1 Corinthians 5:6-8 "6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
7 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.
8 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."
God made it clear that we were not to associate with Christians who were sinning. We are to remove ourselves from them because to associate with them is to validate their sinful activities.
1 Corinthians 5:11-13 "11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Divorce and remarriage are rampant in the church today because so many Christians think they are being kind by accepting people who have no interest in obeying God. What they are really doing is enabling people to feel comfortable in their sin; this is not love.
Love operates to help one another to confess sin and lead others to obedience to His Word. We are not helping someone to obey Christ by coddling them in their sin. Being happy and friendly toward them while they remain in sin only damages their relationship with God if they were saved in the first place.
If we love others, we speak the truth of God's word and avoid those who refuse to listen. When those who are sinning repent and want to obey God, then we restore them in a Spirit of gentleness.
Galatians 6:1-2 "1Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
Remember it is not love to enable others in their sin. It is love to warn them and then to restore them when they repent.
