Should it allow them to continue leading
ministries or bring them before the congregation and—as the Bible says—have
nothing to do with them in hopes it will help them see their sin and return to
Christ?
“I know that Satan wants to get in and cause
problems in the church, but I also know the need to accept them and love
them,” he concluded. “But we also have to deal with sin, or Satan wins.”
In my response, I pointed out that the
Bible repeatedly instructs God’s people to “flee fornication.” For 2,000 years,
the word translated “fornication” in Scripture has been understood to include
the prohibition of sex prior to marriage. Webster’s dictionary definition
is clear: “consensual sexual intercourse between two persons not married to
each other.”
A
privileged experience.
God designed the physical union of a man and a
woman as a privileged experience within the bounds of marriage. The Lord
intended marriage as a secure environment for raising children and a uniquely
meaningful union that symbolizes God’s committed relationship to us (Ephesians
5:32).
If there was nothing wrong with premarital
sex, then why was Joseph determined to divorce Mary when he discovered she was
expecting a child prior to marriage?
If there is nothing wrong with premarital sex,
then one could conclude there is nothing wrong with having children out of
wedlock.
Obviously, those who would suggest the liberalization of the
biblical standard are ignoring the clear teaching of Scripture, conforming to
the values of the world, and yielding to the desires of the flesh. As Jesus
said, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
The
church’s responsibility.
Just as I said to this letter
writer, I say to all church leaders: The church has a responsibility to
practice discipline in regard to flagrant, known sin.
This is especially true for
those in leadership. We are to gently confront believers who are known to be
living in sin and encourage them to repent.
In his Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus cautioned us not to attempt to remove a speck from someone else’s eye
without first examining ourselves to make sure there is not a log protruding
from our own. Later, He explained that if the person living in sin doesn’t repent,
then the believer is to take two or three others to confront again. If the
backslider still refuses to change, the issue is to be taken to the church
(Matthew 19:16-17).
The shepherds of the flock
are then to confront in love and encourage restoration to Christ. If the
offender still refuses to repent, he/she is to be treated as an unbeliever.
Removal
option.
The Apostle Paul instructed
the Corinthian church to remove from their fellowship a man who persisted in
living in incest, warning, “With such a man do not even eat” (1 Corinthians
5:11). Now, I know such measures sound harsh in an era of super-tolerance, but
I’ve seen them work very effectively—often in the first stages.
God designed the church to
consist of people who are “called out” from the world. We are to live separate
and holy lives. Unless we practice some measure of church discipline, the
church is in danger of simply reflecting its culture rather than transforming
it.
In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said
if salt loses its saltiness, it is good for nothing except to be cast out and
trodden under men’s feet. This is the present-day danger all church leaders
face.
May we have courage
to point others to the truth instead of settling for the path of least
resistance.
