For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
To welcome or wish well to one who denies Christ come in the flesh and departs from His teaching is to share guilt for his evil works, and no plea of courtesy, charity, or goodwill excuses giving support to his work. Such deceivers, including spiritualists and bringers of corrupt polluting heresy, are not to be taken into the home or bidden success, but their teaching is to be tested by God's revealed will and refused sympathy even when smooth and appealing. The same rule shuts out those who bring a false call to leave God's people as Babylon, those who claim guidance while tearing down what God has built, and any unconverted sower of division, doubt, and prejudice, for to receive them or widen their influence is to share their evil work. A church becomes partaker by retaining unrepentant transgressors on its books or by supporting false teachers without openly opposing, protesting, and separating from them. Likewise to wish success to any wrong work, to uphold the accuser's course, or for parents to feed and favor disobedient children without correction, is to share responsibility for the evil that follows, while to encourage and send forward those who proclaim mercy under the Spirit is no partaking in evil.
Meaning of the Warning
Welcoming or encouraging someone who rejects the doctrine of Christ makes the one who welcomes him share responsibility for his evil deeds. The warning concerns deceivers who deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and who do not remain or abide in His teaching, and such persons are not to be welcomed or endorsed. Their work is not to be supported, and evil connected with them is not to be excused under the name of Christian courtesy, charity, or goodwill. Wishing success to a person in his work makes the wisher share responsibility for that work. Therefore those who proclaim the message of mercy under the prompting of the Spirit are to be encouraged and sent on their way rather than hindered or taunted, and to support such workers is not to share in evil deeds. People share responsibility for wrongdoing when they knowingly support or retain those who persist in it, and indifference toward the sin of those under one's responsibility makes one a partaker of their sin.
Deceivers to Be Rejected
Those who spread teaching opposed to Christ belong to the class warned against, and they are to be given neither welcome into the home nor words wishing them well in their work, for to welcome or encourage them makes one share responsibility for their evil deeds. This includes spiritualists, whose teaching must be tested against God's revealed will and given no sympathy or approval. Their smooth, fair, appealing speech is no reason to sympathize with them. Their smooth claims of freedom conceal bondage to sin and to Satan. Their defining error is denial of Christ who bought them with His blood, and their character is clearly described so that believers need not be deceived.
The same warning applies to those who bring a false message claiming that God's people are part of Babylon and that the loud cry calls them to come out and leave. Such messengers are not sent by God, and believers must neither receive them nor encourage them, lest by supporting or welcoming them they share in their evil work. It applies likewise to people who claim divine guidance while tearing down what God has built. They are to be rejected, and their message is not to be received or fellowshipped, since welcoming or supporting them makes one share responsibility for their evil work.
Anyone who encourages a divisive, unconverted sower of doubt, envy, and prejudice and helps widen his influence shares his guilt and is answerable for the results of his course. No room or support is to be given to such a person even for a moment. One controlled man tears down faster than ten can build, humanity naturally leans to the wrong, sympathy easily follows one who mixes small doses of poison with truth, and the bitterness he plants springs up to corrupt many. Only after true conversion can God own him as His son. Christians must not receive into their houses those who bring impure, corrupt, polluting heresy and delusion, nor bid them Godspeed, because they are doing the work of Satan as verily as Satan himself. Anyone under the influence of the Spirit of God and conversant with the Scriptures in any degree will turn from their loathsome, new, odd, strange, inconsistent, and revolting vagaries with loathing and denounce them.
Shared Guilt in Practice
Retaining on the church books the names of those who sin and refuse to repent makes the saints accountable as partakers of their evil deeds. Those pursuing a course of transgression must be visited and labored with, and if they then refuse to repent they must be separated from church fellowship and their names removed.
A church that supports false teachers or fails to separate from them becomes a partner in their evil deeds and incurs God's disfavor. Separation requires openly opposing them, speaking against their harmful teaching and conduct, protesting against such wrongdoing, and cutting ties with those who pursue it. Supporting or sympathizing with such workers makes the church share responsibility for their wrongdoing, and listening to and accepting their teaching endangers the church.
Wishing success to someone engaged in wrong work makes a person share in that person's evil deeds. Supporting the accuser's wrong course therefore brings responsibility for its results. Greater trust and experience increase that responsibility, and doing one's duty could have prevented disgrace and sin.
Parents or guardians who feed and clothe ungrateful children and allow them to go uncorrected, favoring them instead of requiring obedience, become guilty with them in their wicked deeds and embolden them to continue in evil. Such children choose the course of the wicked and, left in Christian homes, poison others. In this age of wickedness every Christian must therefore stand firm in condemnation of the evil, satanic actions of wayward youth. Evil youth are to be treated not as kind and obedient but as disturbers of the peace and corrupters of their companions.
