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ERRING MEMBERS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 4, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 54, No. 11.

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ERRING MEMBERS.

By J. Lamont

HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM.

It is necessary that the church should deal with and reform, or finally expel, offending members. But expulsion should be the last resort; and that, after every possible means has been used in vain to reform the offender. To see the reasonableness of this, read 1 Cor. 12. Here we find the church compared to the human body: “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” Verse 27. All are not eyes, nor yet hands; but all are of the body.
A man's hand becomes disabled by disease; he cannot use it; the excessive pain, almost, perhaps altogether, prostrates him. Does he send immediately for a surgeon and have it amputated? not at all. He exhausts his own skill and that of the best physicians, sparing neither time nor means, to cure the diseased member. He has it amputated, when? when it endangers his life. Do not some churches cripple themselves unnecessarily, while others die because they have not the moral courage to use the knife? Almost all cases could be cured, however, by proper treatment. In a good many cases we fear the chloroform is administered before the examination is made; and the result is almost invariably an amputation. The other members cannot, in their stupefied condition, feel any pain. They do not suffer with the diseased member. 1 Cor. 12:26.
The spirit in which to labor for and with erring members is beautifully illustrated by the circumstance related in Josh. 22. When the two and a half tribes of Israel were returning to their possessions on the eastern side of the Jordan after having helped to subdue the country on the western side, where the remainder of Israel were settling, they built an altar on the bank of the river. By this their brethren understood that they were backsliding or departing from the commands of God. They therefore sent a committee to see about it, who made the proposition that if they could not dwell there without turning from God, they should come over and take possession among them. This offer gave over one-fifth of their real estate to their supposed offending brethren, thus showing real love, and earnestness of purpose to reform the offenders. J. LAMONT.