Restoring Believers to Fellowship

In my last post I think I discussed Scott Williams' post on insecurity in a very theoretical way, probably way too theoritical and not very practical. Theoretically, we are forgiven and thus we should act like it. But that doesn't look at the practical side that there are lots of people out there that are still suffering because of their past. As Scott said,

The sad fact is that few of us need a visit by a spirit to reount our past failings. We are masters at remembering our shortcomings. It is not necessary for most of us that someone points out our faults, we are keenly aware of our failings, often keeping a mental list, exhaustive in it’s scope and subjectivity. We replay the past, again and again. We see it projected on the screen of our minds. We live with regrets.

We are haunted by our past even though we are forgiven for it. It is easy to quote how we should be acting, but how do we react to those with a long list of regrets? How does the church restore fellowship with those who are already forgiven by Christ?

In John 8:3-4 The Bible says,

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, (4) they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act."

What was Jesus' response?

John 8:7, 10-11 the Bible says,

(7) But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

(10) Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" (11) She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you either, Go. From now on sin no more."

I believe it is our responsibility to restore people to fellowship with the Body of Christ. Jesus pointed out the woman's sin, but did not condemn her. Then He commanded her to go and sin no more. It obviously hurts the Body of Christ if we condone sin, but for too long we have been condemning the sinner, instead of dealing with sin compassionately. Going back to John 8:7, who among the Body of Christ should be throwing stones? The only one who was qualified to throw the first stone was Jesus, and he chose to forgive and restore fellowship with the woman. We should be following His example. Instead of being critical and throwing stones, we need to be welcoming our brothers and sisters with open arms and helping them walk through the deep valleys of their life.

Scott mentions many regrets people in the church have:

· Regret over divorce. Regret over broken relationships of all kinds.
· Regret over mistakes you made raising your kids.
· Regret over bad career moves, missed business opportunities, poor vocational choices.
· Regret at not following God’s call to the ministry, or His call to become a missionary.
· In general, regret over all kinds of sins and their consequences. [You fill in the blank].

We, as a collective Body of Christ, should be embracing these people, patting them on the back, telling them everything will be alright, and reminding them that Christ died so that they are pure and holy in God's sight. Then we need to walk them hand in hand through the good and bad, helping them to live a life characterized by the fruit of the Spirit rather than missing the mark because of the consequences of bad decisions they have made in their past. Praise the Lord that we serve a God of second chances. I truly believe this should be one of the core values of the church today. There are so many broken people that could be living victorious lives in Christ if we choose to respond to them in a non-condemning, but compassionate way.