You be the Judge

The verse I've chosen for 5/9 is from 1 Cor 5:9.  I'm including verses 10-13, as well, for additional insight and completion of thought.  The Message says, "I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn't mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You'd have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don't we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house."

Okay, I've put it out there.  It's heavy, BUT it's in the bible.  If God thought this was important enough to be breathed into the pages of His Word, I think it's important enough to examine.  It takes our "uncomfortable" meter through the roof, because we have always heard that we are not to judge others, lest we be judged.  We've become rather comfortable with that, in my humble opinion, because we don't want to be called out in our own shortcomings.  Why ruffle any feathers?  To each his own.  Well, not so much, according to this passage. 

The Apostle Paul included these words in his letter to the church of Corinth.  This city was known for immorality and Paul had planted a church smack-dab in the middle of it.  That doesn't sound any different than what we are doing today.  After all, God wants us to reach all people with the truth of the Gospel.  Much like today, the church at Corinth was faced with problems, moral and ethical.  After all, it was comprised of people.  Paul attempted to tackle some of those problems and answer questions the Christians at Corinth had raised.

I believe the truth that Paul had for this church in the New Testament, stands true for believers today.  Basically, Paul told that church that if they were to cut themselves off from people who indulged in sinful behaviour, there would be no one left to hang out with.  He was very specific, though, as to the type of behavior that was not acceptable for Christians.  He stressed that we are not to judge outsiders.  Their hearts have not been changed by the Savior of the World.  They are only doing the things of the world and their fate is for God to judge.  Conversely, Christians are a new creation.  They are supposed to have traded the old for the new life.  The only way I can even imagine that a Christian would not be aware of this is if their church doesn't teach about it or if they are not studying the truths within the bible.  Whichever, it is, I am inclined to believe that God has more for believers than what they may be settling for.  If we are to take Paul's words to heart, we shouldn't just look the other way.  If we love people, we should care enough about them to have some difficult, yet loving, conversations.

As a culture, we've been taught to accept the things of this world.  As Christians, we are in this world, but not of it.  We should not be living in the dark any longer, either spiritually or physically.  Does darkness cast shadows upon the Light?  You be the judge.