Two questions on personal fellowship

[Tbinkley]

When one truly tries to walk in the path of Jesus, deny their self, and bear their cross, there will be some who will always see it as being legalist.

The Holy Scriptures be quite clear, you either agree or disagree.


2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

If you want to fellowship with unbelievers, workers of darkness, don't put down those who OBey these plain spoken verses.

But honestly, out side of trying to witness to them, trying to bring them to Christ, what have you who belong to Christ have in common with them, that is if you are going to live and stand for Christ?

Remember:

Php 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

If your fellowshipping, being friends with, running with, bosom buddies with, the unbelievers, the infidels, your buddying up to those who are the enemies of the Cross of Christ.

Try talking about your heavenly Father, about your Savior Christ, and Christians things while your in the company of unbelievers, infidels, them see how much fellowship they will want with you.

Of course if all you do while in their company is talk about worldly things, leaving God and Christ out, they will prOBably like and enjoy your company.

Remember, they stand against everything you claim to believe by confessing Jesus as your Savior, they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

OK BROTHER , allow me to drop this on you . My nephew just emailed me and said I quote `` I am convinced there are less ``heretical viewpoints from Gods standpoint than there are from mans . I have taken this stand from Paul as he speaeks in 1 Cor. 2:2 I have decided to know nothing ,save Jesus Christ and Him crucified . : If another one and I can stand together on that ,then everything else is details ,in my opinion . `` UNQUOTE .
THIS is a little bit ``NEW EVANGELICAL sounding to me ! CORRECT ME IF I`m Wrong . But dont think I am .
Hes really starting to concern me . He came out of the German Baptist church and seems to be swinging FAR left . if I may use that term .
Please exhort with scripture . alll join in.
In Christ Jesus

[Tbinkley]

HC I think if someone is truly a rebel and you are truly following God, they won't want to hang out with you anyway.

I guess in a way you have to interpret every situation individually, as I said before...I also think it matters whether the person has been disciplined from your own local church, or not.

I believe you are right . I find we struggle more than we should with questions of scripture Proverbs 3:5-7.
As you said IF someone is going to rebel the spiritual battle between God and satan will allow him ,or rather pull him away from us.
I see a principle so clearly in Gods Word where God exhorts us to ``come out from among them and be ye seperate`` then tells us to TRUST in him (see where I `m going with this yet?). So AS we TRUST in Him HE pulls them away from us without any help on our part . OUR Pastor brought this up in a service a couple wks. ago. If you`ll notice sometimes a person gets saved or even rededicates his life USUALLY they dont HAVE to come out from among them because the world will naturally pull away from them.
Love chatting on here but got to get ready for wed night prayer meeting.
God bless you for allowing my candor ,In His name

[Reformation Man35]

Once again, there is no mention of the Spirtual walk here when dealing with the unsaved. May I remind you that we don't have to be bossom buddies with these people nor did I even mention such. What I am telling you is that while the fruit of the Spirit is self control, which will help you overcome the temptations of the flesh, there is also a fruit that will drop called Love. Now, Love will manifest itself differently in the workings of the church or the body of Christ as we meet, but Paul is not just saying that these fruits will drop just when we are with believers or "in church", it will also manifest while we are among the damned or lost or sinners if you will. So, God is proactive even though we know it not. So, God is showing love to these sinners even though they are enemies of Christ, through us. Were we not in the same state before the conviction of the Spirit? So, by not being around them, how will they see or hear the Gospel? How will the feel the conviction of the Spirit if we stay huddled up in our homes and only come to church on Wed. and Sundays? It is not those who think they are healthy who Jesus came to call. Much Love. Vince

[Anon]

We aren't dealing with the unsaved in this thread....

[Reformation Man35]

lol you sure have me fooled then from some of the other posts.

[Anon]

I never meant to speak of unsaved...the passages we are dealing with are talking about Christians being in gross sin. I never referred to unsaved, sorry if it came across that way. I am not sure about the others.

