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Evangelism
The church may be called upon to dismiss from their fellowship
those who will not be corrected. It is a painful duty that has to be done.
Sad indeed is such a step, and it should not be taken until every other
means of correcting and saving the one in error has failed.
Christ never made peace by anything like compromise. The hearts
of God’s servants will overflow with love and sympathy for the erring,
as represented by the parable of the lost sheep; but they will have no
soft words for sin. They show the truest friendship who reprove error
and sin without partiality and without hypocrisy. Jesus lived in the
midst of a sinful and perverse generation. He could not be at peace
with the world unless He left them unwarned, unreproved, and this
would not be in accordance with the plan of salvation.—
Letter 12,
1890
.
Dealing With Wrongs in God’s Way—God is not pleased with
the slothful work done in the churches. He expects His stewards to be
true and faithful in giving reproof and correction. They are to expel
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wrong after the rule God has given in His Word, not according to their
own ideas and impulses. No harsh means must be used, no unfair,
hasty, impulsive work done. The efforts made to cleanse the church
from moral uncleanness must be made in God’s way. There must be
no partiality, no hypocrisy. There must be no favorites, whose sins are
regarded as less sinful than those of others. Oh, how much we all need
the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Then we shall always work with the
mind of Christ, with kindness, compassion, and sympathy, showing
love for the sinner while hating sin with a perfect hatred.—
Manuscript
8a, 1888
.
How Paul Corrected Wrongs—Contentions in the body of be-
lievers are not after the order of God. They result from the manifesta-
tion of the attributes of the natural heart. To all who bring in disorder
and disunion, the words of Paul are applicable: “I, brethren, could not
speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes
in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto
ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” Paul here
addressed a people whose advancement was not proportionate to their
privileges and opportunities. They ought to have been able to bear
the hearing of the plain Word of God, but they were in the position in
which the disciples were when Christ said to them, “I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” They ought to