I think 'open sin' is when the Christian sinner is very public about his actions, thinks there is nothing wrong with what he is doing and disagrees with those that try to point out his error, continuing in rebellion against God and church leadership and refusing to turn away from the sin and repent. You may have noticed that I used the phrase 'Christian sinner'. Yes, Christians are sinners too. We are sinners saved by the grace and love of Jesus Christ, but we do sin and we admit such regularly. We have to. We are called to confess our error when we fail and sometimes in a public fashion before the church or at least, specific brethren, but most definitely before God in prayer. Repentance from sin is a requirement of the Christian life when we fall into it.
For the Christian though, it should be easy to identify the times when we fail. As we grow spiritually, we become more sanctified and less likely to become mired in serious sin. That's the way it's supposed to work. We have been born again spiritually. Our bodies, however, are still an issue. We live in corrupt flesh that is weak and works against the Christian in his or her pursuit of holiness. Our bodies and brains want things that are not necessarily good for us spiritually. And so it goes.
We can fall into addiction traps. Our physical bodies become addicted to anger, greed, malice, sexual immorality, laziness, gluttony, drug abuse, porn, drunkenness and the list goes on and on. For the Christian, our flesh can work against our spiritual pursuits. The result can be a God centered resistance to the desires of the flesh or failure in the battle. Sometimes the failure can persist so long that the Christian will find ways to rationalize the sinful behavior. The behavior becomes regular public practice and the sin is no longer sinful to the mind of the believer involved. The sin hardens the heart of the believer, then the promptings of the Holy Spirit to stop the behavior are no longer felt by him.
When the sinful behavior reaches the point where it is open, public and unrepented, it becomes the duty of the Church to act to save their failing brother or sister from themselves and also make sure the sin does not infect the remaining members of the local body. This is where it can get dicey and I think it's why we were given procedures by Jesus Himself, as well as Paul for situations like this.
In the gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, Jesus tells us this:
15 “If your brother or sister[b] sins,[c] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’[d] 17 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."
Jesus makes it sound too easy perhaps. Pointing out someone else's sin to them is difficult and painful for everyone involved. The one doing the pointing knows he sins and so can sympathize with the perpetrator. If done correctly and with love, it can be a positive encounter between brethren ending in prayer and repentance. There is no place for self-righteousness in any step of this process. We are only made righteous by the blood of Christ. It is to that sacrifice that we must appeal when we repent. This is where we want the one in open sin to turn.
Sometimes more is required. The habitual sinner may refuse to recognize the problem and may even feel justified in the behavior. "It seems normal and natural to me" or "I like it, it's not hurting anyone except maybe me" might be offered as reasons for refusal to repent, or to change the behavior. At this point, an intervention of sorts is required. A small group of brethren should attend to the one in error to help the sinner see his fault. Again, this has to be done with love and grace. the purpose is not to condemn, but to save. There is also a need for witnesses to the testimony of the habitual sinner, so two or three people should be in the group when they approach the errant believer the second time.
Once the one in sin has testified to his point of view about the behavior and it has been determined that no progress was made in convincing him to repent, then the matter must be taken before the whole church. I do not know that this would be considered a trial as much as it would be one last ditch effort to convince the sinner of his error. Again, love and prayer would need to be applied in this process as well as attempts to convince the one in sin that he must repent. If this fails, then the instructions are clear about what must follow.
Disfellowship. Excommunication.
Until the errant believer repents, he cannot be a part of the Body. It is incumbent on the leadership of the local church to protect the body from the contamination of the open sin practiced by the one in error. Continued presence of the offender will say to the membership that sin is not taken seriously or that the behavior must be OK for 'me' since 'Joe' is still here and he does that stuff all the time.
Do you see what I'm saying? I think you do.
Paul actually practiced a form of this procedure. If you examine I Corinthians 5, you will find there was a man in that church that was engaging in sexual activity with his father's wife. Paul was mortified that the Corinthians had continued to fellowship with this man and that they seemed proud of how tolerant they had been toward him and his sin. Let's look at the chapter:
5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Paul had a problem with open, unrepented sin in the church and he also did not have any appreciation for the apparent tolerance of the congregation. It was all just wrong, wrong, wrong.
Can you imagine practicing this form of church discipline today? You should be able to imagine it and your church should be practicing it. It is necessary for the health of the Body and it is necessary if there is any hope of saving the one in error.
Today though, we tend to stay out of each other's business. We do not like the discomfort of a public discussion or even a 'one on one' discussion of what might be eating away at our hope for eternal life. It's doubly hard to practice this kind of church discipline when we all know we sin and the confrontation of this one errant Christian in public just might expose us of whatever. And that may be the point of it.
We do not want to be quick to accuse others and we do not want to get our own selves caught up in the process. The motivation to do what is right as much as is possible can be strengthened by the desire to avoid such procedures.
As for the one that gets expelled from the body, well...it's never too late for them to repent if they are not dead. Then they can be reunited with the Body to full fellowship. This is the real purpose of such discipline - to bring repentance. This is why we are instructed elsewhere to examine ourselves. We must not slip into habitual sin and most especially the public variety where we cease to care about it at all.
This is what happened for the man in question in I Corinthians 5. His return to the church is explained by Paul in the second Corinthian letter in the New Testament. Restoration. This is the goal of church discipline. It is not to forever cast out those that fail.
II Corinthians 2:5-11
5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9 Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
The believer that does not live as a believer is the concern here. We cannot live as we once did when we were nonbelievers. The behavior and the attitudes about the behavior have to change. It does not matter which sins we are discussing. And we also need more than mere sin management.
I Corinthians 6:9-11
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Our sins were forgiven at a very high cost - the life and blood of the Son of God. We must do what is required to stay within the bounds of His gracious sacrifice. The choice is ours. If we live according to the flesh, we will die in our sins. Some church discipline might just prevent that. So let's practice this discipline in the spirit of love and the grace of Jesus, holding each other accountable for the blood that set us all free.
It will require us to be much more transparent in our lives with our brethren, but maybe that's the way it should be. We cannot help each other if we do not know each other.
What do you think?
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