“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner–not even to eat with such a person<\/em>” (I Corinthians 5:9-11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWe tend to socialize with people with whom we feel we have a common bond. The problem comes when someone is a Christian, but no longer practices the truth. If we continue our association with him we are telling him and the rest of the world that we find nothing disagreeable about the person.<\/p>\n
Though this man is now attending a denomination, you still acknowledge that he had been a pure Christian in his past. “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother<\/em>” (II Thessalonians 3:14-15). He is no longer obeying the commands of the apostles, so we are not to socialize with him to make our disagreement plain.<\/p>\nWhen you keep socializing with the man, you are encouraging him to remain as he is. Encouraging someone to remain in sin is also a sin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I have been studying your sermon outline “Withdraw Yourselves.” I have a friend who was once a member of the Lord’s church. He is now a member of a denomination. Your outline says that you cannot withdraw from a non-Christian. II John 10-11 says, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-19194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-withdrawal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36527,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-to-kick-people-out-of-the-church-for-openly-sinning-even-though-all-people-are-sinners\/","url_meta":{"origin":19194,"position":0},"title":"Is it right to kick people out of the church for openly sinning, even though all people are sinners?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it right to kick people out of the church for openly sinning, even though all people are sinners? I know one should not be unequally yoked with non-believers but does this apply to personal life or the church as well? Do you think churches should enforce the sins\u00a0they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46279,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/withdrawing-is-too-judgmental\/","url_meta":{"origin":19194,"position":1},"title":"Withdrawing is too judgmental","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You said, \"Because he is persisting in his sin, he must be withdrawn from. For a church not to do so is to given permission to sin,\" in A man now attends church as a transgender female. Should he be withdrawn from? I think that is way off. That\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43079,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-treat-our-daughter-who-says-she-is-now-a-homosexual\/","url_meta":{"origin":19194,"position":2},"title":"How do we treat our daughter who says she is now a homosexual?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How are we to treat a homosexual person?\u00a0 She is our daughter.\u00a0 This has never happened in our families before.\u00a0 We are so hurt by this.\u00a0 She was raised in a Christian home.\u00a0 We want her to come to her senses and live the way God wants her to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-brother-committing-fornication-be-used-in-church-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":19194,"position":3},"title":"Can a brother committing fornication be used in church worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, Brother Jeffrey, I need your help on this. There is a brother committing fornication. He stopped worshiping. The reason why he doesn't want to wed is that his sister, who is living abroad promised him to help him work abroad. If he gets married, he may not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27433,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-treat-my-brother-who-has-rejected-being-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":19194,"position":4},"title":"How do I treat my brother who has rejected being a Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a brother who became a Christian at a young age and when he was a teenager he turned rebellious. He is still rebelling over a decade later. He does not profess to be a Christian, he does not attend any church body or even desire to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31789,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-be-saved-and-in-a-denomination\/","url_meta":{"origin":19194,"position":5},"title":"Can you be saved and in a denomination?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I understand that the word \"church,\" as used in scripture, has two meanings: (1) the universal church - consisting of all redeemed souls that have obeyed the authorized steps of hearing the Word of God, believing (that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior), repenting (change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}