Saturday, October 29, 2005
Dusty Feet Part II
I must say I am little disappointed the previous post has not generated more discussion. I will give my view and maybe this will generate more discussion. I am of the opinion that their is a time and place to cut ties. I believe when the ties are cut it may be a wise thing to have a discussion with the party you are removing yourself from. Explain to them why you believe you need to reduce the amount of time you spend with them. Sure, they may not like it but at least they know you have a concern about their lifestyle and how it is affecting the way you live. I do not believe cutting ties should include being unfriendly. For example, just because I think it is wise to reduce the amount of time I spend with an individual does not mean I will ignore them when I meet them in town or at the gas station. It does not include ignoring the wave they toss your way when you meet them while traveling a certain local route. I think at times it is wise to spend less time with certain people. It would be silly to have someone over for a meal when you believe it will put your family at risk. Should a missionary spend all of his time focused on one individual, working hard to restore a relationship or convince the person of their sin while the rest of his flock suffers and the end result is everyone going to hell?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Is there ever a time to remove your self from interaction with another person? Yes. Should it happen rarely and with much trepidation? Yes!
I look at what Christ did to those who refused to accept Him as the Messiah. If they were honestly sceptical but wanted to hear more, Jesus gave it to them. If they were openly hostile, Jesus didn't shoo them away so they would not hear the "good" stuff, He either ignored them or held up scripture to them to show their hypocrisy. People did flee from Him because he spoke the truth, sometimes in parables and others in blunt, in-your-face truth. The people couldn't stand for it and left!
We are not like Christ and cannot see their hearts like He could. We must often look on the outward signs to see where the heart is going. ie, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh." Thus Jesus knowing this, gave the disciples the command you stated. It would be easy to take this command and use it to supercide all other commands of Christ, but remember, this was only to happen AFTER they had told the truth to the people!! It is wrong for us to remove ourselves from someone if we have not FIRST showed love to them by pointing out the error of their way.
Jesus came preaching repentance and so should we. If someone is not willing to repent and turn from their sin, to continue to mingle with them only helps them justify their beliefs and causes yours to soften. Remember what Paul also said in Corinthians, "Have no fellowship with him that he may be ashamed."
Finally, our goal must be for their restoration. In eternity we will be seperated completely and never have the chance to be reunited. I think that God wants us to use this tool to carefully teach the unrepentant sinner, what it means to be "seperated by a great gulf" as Abraham put it to the rich man. If this does not bring repentance, he may have eternity to learn this lesson, but let not his blood be on our hands! Let's first do our part in showing them the way!
Post a Comment