{"id":85576,"date":"2025-03-12T14:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T19:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=85576"},"modified":"2025-03-12T14:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T19:58:07","slug":"letter-from-an-inmate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/letter-from-an-inmate\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from an Inmate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by David Gibson<\/p>\n

In a file folder labeled “Hypocrisy,” I found some correspondence I had forgotten all about. It was a letter from an inmate and my reply to his questions.<\/p>\n

The inmate’s letter:<\/h2>\n

There is a whole bunch of guys here who read their Bible and go to church and even the prayer circle, but they have near-naked books sent in and pictures that they swap, sell, and sneak around with, along with these books.<\/p>\n

It seems they are OK with the Lord and the church, but they still break the rules and do things they should not.<\/p>\n

Because of this, I stopped going to the prayer circle and don’t run around with these guys or study with them. They approach me and start talking about the Lord, and it’s hard for me to accept anything they say. I want to know whether I am wrong about this.<\/p>\n

One brother knows the Scripture well and quotes it like the Lord Himself, yet he sneaks around and steals cleaning supplies, which bothers me. What should I do? For the life of me, I can’t make myself love this brother.<\/p>\n

My reply<\/h2>\n

Sometimes, people compartmentalize their lives. They have a category for work, one for family, one for recreation, one for God, etc. But, of course, God owns the whole box and everything in it-our whole lives, bodies, and time 24\/7. We are to honor Him in our work, family, recreation, etc. Until a person realizes this, he may try to keep his religion separate from other aspects of his life and not realize this does not work and cannot please God. It is also hypocritical.<\/p>\n

I can certainly understand why you would not want to be in a prayer or study group with those guys.<\/p>\n

There are at least two kinds of people we might do well to avoid:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Those who might influence us to do wrong (I Corinthians 15:33) and<\/li>\n
  2. those who have resisted our efforts to teach them (Matthew 10:14-15; Acts 13:44-51).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nIs it possible, however, that some of these guys could be helped to realize what they are doing to themselves? You mentioned in a previous letter that you were in a class on the Pursuit of Holiness.
    \nBeing holy (set apart for God’s purposes) includes being sexually pure in mind and body (I Thessalonians 4:1-8) and in all other aspects of our lives.\n

    Are any of these guys in the Pursuit of Holiness class? If you think it would help them to attend, you might encourage them to come. If you discuss in the class, what if you were to ask, “Can a person be holy and look at porn?” Or “Can a person be holy and steal?” Or you may wish to explain your concerns privately to the one who leads the study and ask him to address this in class.<\/p>\n

    What I wish I had also said in my letter:<\/h2>\nAt some point, have we, too, played the hypocrite? How easy it is to do! On one occasion, when Peter acted hypocritically, Paul reproved him, and Peter evidently repented (Galatians 2:11ff.).
    \nOf course, it doesn’t always turn out so well. But, very possibly, God may be able to use us to pierce some hardened hearts and help them see the better way.\n

    “. . . with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will<\/em>” (II Timothy 2:25-27 NASB).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Hypocrites need love, too.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by David Gibson In a file folder labeled “Hypocrisy,” I found some correspondence I had forgotten all about. It was a letter from an inmate and my reply to his questions. The inmate’s letter: There is a whole bunch of guys here who read their Bible and go to church and even the prayer circle,…<\/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":[418],"class_list":["post-85576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-hypocrites"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34636,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-was-the-church-in-smyrna-established\/","url_meta":{"origin":85576,"position":0},"title":"When was the church in Smyrna established?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Brother Hamilton, Our local fellowship of congregations has been impacted by the doctrine of Preterism, with a number of problems caused by one individual in particular who has garnered a small but aggressive group of followers holding to Max King's teachings. In an article on your site, \"70 A.D.\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":24186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-came-to-the-same-conclusion-regarding-the-letter-to-laodicea-that-you-did\/","url_meta":{"origin":85576,"position":1},"title":"I came to the same conclusion regarding the letter to Laodicea that you did","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. After reading Colossians during one of my personal studies, I came across the reference to the letter from Laodicea. I wanted to find out more, so I read many commentaries to try to see what this\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":90473,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/quit-your-whining\/","url_meta":{"origin":85576,"position":2},"title":"Quit Your Whining","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Paul Sheehan One of the most popular books in the New Testament is the letter Paul wrote to the Philippians. It seems to be so well-liked because Paul has so many positive things to say about serving the Lord. The words joy and rejoicing are mentioned over 16 times.\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":840,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-paul-ever-in-colosse\/","url_meta":{"origin":85576,"position":3},"title":"Was Paul ever in Colosse?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is there any information or evidence that Paul was ever in Colossae? Answer: Paul did work in the region where Colosse was located, which was called Asia at that time in an area called Phrygia (Acts 16:6; 18:23). Paul also taught in Ephesus and the Bible tells us \"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":17020,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-bible-mentions-other-books-doesnt-that-prove-the-bible-to-be-incomplete\/","url_meta":{"origin":85576,"position":4},"title":"The Bible mentions other books, doesn’t that prove the Bible to be incomplete?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you tell me why there are so many books talked about in the Bible that are not part of the Bible? Here is a list of them: book of the wars of the Lord (Numbers 21:14), book of Jasher (Joshua 10:13; II Samuel 1:18), book of the acts\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":59809,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-spirit-of-the-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":85576,"position":5},"title":"The Spirit of the Law","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dale Smelser As noted in a recent class discussion, Christians dedicated to living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4), are derided for trying to keep the letter of the law, when their efforts rather should be expended on keeping the spirit of the\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85576","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=85576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}