Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

As I interpret the passage containing the verse cited in the question, Jesus was speaking of an interaction between two church members, where the actions of one of them had directly and negatively impacted the other, and broken their fellowship. 

However, I think that, in a case where a church member is behaving in an egregiously sinful manner that does not necessarily impact other members personally or directly, but instead is bringing the congregation as a whole into disrepute (especially among non-Christians), the guidance of Paul in passages such as 1 Corinthians 5 would be the more applicable procedure to be used -- where it is not the personal responsibility of any one member of the congregation to correct or rebuke the offending member on an individual level, but where corrective action and discipline with regard to the offender (including the possibility of the offender's expulsion from the congregation) is to be administered and imposed by and in the name of the congregation as a group (as indicated by Paul's words "when you are assembled" in 1 Corinthians 5:4).

February 09 2018 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report