To welcome or wish well to one who denies Christ come in the flesh and departs from His teaching is to share guilt for his evil works, and no plea of courtesy, charity, or goodwill excuses giving support to his work. Such deceivers, including spiritualists and bringers of corrupt polluting heresy, are not to be taken into the home or bidden success, but their teaching is to be tested by God's revealed will and refused sympathy even when smooth and appealing. The same rule shuts out those who bring a false call to leave God's people as Babylon, those who claim guidance while tearing down what God has built, and any unconverted sower of division, doubt, and prejudice, for to receive them or widen their influence is to share their evil work. A church becomes partaker by retaining unrepentant transgressors on its books or by supporting false teachers without openly opposing, protesting, and separating from them. Likewise to wish success to any wrong work, to uphold the accuser's course, or for parents to feed and favor disobedient children without correction, is to share responsibility for the evil that follows, while to encourage and send forward those who proclaim mercy under the Spirit is no partaking in evil.
Meaning of the Warning
Welcoming or encouraging someone who rejects the doctrine of Christ makes the one who welcomes him share responsibility for his evil deeds. The warning concerns deceivers who deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and who do not remain or abide in His teaching, and such persons are not to be welcomed or endorsed. Their work is not to be supported, and evil connected with them is not to be excused under the name of Christian courtesy, charity, or goodwill. Wishing success to a person in his work makes the wisher share responsibility for that work. Therefore those who proclaim the message of mercy under the prompting of the Spirit are to be encouraged and sent on their way rather than hindered or taunted, and to support such workers is not to share in evil deeds. People share responsibility for wrongdoing when they knowingly support or retain those who persist in it, and indifference toward the sin of those under one's responsibility makes one a partaker of their sin.
Deceivers to Be Rejected
Those who spread teaching opposed to Christ belong to the class warned against, and they are to be given neither welcome into the home nor words wishing them well in their work, for to welcome or encourage them makes one share responsibility for their evil deeds. This includes spiritualists, whose teaching must be tested against God's revealed will and given no sympathy or approval. Their smooth, fair, appealing speech is no reason to sympathize with them. Their smooth claims of freedom conceal bondage to sin and to Satan. Their defining error is denial of Christ who bought them with His blood, and their character is clearly described so that believers need not be deceived.
The same warning applies to those who bring a false message claiming that God's people are part of Babylon and that the loud cry calls them to come out and leave. Such messengers are not sent by God, and believers must neither receive them nor encourage them, lest by supporting or welcoming them they share in their evil work. It applies likewise to people who claim divine guidance while tearing down what God has built. They are to be rejected, and their message is not to be received or fellowshipped, since welcoming or supporting them makes one share responsibility for their evil work.
Anyone who encourages a divisive, unconverted sower of doubt, envy, and prejudice and helps widen his influence shares his guilt and is answerable for the results of his course. No room or support is to be given to such a person even for a moment. One controlled man tears down faster than ten can build, humanity naturally leans to the wrong, sympathy easily follows one who mixes small doses of poison with truth, and the bitterness he plants springs up to corrupt many. Only after true conversion can God own him as His son. Christians must not receive into their houses those who bring impure, corrupt, polluting heresy and delusion, nor bid them Godspeed, because they are doing the work of Satan as verily as Satan himself. Anyone under the influence of the Spirit of God and conversant with the Scriptures in any degree will turn from their loathsome, new, odd, strange, inconsistent, and revolting vagaries with loathing and denounce them.
Shared Guilt in Practice
Retaining on the church books the names of those who sin and refuse to repent makes the saints accountable as partakers of their evil deeds. Those pursuing a course of transgression must be visited and labored with, and if they then refuse to repent they must be separated from church fellowship and their names removed.
A church that supports false teachers or fails to separate from them becomes a partner in their evil deeds and incurs God's disfavor. Separation requires openly opposing them, speaking against their harmful teaching and conduct, protesting against such wrongdoing, and cutting ties with those who pursue it. Supporting or sympathizing with such workers makes the church share responsibility for their wrongdoing, and listening to and accepting their teaching endangers the church.
Wishing success to someone engaged in wrong work makes a person share in that person's evil deeds. Supporting the accuser's wrong course therefore brings responsibility for its results. Greater trust and experience increase that responsibility, and doing one's duty could have prevented disgrace and sin.
Parents or guardians who feed and clothe ungrateful children and allow them to go uncorrected, favoring them instead of requiring obedience, become guilty with them in their wicked deeds and embolden them to continue in evil. Such children choose the course of the wicked and, left in Christian homes, poison others. In this age of wickedness every Christian must therefore stand firm in condemnation of the evil, satanic actions of wayward youth. Evil youth are to be treated not as kind and obedient but as disturbers of the peace and corrupters of their companions.