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To: gobucks
Indeed. I agree with your assessment. IT also raises another problem as well. What about backsliders? I have made a point to ask every backslider I have met if there was any point where you stopped believing in Jesus as Lord. To a person their answer was "no." So we must use some common sense in dealing with this issue for if we judge that person on there works, then we do a disservice to that person.

As Paul remarked, "if a brother is overtaken in a fault, LET HIM WHO IS SPIRITUAL go to him in a spirit of meekness (gentleness) considering himself, lest he also be tempted.

I would think that the Scriptures tell us to judge carefully and in the right spirit. The one thought that should always be on our minds is that we are fighting FOR folks, not against them. That does not mean that we overlook sin, but that we deal with it in the appropriate ways.

The pendulum seems to always swing to total rejection or total acceptance, neither of which do I think are biblical. There is a process that is opened to us in Matthew 18 to deal with these things. We cannot rush to judgment, rather we must be sufficiently acquainted with a person to know their situation. Is this a lamb that is lost and the Savior is leaving the 99 to seek them out? Or is this a person that has truly never made Christ a part of their life?

I like what you brought out about being accepted and that force being the motivation to do works. I think you are right on. James said that "faith without works is dead." I think we can also project from the scriptures that "works without faith is also dead."
31 posted on 11/05/2004 8:13:54 AM PST by nasachen
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To: nasachen

"The one thought that should always be on our minds is that we are fighting FOR folks, not against them."

On FR, that is rare; even me. I'm working, heh heh, on it!!!

Thanks for this exchange!


34 posted on 11/05/2004 8:47:55 AM PST by gobucks (http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/classics/students/Ribeiro/laocoon.htm)
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