From the very beginning of the Church, there has been a problem with counterfeit Christians. There are people who call themselves Christians but God would call them anti-christian. They may even parade around as if they are the best thing in the Church, teaching and even demanding people listen to them. Yet the way they live, the things they teach, the desires they have are not of Christ. Paul tells Timothy to avoid such people.
Early in his ministry Paul ran into a situation that required a lot of attention. The church at Corinth had a man in it that was involved in immorality. It was even abhorrent to the quite immoral people outside the church. It gave Christians a real bad reputation. Not only was the church tolerating his behavior, they were celebrating it. Paul was a’pauled. He almost screamed, “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.”
The problem is simple, associating with a person that claims to be a Christian yet goes against Jesus’ teachings leads to disaster. Christians can be led astray from the Gospel. Paul used the Old Testament thought, “a little yeast affects the whole lump of dough.” We think we are immune to the “little” sins of another but we become tainted by them. Weaker Christians may even fall away because of it. The world sees this deception and says, “see, they are no different from us and even worse.”
There is another reason to disassociate with those who falsely claim to be a Christian, it may lead to repentance. We see in 2 Corinthians that the person Paul had so vociferously demanded they remove should be allowed back in and forgiven. The man had repented of his sin. A bucket of ice cold water had been thrown on him spiritually which woke him up. He turned back to God. The Corinthians were so silly, they apparently were not gonna forgive him. They certainly didn’t have the wisdom needed to deal with the situation.
We walk a very tight rope when it comes to dealing with sinful Christians. There is the desire to see them repent, even mandated. But we have to take into consideration the consequences of associating with a person who stubbornly continues in their sin. We can not stand on our own. We have to do it as the Body of Christ, supporting and loving each other to stay strong in Christ.
Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse. Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. -Proverbs 2:12, 20
