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Here is a quote from another guild that I am in. It is my quote and it was part of an answer to a member who feels like Christians can be close minded because they believe their faith is the one true faith, and everyone else is wrong:



I think that as Christians we can be guilty about shutting people out, because we are told it is best not to associate with them. I think we take that too far, because from what I understand of what Paul was saying (and this is just me) we aren't supposed to associate with people who are different if we aren't strong enough to hold our own. Which means (for example) that if we can't be around a vegetarian or a meat eater without getting upset or weak, then don't sit by them at the supper table. But of we can sit by them and eat a meal in peace and take their differences, then by all means sit with them and share your stories of the gospel and God's love. If we are too afraid to sit with our enemies, then we can't spread God's word to those who don't know it. In a way, I think as Christians it is our job to associate with people who are our enemies so we can share the gospel. And if sharing doesn't do them any good, and if they refuse to listen, then by all means move on. It is their choice to follow the Lord, and we can't make them.

It's sad to say, but when I was in high school I dressed in black a lot, but still considered myself Christian. I believed that we were all sinners and that Jesus was sent to save us. I just felt more comfortable in what I dressed in because I didn't feel comfortable in the "preppy" type clothes. Anyway what's sad is that the people who gave me the most grief were kids that were deeply involved in churches and prayer groups. It's because of some of those people that I stopped going to church and kind of shut God out. I can't really blame them for my decision to do so, but their hurtful words led me to doubt scripture. I even had a Christian teacher ask me once if I worshiped the devil. I told her that she should know better than that, knowing what kind of kid/student i was. My friends and I wore black a lot yes, but we were also some of the happiest and laughing kids in the school. We loved playing harmless pranks and everyone knew that we would always have some jokes or funny stories to tell. We weren't popular really, but we weren't hated by the majority either. We weren't mean either. I mean as teenagers we said and did some stupid stuff, but we never shut someone out because they were different.

So I definitely agree that we shouldn't judge people by their looks or even by all their actions. We need to take our time and see what we can do for others before we decide to throw away our relationship with them.

YHWH gave commands telling us not to accept money if the money was earned by committing sin (transgression of the law):

Deuteronomy 23:18 (ESV)

18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog[a] into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

Footnotes:

a. Deuteronomy 23:18 Or male prostitute


Matthew 27:6 (ESV)

6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.”

Money earned by prostitution or murder/assassination cannot be used for the purposes of God/come into his temple. Whether I agree/disagree with the way her church handled the situation is dependent upon how exactly this money was earned by the believer. Encouraging people to, "do good instead of evil" is to encourage them to submit to God's law/definition of righteousness, not our own definition of righteousness, because our perception of righteousness is as filthy rags.

Deuteronomy 6:25 (ESV)

25 And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’


1 John 3:7 (ESV)

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.


Isaiah 64:6 (ESV)

6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
   and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
   We all fade like a leaf,
   and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.


Isaiah 55:9 (ESV)

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
   so are my ways higher than your ways
   and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And we're able to do that because of a renewed mind and the Holy Spirit within us:

Romans 7:25 (ESV)

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.


Romans 8:7-9 (ESV)

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.


Galatians 5:24-25 (ESV)

24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.


Ezekiel 36:27 (ESV)

27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[a]

Footnotes:

a. Ezekiel 36:27 Or my just decrees


1 John 3:4 (ESV)

4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.


Matthew 7:22-23 (ESV)

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Christians are not suppose to be lawless. If an act is in disaccord with the Father's law, it is sin, not acceptable, should not be encouraged. We should not accept money that a believer earned by committing a sin.




Christians need to quote the precise verse and read the precise verse, because recalling from memory muddles things up.

Paul said we are to not associate with fellow brothers/sisters in Christ if they refuse to repent of their sins. He's NOT saying to avoid associating with worldly people (because, yes, we need to evanglize, but not only that, we would need to be taken off the planet if that were so). This is not just a truth spoken by Paul, but instructed by Christ himself.

