He leads me …

“Come out from among them

And be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean,

And I will receive you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17 NKJV)

In the previous blog we looked at the way the expression ‘come out from among them’ applied when Paul wrote it to the Corinthian church in 55 or 56 AD. Because the same expression is used as justification for leaving a church, we will now look at what this means in a modern context. 

If we were to take away the aspects of church like the worship, communion and the sermon, in many cases there would be little to distinguish some churches from other service groups like Lions or Rotary

Service groups consist of very day people who are volunteering together and undertaking projects to make the community a better place to live. Yes, the church is meant to add value through service to the local community too, but also in how we live as Christians, so that everyone can see that there is a better way to live and are drawn to the Christ likeness that they see in us.

Christians are called to be like Jesus and obey Him (1 John 2:3-6). We are called to be distinctive by living a life of virtue, away from the craving for personal pleasure. The Bible calls this pleasure, ‘the lust of the flesh [the desire to do something apart from the will of God] and the lust of the eyes [the desire to have something apart from the will of God] and the pride of life [the desire to be something apart from the will of God][1] (1 John 2:16).

As Christians fall back into these comfortable worldly ways, onlookers see the church departing from its biblical standards. With the resulting indifference to, and ignorance of, the Word of God, the affected believers increasingly become lukewarm about what God stands for. Their attitudes will be reflected in how they live. So what are the reasons for this happening?

First Issue – Infant Christians

The actions and lack of biblical understanding from people who are effectively infant Christians is highlighted in their lack of spiritual depth. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:11-14 and 1 John 2:12-14 all show that mature Christians behave in a godly manner based on what their Bible says. People like this are spiritual fathers/mothers of the faith, and should inspire the spiritual infants to grow in their faith.

Those who are struggling in their Christian journey are unable to clearly appreciate what the Bible says. This is because Jesus said that if we do not obey Him, He will not reveal Himself to us (John 14:21). How do we obey Him? By following what He tells us in the Bible. This requires some effort to study what it says.

Because the infant Christians struggle to interpret the Bible correctly, the ways of the world, which they know well, influences their biblical understanding. As a result, these people can cause the church to be ineffective. The apostle Paul warned in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-18 against those who are idle in their lives generally, which of course also includes prayer and studying the Bible. If no action is taken the idle can disrupt, discourage, or embitter by being a strain on those who are effective in the church.[2]

Second Issue – Tares in the Church

Departing from a commitment to biblical truth is bad enough, but there are people in the church who do not care about pleasing God at all. In Matthew 13:36-43 Jesus warned us that tares would exist in the church. Tares (sometimes called parasites) are weeds known as darnel which looks just like wheat until it matures and bears fruit. In terms of taste, mature darnel is the opposite of wheat - choking, bitter and inedible.

In Jesus’ parable, tares represented false Christians and wheat represented real Christians. Jesus explained that tares are sown by the enemy (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43) and this means that there are likely to be tares in every church.

The tares look like real Christians, and could rise into leadership (read about Diotrephes in 3 John 9–11). Because they appear to be Christians, they can easily deceive the church folk with their preaching and actions. However, Jesus taught that it is ‘by their fruit that we know them.’ (Matthew 7:16-20; 12:33; Luke 6:44-45). They will be different from genuine Christians. Let us look at how we can identify them –

·      As unbelievers tares have a legalistic kind of righteousness—an air of superiority.

·      They quite often have a patronising superiority of sinless self-righteousness.

·      They generally have no concept of grace, so that they lack graciousness toward others.

·      They believe their salvation is based on personal works rather than Jesus sacrifice, and they will arrogantly judge others accordingly.

·      They are improperly focused on fights for social action rather than winning souls for God.

·      They do not understand the concept of, or need for, inward change to be more like Jesus. .[3]

Instead of requiring these false believers to be removed from the church, the church should follow Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 13:24-30 and allow the tares to remain. Prior to the Final Judgement, when it really matters, angels will separate the true believers from the false believers.[4]

With tares and spiritual immaturity in the church, there is an inability for a lot of the congregation to clearly understand Scriptural principles and there is an unwillingness to obey them. This is rejecting God in favour of the congregation’s own secular desires or pleasure.[5] The result is not nice. Jesus said in Revelation :-

‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold (invigorating, refreshing) nor hot (healing, therapeutic); I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm (spiritually useless), and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth [rejecting you with disgust]. Because you say, “I am rich, and have prospered and grown wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked [without hope and in great need].’ (Revelation 3:15-17 AMP).

These words from Jesus are clear enough. Many Christians are praying for a revival and for God to move sovereignly on His church. Anyone who has looked at revivals in the past will know that they occur when there is true repentance. So, how does today’s church have the conviction to take Jesus’ words seriously?

Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John

[1] Notes in brackets from Dr. Thomas Constable’s Expository Notes (https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dcc.html)

[2] Warning against Idleness (2 Thessalonians 3:6-18), Dr. Ralph F. Wilson,

http://www.jesuswalk.com/thessalonians/09_idleness.htm

[3] Nine Characteristics of Tares — The Believer’s Enemy, Ralph Drollinger, Capitol Ministries,

https://capmin.org/nine-characteristics-of-tares-the-believers-enemy/#menu

See also - Tares – An important subset of unbelievers, Teleios Research, teleiosresearch.com;

https://teleiosresearch.com/tares-an-important-subset-of-unbelievers/

[4] What is the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares? GotQuestions.org;

https://www.gotquestions.org/parable-wheat-tares.html

[5] Do I leave the church if women are elders? John Calahan, NeverThirsty.org;

https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/leave-church-women-elders/