Hello all,
Do these verses show us what to do in these situations.
1Co 5:1 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.
1Co 5:2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:3 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.
1Co 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5 To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Co 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1Co 5:7 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:
1Co 5:8 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.
1Co 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:10 Yet not altogether the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
1Co 5:11 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 a one no not to eat.
1Co 5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
1Co 5:13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
The instruction continues in 2 Corinth.
2Co 2:6 In the case of such a person the punishment which was inflicted by the majority of you is enough.
2Co 2:7 So that
you may now take the opposite course, and
forgive him rather and comfort him, for fear he should perhaps be
driven to despair by his excess of grief. 2Co 2:8 I beg you therefore fully to
reinstate him in your love.
2Co 2:10 When you forgive a man an offence I also forgive it; for in fact what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has always been for your sakes in the presence of Christ,
2Co 2:11 for fear Satan should gain an advantage over us. For we are not ignorant of his devices.
2Co 2:15 For we are a
fragrance of Christ grateful to God in those whom He is saving and in those who are perishing;
2Co 2:16 to the last-named an
odor of death predictive of death, and to the others an odor of life predictive of life. And for such service as this who is competent?
2Co 7:10 For
godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, a repentance not to be regretted;
but the sorrow of the world finally produces death.
2Co 7:12 Therefore, though I wrote to you,
it was not to punish the offender, nor to secure justice for him who had suffered the wrong, but it was chiefly in order that your earnest feeling on our behalf might become manifest to yourselves in the sight of God.
Seems to me, we are to not associate with a person who continues in these sins. If the one has been given faith in Christt, and shows no sign of repentance, then release them, turn them over to satan for the destruction of their flesh.
But if God is working in this person, Godly sorrow will eventually produce repentance. At this time, reinstate this person into love.
But what about the homosexual who isn't, a carnal Christian. For me, we are to not associate with them, but we can love them by praying for them, caring for them, demonstrating God's love. If they are one that God has called and chosen, we will be a fragrance of Christ to them.
Any thots?