Quote:
Originally Posted by bearbear
Another perhaps more sadder perspective on this is provided by the parable of the sower.
Matthew 13:20-21
As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
|
While I did not have the time to dig up the reference, what about the parable of the tares? At some level (not necessarily every level), we are requested to leave it for the judgment. Let God be the one who winnows out the wheat from the chaff. The crop from the weeds.
That does not mean to tolerate simply anything and everything. But it does take aim at such edicts as to excommunicate someone for using an unpreferred publisher or wanting his sheets to be clean. Paul didn't excommunicate Barnabas. He didn't excommunicate James. He didn't even say to excommunicate the wannabe teachers who he said should be refused.
Only the one who openly sinned in such a manner that even the world would point to it and declare it to be an abomination was excommunicated. Yet he was never declared to be unsaved. Only to be treated as such.