What the Bible Really Says About Judging Other Christians

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, once again, we'll be going through program number four today. Let's see, did we get it changed? Yep, it's on the board. So for those of you on television, just kind of watch for the numbers up on the board, and that gives you the tape number and the program in the tape. Maybe that'll work out a little better, because we like to remind folk that we have all the programs from Genesis up through the Old Testament, through Matthew and through the Gospels, or through the Book of Acts and through Romans, and now we're on our way through Corinthians, and we've tried to make it as cost-available as possible for everybody. So we have put 12 programs on one six-hour tape, and each 12 programs have been transcribed into a little book, and we try to keep the cost as near to our break-even as possible. We don't make anything on them, but at least we're not going way in the hole. So if you're interested in reading or whatever, you drop us a note. Back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and we're still dealing with the problems that were besieging the Corinthian church. Believers saved, and we're going to meet them in glory someday, but my, they had problems. As I mentioned a couple of programs ago, Paul is addressing them in response to a letter that they had written to him asking, how are they supposed to deal with these things? And consequently, by Holy Spirit inspiration, Paul is just unloading. And of course the reason is that the things that were a problem in Corinth in A.D. 60 are still the same. The human race doesn't change, and so we still have the same problems in our churches and in our personal lives as the Corinthians did. Now then verse 9, and these next few verses are some rather shocking statements, but so true. Now he says in verse 9, I wrote to you in an epistle, and evidently he wrote more than just these two letters, is that I wrote to you in a letter not to company or have fellowship with fornicators or immoral people. Yet, he says, not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters, for then must ye need go out of this world. You know what that says? If you were to go through a whole week of life and never rub elbows with someone who is immoral or is in some sort of a gross sin, you'd have to leave this world because it's impossible. And here we are in Oklahoma, of course, we like to think we're in the Bible Belt, but really we're no different than any place else. And those of you who work in large office complexes or if you happen to be working in a large production facility and you're rubbing elbows with the cross section of our society, you are rubbing elbows with every one of these classes of people. There are the immoral, the covetous, and the wicked. I mean they are the norm no matter where we live. So Paul says, when I say not to have any kind of fellowship with immoral people, he said, I'm not talking about the immoral people out there in the workplace, I'm talking about those who are immoral and are members of your church. Remember? Look at it. Verse 10 again. Yet not altogether with the fornicators or the immoral people of this world or with the covetous or the extortioners or with idolaters, because if you're not going to rub elbows with them, then you leave this world. See that? But here's the flip side. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, don't you have fellowship, if a man who is called a brother, he claims to be a believer, he's a member of the local congregation, and if that man is a fornicator and so on and so forth or a drunkard or extortioner, with such a person the believer was what? Not even to sit down and eat. Now this is strong language, but what was the purpose? To make that person feel that he is being set aside, that he is no longer part of the Christian company. He is verboten, I guess they say in German. He is just simply out of it. And what's the purpose? To bring him to his senses. Because after all, if a person has been genuinely saved, even though he goes out into sin, and if the Lord hasn't yet taken him out as we saw up here earlier in chapter 5, way down deep, he's miserable. He can't be happy. Don't tell me that a sinning believer can ever be happy. They can't be, because they know they are doing wrong, and the Lord is dealing with them, and then if fellow believers begin to shun them, it's really going to come home. And so this is the purpose of it all. It isn't to just purposely be nasty or anything like that, but God has got a reason that if you've got a person of your acquaintances who are believers, hey, ostracize them for a while, but let them know why, because the Scripture has admonished us not to have fellowship with those kind of people who claim to be believers. We're not talking about the world. We're talking about believers. Verse 12, "...for what have I to do to judge them that are without?" In other words, what's Paul saying? I have no authority to judge the lost world. He has no authority for that whatsoever. And you remember, I always have to go back to Romans 8. Some verses, of course, are more precious to me, I guess, than others, and I use them all the more. Romans 8, beginning at verse 6, because we have to understand that this isn't just one little quirk of Scripture. This is a continuing doctrine throughout Paul's letters on how