1 Corinthians 5:9-11 (ESV)

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.


Titus 3:10 (ESV)

10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,


Matthew 18:15-17(ESV)

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

If they don't repent of sin, don't want to repent of sin, then they're not really a brother or sister. How did Christ define "brother and sister"?

Matthew 12:50(ESV)

50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

This "shunning"/"not-intimately-involved-with-you" treatment of fellow believers isn't meant to be permanent though. It's suppose to shame them and lead them to repentance—if the shame doesn't convince them, then the mere act of handing them over to their sin so Satan can have his way / send something into their life, will motivate them to repent of their sin/transgression of God's law and finally leave it behind for good because of that ordeal. Handing the unrepentant believer over to Satan is the last resort however.

1 Timothy 1:20 (ESV)

20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.


1 Corinthians 5:5 (ESV)

5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.[a]

Footnotes:

a. 1 Corinthians 5:5 Some manuscripts add Jesus

Believers aside, and to address people still lost in the world, we can advise the world and lead them to the light, but there is no close fellowship, no confiding in them (thus what Jesus was referring to when he said, treat your brother as a Gentile or tax collector). That's the principle left behind by Jesus: the way Christ confided in his disciples is not how he shares with the rest of the world—because the rest of the world is not intimate / in covenant with him.

John 15:14-15 (ESV)

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant[b] does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Footnotes:

a. John 15:15 Greek bondservants
b. John 15:15 Greek bondservant; also verse 20


Matthew 13:10-11(ESV)

10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

Jesus went to sinners and Pharisees alike to get them to repent of their wicked ways. But "confiding in" type of relation was reserved for fellow disciples.

Now, about another verse she was referring to:

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (ESV)

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

We are to go out and disciple people, and we should put forth the effort to speak a person's language/culture/level of understanding without offending them, so as to bring the gospel to them. I agree with that part of the post/article ("I think the answer is clear--yes we should talk to them and be among them. People would have to wall themselves inside their homes to not ever interact with one of them"). However, if their culture calls for you to transgress God's law (which is what "sin" is according to 1 John 3:4), then don't.

And, again, the following is wrong/incomplete: there are conditions for accepting money. It has to be clean, not unrighteously earned. It's not about "liking" or "disliking" a person, it's about whether the money is even acceptable according to YHWH's/Jesus' standard. We can judge, just not hypocritically (the incomplete quotation of this verse is one of my all time pet peeves).



Because our Heavenly Father commands us to.

The judging verse in context:

Matthew 7:1-5 (ESV)

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

What "judge not lest you be judged" (btw, not what the KJV actually says, "Judge not, that ye be not judged") refers to is this: "if you judge others over something, be prepared to have them accuse you of the same thing". So that speck better be out of your own eye if you don't want to be embarrassed; that measure will be used right back to measure you too. So make sure it's out of your own eye, THEN you'll see clear enough to judge another.

Whether people are actually judging biblically or based on "not liking" isn't clear. The way she initially phrased it is not matching up with her later paragraphs which are now arguing "liking/disliking" people.



Underlined:Because God said to.
Bold: That was never the issue. Notice how it vaguely started out about a questionably immoral act and slowly devolved into "not liking" the person. This is unstable reasoning and shows a lack of concern for what scripture is actually saying or she's failing to grasp the actual circumstances going on in the church she was attending/the group of believers that was gathering.



Yes, it means we help all people, extending acts of compassion, care and concern to all. Not that we accept everything and anything into the church/fellowship/congregation/assembly of believers. It's supposed to be a holy/set-apart group. Nothing that is unholy will be allowed. The prideful unrepentant attitude that wants to stubbornly hold on to sin and earn money in sinful ways is unacceptable, New and Old Testament alike. But the post/article was so vague, I can't tell who is in the wrong—whether her or the people in her church.