Are there people whom Christians should shun?
Hi.
Welcome to today's little lesson.
Thank you so much for joining me once again as we look at the subject of shunning.
Certainly a Biblical subject, there's no mistaking that, but I'm afraid that too many times,
we Christians are not shunning the people we're supposed to be shunning, and we are
shunning people that we're not supposed to be shunning.
We're going to take a look at what scripture says in this, maybe a couple of subsequent
little lessons.
First of all, shunning, it implies pushing somebody away from you and not interacting
with that person on the same level that you would if you weren't shunning them.
And of course, there's different degrees of shunning, and some of the Christian groups
that are most well-known for their shunning find themselves somewhere on the spectrum
of the extremities that are practiced in the shunning world.
As we look at scripture, we'll see what really is Biblical shunning.
Let's start with a very familiar passage of scripture, Jesus' instructions in Matthew
18.
They're often called the three steps of church discipline.
I prefer to describe them in a more positive way and say the three steps of confrontation
or the three steps of hopeful restoration and reconciliation, because that is the goal
in shunning.
And may I just insert something here that I think is relevant.
I'm always surprised when Christians interpret any specific instructions in the New Testament
without considering the overall general context of what it takes to please God.
We know that the greatest commandment foremost is to love God with all of our heart, mind,
soul, and strength, right?
Right.
The second most important commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
If we interpret any of the specific instructions in the word of God in such a way that it seemingly
contradicts or goes against those two greatest commandments, we can be certain that our interpretation
of those specific commandments or commandment is lacking something.
We're missing it somewhere, because everything we do is supposed to be done in love, including
shunning.
That means we have the interests of the person whom we are shunning at heart.
We're shunning them because we love them, and we're hoping for something better for
them.
We're hoping that we don't have to continue to shun them.
We're hoping for restoration and reconciliation, and we're praying for them and we love them,
and right there, it begins to show you that some of the more extreme forms of shunning
that are practiced in some quarters of the body of Christ, are indeed extreme, because
they lost the love, the motivation of really being concerned about those whom they are
shunning with the hope of ultimate reconciliation.
Let's take a look what Jesus here, Matthew 18, and this is starting in verse 15.
It's just three verses, 15, 16, and 17.
"If your brother sins.
If your brother sins," so we're talking about a brother sinning here, right?
Right.
Somebody in the church.
We're not shunning people who are outside the church.
We're trying to evangelize people who are outside the church, trying to win them to
Christ.
But if your brother sins, and some of the manuscripts from which we derive our modern
Bibles had a variant rendering of this first phrase.
Some of them say, "If your brother sins against you," implying that this is a personal offense
against you, but I think if we look at that within the context of all the scripture, there
is good reason to think that this, of course, includes personal offenses, but it can actually
go beyond that, because if our brother sins and we see him sin, it's not desirable.
If they're repenting, if they're not aware, then certainly it would warrant a loving confrontation.
But anyways, "Go and show him his fault in private."
That's very important, and you can see the love being poured on right from the start.
It didn't say, "Run to the Pastor and tell him.
Run to the Deacon Board and tell them.
Run to your neighbor.
Call up the prayer chain and get this person on the prayer chain."
No no no, no no no, no no no.
You know what I'm talking about.
"Go and show him his fault in private."
You're doing it in private because you want the least amount of embarrassment.
Love covers sin.
It doesn't, especially in the case of a brother, expose it.
Because you don't know.
You don't know all the circumstances.
You don't know all the motives, and good to go in private.
Well, here's the good news.
"If he listened to you, you have won your brother," and I will tell you that, nine times
out of 10, that's what happens when you go to them in private.
Most times they say, if it's a personal offense, they'll say, "Oh, I didn't even realize it.
I'm so sorry.
Little bonehead me.
Please forgive me for offending you in that way.
I didn't realize."
Or they might say, "You know, I did know what I was doing, but did you realize that you
offended me?
And that's why I reacted the way I did, and it became offensive to you?"
Because relationships are complicated, and it takes two people to tango, so this is the
point of communication, is to go privately, don't broadcast it, because you yourself might
have some guilt here that needs to be confessed and repented on.
It might be a discovery process.
When you go and confront your brother for sinning against you, he or she might say,
"Well, dear brother, dear sister, let me tell you my perspective," and you might have your
eyes opened to a blind spot.
We just need more of this, don't we?
Gentle, honest, loving confrontation.
Ah, why is it so hard?
"If he listens to you," Jesus said, "you have won your brother."
But if he doesn't listen to you, so there's resistance, there's the breach there, and
now the wall's gone up a little bit higher.
"No no no no."
Do you give up?
Do you then go tell the pastor?
Do you then broadcast it?
Do you then call the prayer chain?
No.
"If he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you."
One or two more, one or two more, so that means there'd be a total of two or three going
to him, so "That by the mouth or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed."
That's actually quoting from the law of Moses there.
Now, we're running out of time in this little lesson, but when you get one or two with you,
if they're smart, they're going to not just jump into this, dive into this stupidly.
They're going to want to hear both sides of the story and arbitrate if it's a personal
offense.
If it's not a personal offense and you're just trying to help your brother see something,
it's altogether different, but if it's a personal offense that, there's a breach between you
and a brother or sister, well then those one or two that come with you are going to want
to hear both sides.
You again might have a little self discovery, which would be a beautiful thing, because
people can help us see through what we can't see, our blind spots.
Well boy, time runs so quickly when we have our little lessons.
We'll just pick up here on our next little lesson, part two of when we should shun other
people.
Hope to see you next time.