[Reformation Man35]

Ah, I see. Well for thread sake then, I will abstain from speaking on the unsaved then. lol, you have my thoughts concerning that area of theology. lol.

[Anon]

I agree we should be a testimony to the unsaved. I have a good friend who is saved but her husband is unsaved and we do things together quite alot.

[Reformation Man35]

Indeed, I would just like to say in the statement Jerry made; "When one truly tries to walk in the path of Jesus, deny their self, and bear their cross, there will be some who will always see it as being legalist." This sounds very spiritual and it comes from the bible but it gives no indication of how to accomplish this. Also, it sounds very self willed like we are the one's who accomplish this which is very unbiblical. Even our wills now are only "free" because of the death of Christ. Also, the suffering unto death, denying self all that has to come from the Spirit or it is nothing more than a deed of the flesh, which is self worship. Which is legalism. An outward attempt to OBtain holiness other than through the death of Christ by the empowering of His Spirit through faith. To sum up, all of those definitions or fruit such as carrying the cross which is referring to giving our physical life for Christ (agape love) or denying the flesh (self control) come from the Spirit alone can be found in Galatians chapter 5. So, let us take some things to heart and give the glory to who it belongs too, God alone.

[JerryNumbers]

OK BROTHER , allow me to drop this on you . My nephew just emailed me and said I quote `` I am convinced there are less ``heretical viewpoints from Gods standpoint than there are from mans . I have taken this stand from Paul as he speaeks in 1 Cor. 2:2 I have decided to know nothing ,save Jesus Christ and Him crucified . : If another one and I can stand together on that ,then everything else is details ,in my opinion . `` UNQUOTE .
THIS is a little bit ``NEW EVANGELICAL sounding to me ! CORRECT ME IF I`m Wrong . But dont think I am .
Hes really starting to concern me . He came out of the German Baptist church and seems to be swinging FAR left . if I may use that term .
Please exhort with scripture . alll join in.
In Christ Jesus

One of our local Baptist churches will worship with any church that will accept them. They claim we are put aside our differences and join together with any church that claims to be Christian Church.

The truth is there is only one way to become a Christian, by faith thru Jesus Christ, its a free gift, not of works, not of yourself. The church that teaches differently than that, by their own admission, are not Christians, for they do not know how to teach people to be saved. We are not to go in among them, but come out from among them. Oh, let me say this, there may well be some Christians in that church, but if they are, they should come out from among them just as the Holy Scriptures says.

By standing with them publicly, worshiping with them, exchanging pastors with them, your endorsing them as being true teachers of the Word of God, plus your encouraging them to continue in false teachings. We are to rebuke them, not accept them, not encourage them to walk the wrong path and stay is false teachings. We know well that the Bible is God's Word, we are to follow it, abide by it, and it is to be used for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.


2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Jesus did not accept false teachings, but rebuked it, the same is true of the apostles He called.

My opinion only from what you've stated, your nephew either does not know the Bible, and or he is going off in some of that modern days stuff, perhaps following some man, and or he has gotten into the NEW EVANGELICAL, New Age, or it could be possible he is not saved.

It would be Ok to spend some time and effort of showing your nephew the right way, that would be a nOBle thing to do, but yet if he keeps on refusing God's truths, it would be time to separate from him.

Tit 3:9

[Seth Doty]

Personally, I have no prOBlem eating with, or associating with the lost up to a point no matter what kind of sin they may be involved in. Christ died for sinners. OBviously being best buddies with a lost person is impossible for a Christian if he is living as he should but we do have a responsibility to be salt and light for the Lord. Isolation from the lost would be equivalent to hiding our light under a bushel. Still, while dealing with the lost we need to make sure that we actually are salt and light. To many professing believers blend in with the lost to the point that it is difficult to discern the believer from the unbeliever. They are not light at all. That is just as wrong as isolation and prOBably more harmful both to the person and to the name of Christ.


