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Church of Christ
51
Judas Given Opportunities
Jesus knew that Judas was defective in character, but notwith-
standing this, He accepted him as one of the disciples, and gave
him the same opportunities and privileges that He gave to the others
whom He had chosen. Judas was left without excuse in the evil
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course he afterward pursued. Judas might have become a doer of
the word, as were eventually Peter and James and John and the other
disciples. Jesus gave precious lessons of instruction, so that those
who were associated with Him might have been converted, and have
no need of clinging to the defects that marred their characters.
The Church Not Perfect
Some people seem to think that upon entering the church they
will have their expectations fulfilled, and meet only with those who
are pure and perfect. They are zealous in their faith, and when they
see faults in church members, they say, “We left the world in order
to have no association with evil characters, but the evil is here also;”
and they ask, as did the servants in the parable, “From whence then
hath it tares?” But we need not be thus disappointed, for the Lord
has not warranted us in coming to the conclusion that the church is
perfect; and all our zeal will not be successful in making the church
militant as pure as the church triumphant. The Lord forbids us to
proceed in any violent way against those whom we think erring, and
we are not to deal out excommunications and denunciations to those
who are faulty.
Finite man is likely to misjudge character, but God does not leave
the work of judgment and pronouncing upon character to those who
are not fitted for it. We are not to say what constitutes the wheat,
and what the tares. The time of the harvest will fully determine the
character of the two classes specified under the figure of the tares
and the wheat. The work of separation is given to the angels of God,
and not committed into the hands of any man.
False doctrine is one of the satanic influences that work in the
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church, and brings into it those who are unconverted in heart. Men
do not obey the words of Jesus Christ, and thus seek for unity in
faith, spirit, and doctrine. They do not labor for the unity of spirit for
which Christ prayed, which would make the testimony of Christ’s