I'm sure you feel more qualified than the 2,000 "Roman Catholic Church" to tell me what scripture means in my life, but I'm also sure you can find enough charity in your heart to understand that some of us would prefer to rely on the wisdom of the Magesterium. I'm sorry if you find that so evil or offensive.
I'm certainly not qualified to tell you that your church is wrong. My intention is only to explain that some people trust the theological scholars of the Catholic Church, and may not be willing to accept everything an anonymous poster claims from his own church, or personal heart. How would you respond if a stranger made claims about you that were complete falsehoods?
I have no doubt you are being honest about your convictions. I questions the source of your convictions. What church do you belong to? I promise I will not make accusations that aren't historically factual.
I am a Christian, and go to a Christian church.
I nowhere encouraged you or the Catholic Church to condemn anyone. I simply encouraged you and the Catholic Church to follow the clear teachings of Scripture in exercising church discipline.
To illustrate: The police don’t arrest anyone for entering a bank and thinking how much they could make if they were to rob the bank, and beginning to make a plan. If the same person ever returns, sticks a gun in the face of a teller and says “Hand over your money.”, then the police are going to act to apprehend the bank robber so they can be tried, possibly convicted, and even executed (if someone is killed in the commission of the crime). BTW, that doesn’t mean the bank robber can’t go to heaven, if they repent.
You have to determine what Scripture means in your life, and how to apply it which is why I included 1 Corinthians 5 in my post on church discipline. It speaks directly to application based on the BEHAVIOR of the offender.
As I stated before, only God can take someone to heaven, or let them slip into hell (despite the Catholic Church’s past practice of selling indulgences, which helped spark the Protestant Reformation), but He has given judgment to men in their temporal relationships to one another, including within the church.
1 Corinthians 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
Last I heard, the Catholic Church has no problem going into courts of law. Indeed, I think there are 5 (or so) Catholics on the United States Supreme Court. However, the apostle Paul says we are NOT to go to court with a brother before unbelievers, but we ARE to judge one another in the church.
You are free to choose what you believe about/from the Scriptures, and what source(s) you choose to get your information and recognize as authorities on what they say.
I would encourage you to be the best follower of Jesus you can be, within or without the Catholic Church, and if your loyalty to one ever brings you into conflict with your loyalty to the other — then you will have a choice to make.
So don’t try and cop a “don’t condemn” plea. Neither you, nor the Catholic Church has the power to condemn:
Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
BTW, the Bible is not anonymous, even if I “am” and you “are,” and you are obviously intelligent enough to decide what it means for yourself.
By questioning my convictions, you are questioning the Bible, which is the source of my convictions, and which I quoted to illustrate. And lest you misinterpret, I encourage you to question the Bible, which I do, because it has its own answers and a God big enough (and small enough) to explain them. Your interpretations will not always be right — but they will be yours, as will the relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit you develop through knowing His word.
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.