Many people in the United States identify themselves as Christians. But far less of them actually attend church or know even basic biblical teachings. When we see such nominal Christians living sinfully, should we respond differently than we would to the sin of someone who goes to church and seems to be a committed Christian?
Yes, we do address sin differently with those who may call themselves Christian but seem to have no genuine Christian commitment. The apostle Paul talks about judging those within the church and then says:
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then, you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolatry, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have a to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside.
1 Cor. 5:9
Paul says here that we need to respond differently to the sins of those inside the church and the sins of those outside. And we should think of nominal Christians—people who don’t go to church and don’t really understand the gospel—as part of those who are outside the church.
If you ask most people on the street, probably 50% would say, “Yeah, I’m a Christian, I think that’s what I believe.” But if you ask those same people, “What is the gospel?”, they wouldn’t be able to answer. Tragically, if you asked a lot of people in church that same question, they’d also have a hard time answering it. But I’d still distinguish those in the church from nominal Christians. I would say in regard to those outside the church, “Yeah, I want to spend time with that person. I want them to understand what the gospel is and embrace it.”
For someone who is a member of the church, though, and begins to engage in openly sinful behavior, Paul says, “Don’t even eat with that person.” The idea isn’t to distance yourself from the person to be cruel. Instead, you want to help him see that he’s living in a way that puts his soul in peril. Spiritually speaking, his sin is destructive to himself and the people around him. So, you can’t just keep eating with him and hanging out like everything’s fine. You just can’t stand by while someone turns away from Jesus.That’s why we distance ourselves. With church discipline, our hope is always that repentance, healing, and restoration to the church will come.
So I’d distinguish between a member of the church who begins to live sinfully from someone who calls herself a Christian but isn’t part of a church. In the latter case, I’d say, “Let’s have her over for dinner. Let’s spend time with her and help her truly understand the gospel.”
This article is part of our Frequently Asked Questions series. Listen to Pastor Adriel answer this question on Core Radio here.
Dig deeper with these free resources from Core Christianity:
CORE QUESTIONS
How Can I Share My Faith?, Have I Committed the Unpardonable Sin?, Do I Have to Attend Church to be a Christian?
Core Guides
9 Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian, 7 Things Everyone Needs to Know about Repentance