Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
There are incredible loyalties that happen when you become extremely close to others, but sometimes people will develop loyalties with those who they should keep away from. How many of you young people would continue to hang out with a group of kids who are actively engaged in evil and nefarious activities? Maybe they break into cabins and steal their neighbor’s guns, or climb through the windows of local businesses and break into their strong box in the middle of the night. Perhaps they have repetitively asked you to join them, and tempted you with financial gain. What did you do? Did you sever the relationship that you had with them? Did you distance yourself from them completely knowing that if you got involved with them, you would suffer the same consequences as they will?
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
It’s a good thing to keep separate from those who are caught up doing wicked things, because to continually hang out with them is to become complicit in their criminal activities. One becomes guilty by association simply by joining up with them and refusing to let them know that what they are doing is evil. The same thing is also true amongst the followers of Christ Jesus. There was fornication going on within the Corinthians church and the Apostle Paul told the church that they needed to separate themselves from the offenders. Christ Jesus commands us to disassociate ourselves from those who claim to be Christian who are involved with the wicked works of darkness, because otherwise you become guilty by association.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 (KJB) It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
Sometimes people will get involved with sin in the church but they refuse to repent of what they have done. These are the kind of people that you need to keep separate from, because sinful living has still got a hold of their hearts. Keeping your distance from them is sometimes referred to as shunning, but it is exactly what we must do in order to keep ourselves pure and in perfect alignment with the will of God. There are many examples throughout the scriptures of men who separated themselves from those who were involved with wicked living. Lot came out of Sodom and Gomorrah before it was destroyed by God. Moses came out of Egypt before God eventually sent plagues and pestilence upon it. Noah came out from the wickedness of the world and spent a good part of his life building the ark. Perhaps your parents warned you to keep away from certain children on the school bus because they knew that they were a bad influence on your life. So you see, it’s a good thing to keep separate from certain people, especially those in the church who refuse to repent of sin, something that is commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (KJB) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Although separation from impenitence is commanded in Scripture, when you enter into a marriage you are forbidden from divorcing a spouse for whatever the reason. The marriage union is not to be put asunder because they are permanently connected through the bond of Holy Matrimony, a covenant that is to be kept until death. But when people refuse to confess their sins look in the church, and admit the wickedness of what they have done to God and others, it is because they have become filled up with the pride of the devil. We are not to join up with others who are actively involved with the wicked works of darkness, but with those who call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart.
Ephesians 5:9-13 (KJB) (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
People should be mature enough in the Christian Life to be capable of judging what’s right and wrong according to the teachings of God’s Holy Word, not only in their own life, but in the lives of others.
1 Peter 4:17-18 (KJB) For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
When people are involved with the wicked works of darkness, and refuse to repent of what they have done, we are commanded to come out and be separate from them. Those who continue to maintain these relationships prove that they love them more than Christ Jesus, and in the process they verify that they are unworthy of the kingdom of God, and are,….
……Guilty by Association
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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