to behave as a believer. I mean, this is what it really all boils down to. This is practical, everyday living for you and I as believers. All right, verse 6 of Romans 8, "...to be carnally or fleshly minded..." That is, outside of Christ, outside of a salvation experience. "...to be carnally minded is..." What? "...death, spiritual death." They're going to be eternally separated from God someday if they never step into salvation. So, "...to be carnally minded is spiritual death. But to be spiritually minded..." That is, to have salvation. That's life and peace, as we saw back in Romans 5, that to be justified by faith is to have the peace of God. All right, now verse 7, "...because the carnal mind..." The old, sinful nature of lost people. "...the carnal mind is..." What with regard to God? It's an enemy. See? They're an enemy of God, and then they think that in a tight they can pray to Him. He's not going to hear the prayers of an unbeliever just to get them out of a tight spot. Oh, He'll hear their prayer for salvation, but He's not going to answer their prayers when they get in a tight situation because they're His enemies, and He knows they are. All right, so, "...the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be." And in that light, you've heard me say it more than once, and you'll hear me say it again if the Lord tarries. You cannot legislate Christian morality. You can't do it. You cannot force the unbelieving world to live a Christian life. Forget it. They're going to go their own way. They're going to do their own thing, and there's nothing we can do about it except pray for them, I guess. But they are enemies of God. They're not subject to the law of God. Neither can they be. And then verse 8, "...so then, they that are in the flesh have never experienced salvation. Even if they're good, they cannot please God." All right, now then if you'll come back to 1 Corinthians, so Paul says, I can't have anything to do with the unsaved world. Those immoral Corinthians, Paul says, I have nothing to do with them except to preach them the gospel. And it's all we can do. All we can do is sow the seed, and we can't force anything. We can't push it down their throat, because it is something that only God can do. So all right, he says, "...I have what have I to do," verse 12 again, "...to judge them also that are without." Now he comes back, though, to the believing community. "...Do you not judge them that are within?" Now remember we stressed back in Romans that we're not to judge. And for the most part, that's true. But when it comes to a discipline within the believing community, and we are totally aware as the Corinthians were in chapter 5 here, of a gross, immoral sin, are we to just turn the other way and say, I can't judge? No, we are to take the bull by the horns, and we are to point out to that person that they are living in sin. Let me show you Galatians. I quoted a program or two ago, but come back with me to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. Now as I said when I started this series on Paul's letters, it's a lot harder to keep people interested in practical Christian living and doctrine as it is when I teach Genesis or Revelation, because that is, of course, just so interesting. But this is practical. This is what we need today, regardless of what happens down the road prophetically. Here's where we are today. Galatians 6, verse 1. Brethren, so who is he talking to? Believers, see? So brethren, if a man, now we don't want to leave the women out. This is a generic term. Don't think for a minute that the women aren't involved in the Christian church. Paul, as I've said over and over, alludes to I think 8 or 10 women in Romans 16 alone who were helpful in the ministry. And as I mentioned when we started the study on the book of Romans, of all people in the Roman world, to whom did the apostle Paul entrust that letter to the Romans? Phoebe, a woman. And so I'm not going to leave you women out and say it doesn't apply to you. It's men and women. Look what he says. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, in other words, a rather gross sin, you who are spiritual, as the church leadership, restore such a one. But you see, what is the attitude of the average church today if someone falls into a gross sin? Make light of it. They joke about it. They laugh about it. Hey, have you heard? Isn't that the way it goes? Sure it is. But that should never be the idea, the mindset of a believer. If we hear of a Christian who has fallen into sin, my, it should just break our heart. Not joke about it. We should be burdened and pray for that person. And as he instructs here, if you're in a place of church authority or church leadership, I don't care what denomination you're in, it's your responsibility to go to that person and do all that you can to restore them into fellowship. You don't condemn them and say, well, so be it. All right. Then he says, do it in the spirit of meekness, not with pride. Hey, you know, this would never happen to me. Oh, yes, it could. So we go to that person in a spirit of meekness, realizing, as it says next, that we also could be tempted and fall into the same trap. None of us are totally immune. Never forget that. And then verse 2, bear one another's burdens. Even these people who are having a time of living a good, upright Christian life, bear their burden. Help them to overcome their weaknesses. Be