The Occult Part 2 (Church Discipline)

# 375 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 1Sa 28:3b, “And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land. (1 Sam 28:3b) Saul, sought to follow Levitical law in removing mediums and spiritists from the land. In Lev 20:27 we read, “A man or woman who is a medium or a wizard shall surely be put to death.” The severity of the penalty should tell us how strongly God feels about practicing the “dark arts!” The church no longer has the authority to put anyone to death for any sin, capital punishment is left up to the state. However the church does have the authority, indeed, the responsibility to shun or excommunicate those who insist on continuing in their sin. The classic example of this procedure is the man who was committing sexual sin in the church at Corinth. The Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle Paul instructed the congregation thusly: “Let him who has done this be removed from among you.” ( 1 Cor 5:2) Of course the ultimate goal of this disciplinary action is the restoration of the sinner to a right relationship with God as we read in 1 Cor 5:5, “that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.” But there is also another reason for removing such unrepentant sinners from the congregation. As the Holy Spirit puts it in 1 Cor 5:6-8, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Unrepentant sinners who are not dealt with have a negative impact on the congregation as a whole and among other things, they should not be allowed to participate (celebrate the feast) in the Lord's Supper. A word of caution hear. Don't turn these passages in 1 Corinthians into a license to hunt witches. Proceed with cautious grace using the process of restoration as laid out in Matthew 18. Remember the ultimate goal is always the reconciliation of the erring brother or sister. And never start this process without first removing the log from your own eye. Father, help us to rightly and graciously apply these truths.