The Church is no Longer a Judge of Sin?

Our Lord was hated without a cause. Yet men find reason whenever man's sin and God's sovernty is pointed out to hate Him and anyone that speaks His Words. (Just the nature of man, Jack) Don't dare agree with God and tell a man about his sin and God's sovernty. Don't you dare love a man enough to tell him the truth. And by all means Valiant don't love God enough to agree with Him!

Who do you think you are...a follower of Christ?

The Scripture warns of flase prophets and false professions. (Jer.5:30-31, Matt.7:15-23, 1 Cor 6:9-11) Yet, today, this is a foreign idea to most of Christianity. Hence, one mention of right or wrong can bring the cry "judge not less ye be judged".

If Steve McNair's pastor and close friend knew of Steve's involvement with his girlfriend, I can only hope Bishop Walker confronted Steve with his sin. Love demands that as professing Christians we not only strive against our own sin but that we love God enough and love men enough to admonish them of theirs. If Bishop Walker didn't, then he is an unloving false prophet, at least to Steve.

Thanks for your inputs.

This incident served as a current example of how some modern churches deal with sin in the membership. That is, they don't deal with it.

With our silence and inaction we condone open sin in the church and remove any hope of repentance. Those who do this do not believe the Scriptures.

Still be outside the will of God. Look at Abram when he conceived Ishmael with Hagar. He loved God; he wanted to obey God. He allowed Sarai to convince him this was the only way to obey God ... have a child with the slave and adopt him as the heir. God told Abram -- a good while later -- that Ishmael was a product of self-effort and could not be the heir of promise. Abram was a sinner, just like Steve McNair, and he faced disappointment (not really punishment, as I would define it) for his disobedience. Steve McNair could well have been a Christian, but he paid the price for his affair and the punishment was meted out by his paramore, which I find ironic and very sad.

Well, that is what's wrong with a great deal of the "evangelical" churches of America, now isn't it?

My daughter suggested that McNair's girlfriend may have killed him because he was breaking the affair off. We don't know that his pastor didn't confront him and that he wasn't taking appropriate Corinthian type steps to reconcile once more with God and the church. That could be what the pastor was referring to when he said don't judge, because we shouldn't judge a repentant sinner. You confront the recalcitrant sinner, but when repentance has taken place, we should let the past go. If McNair was taking steps to end the affair, forgiveness should be our stance.

Or, he might just be playing loose and easy with the scriptures on church discipline. Hard to know.

We will have to disagree on this one. A Christian man may fall into sin, but by definition he does not make a practice of open sin. This is Paul’s meaning…’how shall we who have died to sin, still live in it.’

I think your example of Abraham and Hagar is one of illustrating the futility of the flesh in fulfilling the covenant promises. A better example is David and Nathan. God did not allow him to remain in sin, but loved him by bringing discipline. Note, David’s response…’I have sinned against God’. This is the beginning of repentance. [Psalm 51]