A few years ago there was a national controversy concerning allegations of immorality made against the man who was then President. He had been accused of serious and repeated sexual mis\u00adconduct. The President and his aides vehemently denied any wrongdoing. What could be done? How could we know if he was guilty, or not guilty? Should those denials simply be accepted and everyone move on, or should there be a thorough investigation?<\/p>\n
The answers to questions like these, of course, are to be found in a search for verifiable evidence. At that time, the public sought to know if there was com\u00adpelling proof that the reported deeds actually took place. In that specific case, the evidence indicated that the President was guilty, and not only that but had lied to cover it up. Again, provable evidence was the key.<\/p>\n
Now, to the point — what if we believe a brother has sinned, but he denies that it happened? Must we accept his denial and leave it at that? Obviously, some things are more easily investigated than others. “Murder, drunkenness and revellings<\/em>” will be more simple to discern than “wrath, strife, seditions and heresy<\/em>,” but all are “works of the flesh<\/em>,” and those who commit these things “shall not inherit the kingdom of God<\/em>” (Galatians 5:19-21). If we are truly concerned with our brother, we will not ignore sins that will cost his soul.<\/p>\n Jesus offered the answer to our dilemma of discerning those sins of the heart. He said: “. . . every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them<\/em>” (Matthew 7:17-20). And so, we have all been given the job of “inspecting fruit.” And when we see the evil fruit, we must seek to “restore such a one in the spirit of meekness<\/em>” (Galatians 6:1).<\/p>\n It is very common for men to deny their sins when first confronted. This reaction dates all the way back to the Garden of Eden! It is our job as loving brethren to “covert the sinner from the error of his way<\/em>,” and “save a soul from death<\/em>” (James 5:20).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Greg Gwin A few years ago there was a national controversy concerning allegations of immorality made against the man who was then President. He had been accused of serious and repeated sexual mis\u00adconduct. The President and his aides vehemently denied any wrongdoing. What could be done? How could we know if he was guilty,…<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1598],"class_list":["post-56873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-rebukes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19636,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-you-have-evidence-that-your-husband-committed-murder-should-you-tell-the-police\/","url_meta":{"origin":56873,"position":0},"title":"If you have evidence that your husband committed murder, should you tell the police?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a friend who married a guy while he was in jail. She says she has evidence that her husband tried to murder a guy. He pleaded innocent, but the jury thought he was guilty. He still keeps his innocent plea. He is abusive toward his wife --verbally,\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":38305,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-you-dont-have-concrete-evidence-that-your-spouse-is-committing-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":56873,"position":1},"title":"What if you don’t have concrete evidence that your spouse is committing adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you for your web site. I have a question that you sort of touched on in a post, but I wanted to confirm. What if a spouse strongly suspects infidelities but has no concrete evidence? (The post I referenced involved a husband who may have been seeing prostitutes.)\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":56277,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-foolishness-of-hasty-judgments\/","url_meta":{"origin":56873,"position":2},"title":"The Foolishness of Hasty Judgments","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steven Harper The wise writer said,\u00a0\"If one gives\u00a0an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame\" (Proverbs 18:13). But how foolish men are in making hasty judgments, often without hearing the evidence - or at least\u00a0all\u00a0of the evidence. Daily - on local and nationwide radio talk shows,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57439,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/insufficient-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":56873,"position":3},"title":"Insufficient Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Allen Dvorak Perpetua and Felicitas were two young women who were martyred in A.D. 203 at Carthage, victims of the Roman persecution of the church. \u00a0When they were condemned to die in the arena, Perpetua was a woman of 22 years with a young child and Felicitas was pregnant. \u00a0Tertullian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/examining.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3716,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-my-responsibility-when-i-know-that-a-person-is-sinning-within-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":56873,"position":4},"title":"What is my responsibility when I know that a person is sinning within the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is my responsibility when I know that a person is sinning within the church? The church that I attend has been hit with past and present members being charged by the law for pedophilia: one member has received a seven-year jail sentence; there is a woman who once\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":53563,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-the-pharisee-be-guilty-of-the-unforgivable-sin-with-just-a-few-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":56873,"position":5},"title":"How could the Pharisee be guilty of the unforgivable sin with just a few words?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm scared, for I've been wondering whether the Pharisees commit the unforgivable sin by just once saying blasphemous things about the Holy Spirit. I know it's said that the unforgivable sin isn't any single act from which there's no more turning back, but how does it seem that only\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\/56873","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=56873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}