I can only imagine that this how John felt coming the sermon he wrote to the church at Ephesus (This sermon is recorded in the book of 1 John). Three main themes are addressed in this book: True Doctrine, True Obedience, and True Devotion. The latter of these themes are the answer to the other two, and this is found within the Local Church.
The church at Ephesus were described as having "forsaken there first love" and to "have fallen far" in the letter to the church in Revelation 2:1-7. This church had, through there devotion in the local church and struggling together, they had achieved what John wrote them about obedience and doctrine. But, how does one return to True Devotion? What do you do to someone who has either slipped away from the Church or lose faith in the Church. There are three questions that need to be addressed.
What should I do?
What should you, as an observer of this person slipping away?
1) John tells us in 1 John to pray for them.
If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. ~1 John 5:16
First, let's get straight that being a Christian and not attending a local church is a sin. Also, under the case of missionaries or itinerant preachers, the must still be connected to church for a several reasons.
We are commanded to attend church.
Hebrews 10:25 "not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
The reasons why are found in the verses come before this one.
1) For the sake of Worship (Hebrews 10:22) (not that worship can't be done on ones own, but it keeps up doctrinally correct as to who God is, and through corporate worship we draw near to Him with other believers.)
2) For sake of perseverance (10:23) I think the Word speaks for itself here.
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,for he who promised is faithful."
3) For sake of others (10:24) The Church needs YOU!
I know this may be shocker to you. I think we also need to review my statement as well. GOD does not need you (Acts 17:24-25), but the CHURCH does. We are commanded to consider "how to spur one another on toward love and good deeds" (10:24) and how to "encourage each other" (10:25). and the Church needs you to that. For more on this look at such passages as Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 3 and 12:12-31.
4) For the sake of the lost (10:25) "and all the more as you see the Day approaching" What Day? The Day the Lord returns to judge the World. I could preach on this (and have) in several other posts on this blog. Just take a look at these four verses, and remember the Commission we've been given. (Matt. 28:19-20)
"11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire." ~Rev. 20:11-15
So, we see, the Christian is commanded to be in a local Church and it is a sin to not be there. First, we need to pray for Christians who are not attending a fellowship as they are commanded.
2) Paul tells us to restore them gently.
We should confront the Christian make sure they understand that they are sin when they live a life outside of the local church.
A recent sermon from Matt Chandler called "Gospel-Enabled Community" preached on Galatians 6 really opened my eyes up to this. In Galatians 6 we are told to "Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted."
We see here the place for the first step of the "church discipline" process taught by Jesus in Matthew 18 to come to your "brother between the two of you" (Matthew 18:22).
We will get more into church discipline in the coming steps of this article.
But, if the Christian does not, after a time, repent and return to the Church there local church body should get in involved.
What should the Church do?
Jesus taught a system of church discipline to deal with sin within His Bride. In Matthew 18 after the individual encounter and a time of a grace, you take several others with you. So that, every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. (Matthew 18:16)
If after that they still do not respond, Jesus gives a shocking statement. " If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." (18:17)
Yes, you bring it before the church, but if they do give the proper response, they will be considered outside of the church. As rough as this seems, it is loving when we think about the Church being the Bride of Christ. Do we really want to defile the Bride with sin?
So, what is the "desired result"?
We can look at the words of Christ in Revelation ch. 2.
"Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." ~ Revelation 2:5
Christ desires two things, for the sinner to repent and return to Him. If they do that, we know "God is just and will forgive" (1 John 1:9) and we should celebrate as Heaven will. (Luke 15:7)
What if the person doesn't respond Biblically?
Once again, we hold to the words of Jesus. He was willing to "remove the lampstand" from Ephesus, so shouldn't we care about the churches purity enough to clean out the temple? Church discipline is so important in today's culture and should not be neglected. For more on this visit http://9marks.org
But, what happens when a "lampstand is removed"? Does this mean someone can lose there salvation? No. It's doesn't. While a church body can lose Gods blessing and favor, a true Christian can not. The whole theme of 1 John is that man can not "continue in darkness and claim to be in light". in other words, Christians can not continue in a lifestyle of unrepentant sin and still call themselves Christians.
They have had what is called a false conversion. Countless times the Bible teaches about people thinking they know the Lord, yet not actually being born again by Him. (Matt 7:13-14, 21-23, Luke 9:62, John 10, Hebrews 10:19-39 etc...)
John finishes his sermon in 1 John with this statement, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols". Let us as the Church thousands of years later take these words to heart. The church is the Bride and Beacon of Christ. We are meant to shine His holiness, glory and share His glorious Gospel with the whole of creation. (2 Corinthians 5:19-20, Mark 16:15). Let's keep ourselves from self worship and a man driven church in this world, because man will always let you down, but "the God who calls us, if faithful" (1 Thess. 5:24)
Let our perspective be that of the writer of Hebrews:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." ~Hebrews 12:1-3
Hope this encourages and equips you! God Bless!
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