an encouragement to them that, hey, there's no need to be a Christian failure. There's no need to constantly live in sin. You can overcome it. And of course, that's the whole idea of good Christian fellowship. All right. Now then, come back to chapter 5 once again. Verse 13, but those who are without the unsaved world, those who are without, God judgeth. That's His prerogative and never ours. But coming back again to the church environment, Paul says, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Now that is after having dealt with them, try to get them to recognize their sin and confess it, get victory over it. And if they refuse and if they will not, then Paul says, put them aside until they come to their senses. All right. Now we come into chapter 6, and yet another problem. I mean, it's almost discouraging in a way that this little church of Corinth, of born -again people, brought out of paganism, had turned their back on their idols, and yet they were plagued with problems. But you know why they're in this book? As I said before, because we have the same problems today. And so this becomes tremendous lesson material for every one of us, for every local congregation. All right. Dare any of you, chapter 6, verse 1, dare any of you, having a matter against another, a fellow believer now, keep the picture straight, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? In other words, what's happening? Hey, these Corinthians have gotten into a real wrangle with one of their fellow church members. And instead of taking to the local church body or maybe to the pastor and the church leadership, the elders or deacons, whatever you may want to call them, where were they going? To the lawyers, to the courts. I think it was in one of Charles Stanley's books last night, I'm not sure, but I think he had the little quote in there, that someone had come to him with the statement that, you know, whenever divorce comes into the picture, who are the only ones that really profit? The lawyers. Everyone else gets hurt. Everyone else comes into a place of devastation, but boy, the lawyers can walk away smiling. All right, that's what Paul is saying. Don't go to the world's lawyers and the courts with your problem. Keep it within the confines of the believers. Now, of course, there comes a point, and I've dealt with that back in Romans, there comes a point when, yes, you may have to go to the world's judicial system. But when it came to mundane things between believers, Paul says, settle it within the confines of the local church. Verse 2, don't you know? Boy, now I like this one. Don't you know? I hope you realize what this says. Don't you know that the saints one day are going to judge the what? Oh, what's it talking about? The millennium. This is where I get the idea that, yes, we're going to have places of responsibility when the Lord sets up His kingdom, and we're going to have responsibility according to the faithfulness you've been in this sojourn here. And yes, we're going to rule and reign with Christ. That's what he says in Romans. But here he sort of puts the frosting on the cake, and he said, now, look, get practiced up. That's what he's saying. Get practiced up. Learn how to deal with problems with people, because the day is coming. You're going to be doing it constantly. You're going to be ruling the world, under Christ, of course. And so we're going to have these places of responsibility. So he says, my land, why can't you deal with some of these problems within the local church if one day you're going to rule the world? Pretty practical, isn't it? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? See? Now, you know what he's saying? The world out there have none of the wisdom that God has imparted to every believer. You and I are unique in that regard. God has imparted wisdom to the believer just by virtue of your being a saved person. You have more common horse sense than the greatest educated philosopher out there in the world, and Paul is driving that home. Listen, you have a wisdom that the world doesn't have. Use it! Use it! Verse 3, don't you know that we shall judge? Now, the word judge here goes back to government, goes back to ruling. Don't you know that you're going to rule over what? Angels! Angels are even going to be beneath us. What a position we have waiting for someday, that we're going to rule and reign with Christ, and we're even going to be above the hosts of the angels as we rule and reign with Him on that earthly kingdom. All right? Then, if you can have that kind of future, how much more things that pertain to this life? Really something, isn't it? Hey, believers, we're somebody. When God is in it, absolutely. All right? Verse 4, if then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. That flies in the face, doesn't it? Ordinarily, who do we depend to be the leaders of the church? Well, the most eminent, the ones who are most looked up to, and maybe those who have a little more of the world's goods than the rest. But what's the Scripture admonition? They use the person at the bottom of the totem pole. See? Those who aren't esteemed as much as the rest. And then verse 5, we're just going to take on verse by verse for a little bit now. