Correction in the Body of Christ

[Alive]

What does this look like?

 

Let’s say that an individual joins a fellowship of believers. Perhaps a brick and mortar congregation or a home fellowship.

Let’s start with a brick and mortar fellowship. This individual exhibits a great deal of knowledge of scripture and can even quote a lot of verses. The Pastor is in need of a gifted teacher for a Thursday bible study that has been very popular, but the teacher has gone on to be with the Lord. After a time, the Pastor begins to hear indications that some folks are not sure about some things they are hearing from this new teacher, so he looks into it and discovers that indeed something is amiss.

This teacher has begun to wander into some things that are contrary to the profession of faith and what the Pastor teaches. It has also come to his attention that some younger in the faith members have expressed confusion and that one of them has mentioned they may quit attending.

What is the Pastor to do. Well, of course the pastor is very familiar with the ‘pastoral epistles that Paul is responsible for and takes his counsel from them. The Pastor is a very loving and caring man and takes his shepherding responsibilities for his flock seriously.

So he reviews some verses prayerfully before his Lord.

2Tim. 2:24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,

2Tim. 4:2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

 

The Pastor has a talk with this new teacher and explains what the issues are and they come to an understanding. The new teacher agrees to stop talking about those things and to stick with the gospel as indicated. The Pastor spends the next couple of weeks in meetings with the offended members and preaches on Sundays and Wednesdays on those topics to reinforce the Truth and put the members at ease. His efforts toward that one young believer are not successful, so vulnerable a soul as she is—she stopped attending.

Some time passes and the Pastor begins to hear those same rumblings only this time some individuals are expressing anger and confusion as to how and why their loving Pastor is allowing this.

What is this Pastor to do? The now not so new teacher has been gently warned and even agreed and yet is back at it again—disrupting the assembly and confusing the members. Only this time, the Pastor’s own fidelity is in question and this has the potential to be devastating to the assembly. In addition, the Pastor has come to understand that some of those bible study attendees have come to agree with the new teacher and to think their Pastor has been wrong all along.

It is obvious that this situation must be dealt with and that this status quo cannot continue. The flock is in danger and the unity of the church is in peril.

What place does behaving in a gentle, loving and patient way with longsuffering have in the Pastor’s next moves? Where does his loyalty lie?

The Pastor is not a dull man and he knows full well that whatever he does, not everyone is going to be happy. You see, a wolf has entered the flock.

Where does his loyalty lie and what is he to do?

[simplejeff]

The title says "in the body".... as if the assembly was already in the body...

But the description given in the op of the 'church' in the op

is far from the body,   the body as described even just in Ephesians,   let alone also as necessary in Philippians,  Colossians,  etc ....

So the 'correction' required by God in His Word is to "come out of her "  the instructions to and  for "My (God's ) people" ,  not to try to correct a 'church' so full of error.

 

48 minutes ago, Alive said:

It is obvious that this situation must be dealt with and that this status quo cannot continue. The flock is in danger and the unity of the church is in peril.

What place does behaving in a gentle, loving and patient way with longsuffering have in the Pastor’s next moves? Where does his loyalty lie?

The Pastor is not a dull man and he knows full well that whatever he does, not everyone is going to be happy. You see, a wolf has entered the flock.

Where does his loyalty lie and what is he to do?

 

 

[dhchristian]

What if the Pastor is the one that is in error, and the "gifted teacher" was sent to correct that error? 

From a Link Posted By @OneLight on another topic that stuck with me when I read it for such a purpose as this, no doubt.

Thus, the simple saving faith that unites us to Christ cannot exist without repentance. The heart at war with God will not love and trust Christ until the enmity dissipates and Christ is embraced for the glorious Lord and Savior He is. At the same time, our knowledge remains imperfect and our best works tainted with sin. In fact, as Edwards paraphrased Shepard, “sometimes the change made in a saint, at first, is like a confused chaos; so that the saints know not what to make of it.”¹ Nonetheless, the heart must change and the fruit of the transformation emerge, even while our love and gratitude for His grace have barely begun to grasp the height of His excellence. By the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, our new nature will display itself in new affections, a new direction, new priorities, and good works, even if they are not immediately and always visible to others at every moment. The change will be real and enduring. Thus, repentance always accompanies saving faith, even as it contributes nothing to justification according to God’s perfect standard of righteousness, the standard met by Christ—alone. And so, with faith and new hearts of love to Christ, we sing, “In my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”

https://bible.org/article/why-saving-faith-impossible-without-repentance

You see, before there can be a unity of the Spirit there is a winnowing, and the LORD will send out his winnowers to sift the wheat and remove the chaff, For Judgment Begins at the House of God. (1 Peter 4:17) 

Can the Pastor still be taught?  or is he himself stuck in a rut, and beginning to rot? 

 

[leah777]

46 minutes ago, dhchristian said:

What if the Pastor is the one that is in error, and the "gifted teacher" was sent to correct that error? 

That isn't the situation described. 

[simplejeff]

PHILLIPS

The time has evidently arrived for God’s judgment to begin, and it is beginning at his own House. And if it starts with us, what is it going to mean to those who refuse to obey the Gospel of God? ‘If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?’.

This has nothing to do with the winnowing described in Scripture,  which winnowing is accomplished by the angels of God.

 

The unity, or the union , as described in the NT,  of the Ekklesia,  was accomplished by the Father in Heaven, already in ACTS,  etc....

and in later centuries too,   though unknown publicly,  then and today, in or to the world....

1 Corinthians 2:14-16

But the unspiritual man simply cannot accept the matters which the Spirit deals with—they just don’t make sense to him, for, after all, you must be spiritual to see spiritual things. The spiritual man, on the other hand, has an insight into the meaning of everything, though his insight may baffle the man of the world. This is because the former is sharing in God’s wisdom, and ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ Incredible as it may sound, we who are spiritual have the very thoughts of Christ!

 

58 minutes ago, dhchristian said:

You see, before there can be a unity of the Spirit there is a winnowing, and the LORD will send out his winnowers to sift the wheat and remove the chaff, For Judgment Begins at the House of God. (1 Peter 4:17)