This study describes the wheat and tare mixed nature of the church and its consequences in our relationship with the church especially as ministers.
by Missionary David R. Cox
In Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus teaching on the nature of salvation, the kingdom of heaven, the church, put forth this parable of the wheat and the tares. The main points of the parable is that for the present time, there is somewhat a mixture within what is the visible (confessing) church. There are some who claim to be saved, but truly are not saved.
Jesus points out
Now having said that, the main conclusion we should draw from His teaching is that we as individuals or as a church should not hold trials and go to extremes in trying to root out the unsaved, the unbeliever, from our churches. This is what the Catholic Church did in the Inquisition, and it is unbiblical.
But having said that, let's not go too far in that direction to be unbalanced.
We as a church rally around a single point, we confess Jesus Christ as our Savior. Simply put, anyone who does not confess Christ is not allowed, or we should not accept into our fellowship as a brother. That is the main condition for acceptance in our church.
Now there comes in here one main point here where we do judge and act against our fellow "brethren in Christ". This is when that person lives in open unrepented sin. 1 John is of great help here. 1 John 1:8-10 states that ALL people, Christians, and mature Christians included, still sin constantly.
But later in his epistle, John gives us the basic tools with which to discern "who is our brother?" or to identify the true Christians.
1 John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
1 John 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. 10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
1 John 2:29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
1 John 3:6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. 7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
1 John 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
In summary of these verses, John clearly gives us the go ahead to discern who is our brother. The reason being is that there are two clear points here that define who is saved, (1) because he obeys God and does not habitually sin, and (2) because he loves his brothers in Christ. There is no way we can love certain people in this world without discerning who they are.
In chapter 4 John explains that God is love, in other words, God's essence is love, and in order to be like God (all saved are to be like God, their Savior), they must love. Love requires an object outside of itself. Self-love is not biblical. So we must love our brethren.
The point here is that there are certain unsaved among us. But everybody in the community of the church without exception must confess Christ. If there are visitors or constant attenders that come to our services and events but do not confess Christ, we welcome them and make them feel at home, but they are not part of us, they are not members, and they cannot act in voting and in certain internal activities.
Of those who claim Christ and membership with the church, they must publicly confess Christ, and those in the church leadership must screen those without valid testimonies from membership. In practical outworking of this, the Pastor must be the one who says no to not let certain individuals into the church. Having said that, it sounds worse than it is. Simply the Pastor hears the testimony of the person wanting church membership, and if he does not clearly say his faith in Jesus Christ is what saved him, then the Pastor takes him into counseling to explain with verses until he understands. In perhaps a rare case, somebody will be so stubborn as to refuse the verses and explain of the pastor and the pastor will have to refuse his petition for membership. In general, anybody who "fails" this "test" of confessing Christ is taken and proctored until he understands and answers correctly.
Is Church Membership Necessary?
Sinning Church Members
The fact that some people "slip by" this requirement of entrance into the community of the church is a given. But Christ's teaching is that we are not necessarily to go on witch hunts. Those who are unsaved will manifest themselves, and when their lifestyles become apparent that they are unsaved, living in rebellion to God without remorse or repentance, the church must become active and discipline that person. For every true Christian that falls into sin, there is a desire and activity on his part to stop sinning. We are to help in every way possible these people and to not "discipline" them.
But there are some individuals that are very smug in their sins, and these are the ones we must confront, discipline, and if they do not respond and work with us, we must reject publicly before the church as "not really being our brethren". 1 Corinthians 5 deals with just such a case. Paul's rebuke was that there was open, unrepentant sin among the congregation, and nobody cared, nobody dealt with it, nobody confronted it.
My contention is that the Pastor's job is to fix whatever is wrong and the pastor in the church at Corinth should have taken action. But I will concede here that the facts of the Bible are totally against my contention. Pastors are mentioned in these epistles of Paul except rarely, and it would seem that the situation was that the pastor was not who was wrong, but rather the congregation in general because the exhortation and epistle is addressed basically to the church as a whole, and Paul does not single out the Pastor.
Indeed, a cutting off of fellowship with the unrepentant fellow church member has to be a church-wide affair, where all decide together to not fellowship or eat or be friends with that person.
Summary
So we who are pastors and leaders should understand that there are always some "sleeper" unsaved people among those who we count as members. Those who preach should keep that in mind and regularly and frequently present salvation messages even to the "home folk" in hopes of turning a responsive note in one of these.
In general, we assume (at least publicly) that all who are members are saved. This is a requirement for membership and inclusion in the church.
Furthermore we refuse to accept sinning behavior among our membership, especially when it is open or public, and it is not linked with remorse and repentance and efforts and desires to change. If the person shows a rejection of his sin, even if he still falls into it on occasion, we help him. Only when a person shows no desire to stop sinning is when we have to remove them from our ranks.