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? Now, we know they didn't have a huge church, but listen. They had a pretty good cross-section of the society of Corinth who had become believers. And Paul says that there's not a wise man among you, and you're all believers. You've all been designated the wisdom of God. Somebody in that congregation should be able to use it. Is it so that there's not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. They're there. If you'll just let them have the opportunity. But he says, you don't do that. Where are they going? They're going out into the city judges, into the courts, see? And he says, brother, goeth the law with brother, and that before the what? The unbelievers. How many times don't you read accounts of this in our daily paper? And it just becomes a shame to Christianity in general. And see, things haven't changed. It was no different in Corinth than it is in America today. All right, verse 7. Now therefore, there is utterly a fault among you. See, he's condemning them for their shortcomings, because you go to law with one another. Why do you not rather take the wrong? Why do you not rather suffer or permit yourselves to be defrauded? Rather than go to the world's courts. Nay, you do wrong and defraud, and you're defrauding your brethren. All right, now he's going to pick up a new theme. And we won't finish it today. We're going to have to pick it up in our next taping session. The whole concept of Christian marriage. And here's where Paul is going to begin to deal with it. Now again, remember, I'm going to sound like a broken record, I know. Corinth was a city of pagans. And in the pagan world, not always, but in many instances, the pagan world had no real sanctity in marriage. It was just simply a place to have children. But so far as any fidelity, any integrity of the marriage relationship, they had none. They thought nothing of it. In fact, I think I even alluded to one of the Oriental nations, I think it was Thailand, I'm not sure. But one of the news magazines had made it a cover story a year or so ago, and of the rampant prostitution in Thailand. And it was so rampant that the average Thai husband thought nothing of going to a house of prostitution. And they were interviewing one of these young wives. And they said, doesn't it bother you when your husband goes to one of these places? She said, no, because it's been custom. She said, mama put up with it, grandma put up with it. Well, Corinth was no different. And these people had been saved from that kind of a background. But just because they were saved from it, doesn't mean that it didn't still have that pull. All right, so now then, beginning in verse 9, he's going to start and all the way through chapter 7. And there's another chapter I wish I could just leap over, because I'm not a marriage counselor by any stretch of the imagination. But again, it's such plain language, we're going to deal with it and hope for the best, I guess. But now beginning at verse 9, he says, No ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, you know, we have groups who more or less in their doctrine maintain that somehow or other everybody is going to go to heaven. That there is no such thing as an eternal doom for the lost. Well, that's not what the book says. The book says, even from the pen of this apostle, that the unrighteous are not going to go to heaven. They're going to go to the other place. All right, now then he says, Be not deceived, reading on in verse 9, and here he lists them again. This old book is right up front. It doesn't pull any punches. It tells it like it is. And what does it say? There will be no fornicators, nor idolaters, or adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. There'll be no thieves, or covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners in the kingdom of God. That's what the book says. I didn't say it. The book says it. It's plain as day. Then verse 11, And such were, past tense, what? Some of you. Now that tells you exactly what these Corinthian believers had been. Tells you exactly where they had come from. They had been in this whole category of wickedness. Every one of them. I wouldn't say every one of them, but most of them. And so now he says, Such were some of you, but you are, what's the next word? Washed. Oh, I've only got 30 seconds left. Shoot. I wanted to go John's Gospel for a little bit. I guess I'll have to pick that up in this program. But anyway, he says you are washed. What does that mean? You're clean. Even these Corinthians who had come out of abject immorality. And I wouldn't doubt that some of them were even suffering from, what do they call it? What's the fancy word for it now? The sexually transmitted diseases, STDs. They try to make everything politically correct. Even something like that. We always called them venereal. They were sexually associated. Some of these people probably had them. But now what? They're washed. They're saved. They're believers. They're heaven bound. But oh, they came from a past of in utterable wickedness and immorality. And so he says you're washed. You are sanctified. You are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now it's the same way for people today. It doesn't matter how vile the background. When we've been justified, we're washed. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 716, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 716, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported. And your gift is appreciated. Thank you. And be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.