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10/25/2022

What is my responsibility in dealing with a believer in sin?

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Have you ever heard someone say, or even been told yourself, don't judge me? the Bible says not to judge others. As much as they are correct that the Bible does say not to judge others, it is not the correct context. The world is beginning to yell louder and louder that we are not to judge, but what is it that the Bible actually says?  What is the Christian's responsibility to seek out a believer living in sin?
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First off, Paul tells us that we are not to cast judgement on those outside the church, but that ​it is actually the responsibility of the believers to judge those inside the church. 

  • 1 Corinthians 5:12 -- 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

Why are we to judge those inside the church? Because the end goal of believers is sanctification, becoming more and more like Christ. ‌This is difficult on our own, and so we need fellow believers to help us out and push us towards living like Christ. 
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  • Proverbs 14:12 -- “12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

Humans are able to justify our actions, and we can make a lot of things that are wrong seem right. But in the end, those actions lead to death, and so we need fellow believers to step in and point out our folly, pointing us back to Jesus. 
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So, what is my responsibility to seek out a believer living in sin?
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The first thing that we have to do is check our own hearts. That was the point of Jesus in Matthew 7. 

  • Matthew 7:3-5 -- 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Before we go and we point out what the other person is doing wrong, we need to inspect our own lives and hearts and make sure that we are living according to God's Word.

​We also check our hearts to make sure that we are seeking the person's best. The goal is restoration and sanctification, not us proving ourselves wrong or molding them into living according to our standard. ​
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During Jesus walk on earth, disagreements with Pharisees, who were the religious elite that put laws on other people that they themselves were not willing to live up to. In Matthew 23, Jesus gives the Pharisees 7 woes, and one of them was that they don't do the very thing they tell others to do. 
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  • Matthew 23:3-4 -- “3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”
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Jesus calls them hypocrites, following manmade traditions (and holding others to that standard) rather than following God. 
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So the first step to always start with is to pray that God reveal your heart and work in your own heart first. 
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We are told to make sure that everything we do be guided by love. 
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  • Ephesians 4:15 -- “15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,” — must speak truth in love
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After you have prayed about your heart and the situation, it might be worth looking to see if you are able to overlook the situation. This is more in the sense of an offense, not in sin. We are called to point out sin, but often we are offended and it may not actually be sin, we took offense to something. 

  • Proverbs 19:11 -- and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

If you are not able to overlook the situation, or if it is sin that needs to be addressed, you are commanded to go to that person. Too often, we want to go to someone else and talk with them about it. Often we can do this under the disguise of seeking guidance or venting, but God's Word doesn't give us room to do this. Instead, God gives warnings against taking part in this type of discussion. 

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  • Proverbs 18:8 -- “8 The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.”
  • Proverbs 26:17 -- 17 Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. 
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Jesus gives us instructions on how we are to handle these situations in Matthew 18. 
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  • Matthew 18:15 -- “15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”
  • Galatians 6:1-5 -- “1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.”
  • James 5:19-20 -- “19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” 
  • Luke 17:3 -- “3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,” 
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Paul modeled this for us when Peter [Cephas] was behaving differently around the Greeks as he was around the Jews. 
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  • Galatians 2:11-14 -- “11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?””
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We are called as believers to help hold each other accountable and walk according to God's Word. This is why it is important to be involved in Biblical community. We all desire to be fully known, and the best way to do that is to live in Biblical Community, doing life together. 
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  • James 5:16 -- “16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
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Through all of this, we need to see the common goal, which is not having other people become more like we are, but having other people becoming more like Christ (sanctification). Too often we want people to measure up to our standards, but it is God who sets the standard for us. 
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Jesus went on in Matthew 18 to tell us that after we have gone to them, if they refuse to listen to us, then we are to go and bring someone else with us to them. 

  • Matthew 18:16 -- 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If they still refuse to listen, then you are to bring it before the church, and then if they refuse to listen to the entire church, then it is time to cut off ties with them and treat them as if they were unbelievers. 

  • Matthew 18:17 -- 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.‌
  • 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 -- “9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.””
  • Titus 3:10 -- “10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,” 
  • 1 Timothy 5:20 -- “20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.” 
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A lot of times, the initial instincts are to go to someone else or to write the person off completely. This is the easy thing to do, not the right thing. God's Word tells us that we are to go directly to the person, and the final step ​after everything else is that we cut the person off, for their benefit. ‌The goal of all of this is sanctification
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  • Hebrews 12:11 -- “11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
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The last thing that we must do through all of this is we must walk in grace, just as God gives us grace. 
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  • 2 Corinthians 5:19 -- “19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
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We do not cast stones, we seek the persons best relationship with God. We do everything possible to help them in this. But, in order for this to happen, we must REPENT, turn from our sin and turn to Jesus.
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  • Hebrews 10:26 -- “26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,”
  • 1 John 1:9 -- “9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” ​

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