When dealing with professing believers I guess I would divide them into three basic groups. The first group would be those who are mostly right doctrinally and seem to be trying to follow the Lord. Fellowship is best with these believers. The second group would be those who have some serious doctrinal errors(that would not affect salvation) but seems to have a heart for the Lord. I will fellowship with these people to a limited degree and if possible try to point them in the right direction but the fellowship cannot be very close for OBvious reasons. Occasionally individuals from certain denominations such as Pentecostals, Presbyterians, etc. will fit in this group. If they seem stiff necked with a heart that is not truly seeking after God I will not fellowship with them at all though. The third group would be professing believers that are living in serious unrepentant sin. They know it, and I know it. These people I will deal with as little as possible and I will not fellowship with them at all unless they have a change of heart. If I must deal with them at least a little such as at a family gathering I will but the situation will be very strained. Like the song says "he who Jesus nameth must be on his side". Someone who professes Christ and yet is in unrepentant sin is in many ways far more OBjectionable than the most sinful lost person since he claims to know the Lord but by his actions is denying him and publicly putting shame on the name of Christ. I think this is the sort of situation Paul had in mind when in 1 Corinthians 5:11 he said "with such an one no not to eat". Such situations with professing believers who know they are in the wrong and persist in it are the vilest of situations possible. Of course if a brother in this condition repents we should by all means forgive him and restore him to fellowship.

[JerryNumbers]

We should never throw a brother to the dogs without 1st trying to get them to repent and come back to Jesus.

Sad to say, there is a time we have to let go, them all we can do for that person is pray, and turn the matter over to God.

[Tbinkley]

I never meant to speak of unsaved...the passages we are dealing with are talking about Christians being in gross sin. I never referred to unsaved, sorry if it came across that way. I am not sure about the others.

Kitagrl,I was the initiator of this thread and no I didnt mean to reference the lost here . My nephew of who I speak is a professing believer ,although not an IFB . I am a born again believer myself and am an IFB . I AM starting to believe THIS is where the ,``confusion,debate, contention whatever it is , IS coming from with me and him . Because although he isnt willing to admit it ,he leans toward nondenminational. And I from HOLY conviction know that a man HAS to make up his mind WHICH denomination is right .
SORRY , GOT off on a rabbit trail as our assistant Pastor puts it ! HEHE .
I see where each of you are coming from with this and it is HUGE help . Not only in reference to the subject . But scripture searching .
In the Love of Jesus

[Kubel]

#1 He was wondering if there is a wrong way to find happiness in Christ?

That's a tough question to answer. If one is truly 'in Christ' in their life and walk, then I suppose there is no 'wrong way' to find happiness in Him.

#2 Should we separate ourselves from people who give a personal testimony and show fruit in their lives but have different scriptural preferences?

I'll try to answer this with a fairly extreme example. My close friend is gay. He says he is saved. And I understand that even saved people can be tempted to do wrong. At first he struggled with the sin, and I was trying my best to be supportive of his struggle. But then he chose to embrace the sin.

It was at that point where I basically told him I didn't want to be a part of that part of his life. I guess that may have made me a heartless homophOBe in his eyes, but if someone around us chooses to do wrong, we shouldn't subject ourselves to their lifestyle- or else we could fall too. I tried my best to explain this as my reasoning for not wanting to know about certain aspects of his life.

You will find in scripture that this is the reason for biblical separation. It's not an issue of rejecting someone, nor of hate, intolerance, difference of opinion, nor is it about your image- it's an issue of recognizing spiritual dangers and simply choosing to avoid them so you spare yourself from pains in the future with regard to your walk with Christ.

[Psalms18_28]

your friend may have a hard time finding girls attractive so don't expect him to force himself.If he is practicing celibacy and doing the best he can to OBey God, I don't see why you have to separate from him. If he is still practicing homosexual lifestyle, then I can understand.