If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man
How to deal with the erring
No Christian duty more delicate and difficult than that we owe to the unbelieving, the disobedient, the erring, even for the haters and despisers of Christ and His Church.
1. “Note this man.” There should be a full realization of his error; no ignoring of it, or acquiescence in it; no belittling of it.
2. We are to note all such, separate ourselves from them, have no fellowship with them. And this implies--
(1) A defence of the truth, a vindication of the right.
(2) A bearing open, faithful witness for Christ, for the Church, etc.
3. But we are not to cast them off--abandon them as hopeless reprobates--withdraw sympathy, anxiety, prayer, effort in their behalf. “Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” Kindness, gentle entreaty, Christian endeavour, persisted in, may finally make him “ashamed,” and win him over. Oh, had heretics, schismatics, apostates, erring brethren of every kind, been always dealt with in this Christian way, how different had been the result! It is not too late to begin. (Homiletic Monthly.)
Church discipline
The Revised Version well brings out the meaning--“Note that man, that ye have no company with him.” It is no mark that is to be set upon him--no stigma, though this as a matter of fact would follow. It is to be a mental marking, and the purpose of it no formal excommunication but an avoidance (2Th_3:6), which would in the nature of things carry with it a kind of ecclesiastical censure and suspension. Thus it appears that such a one sets a mark upon himself. The disorder of his life is the mark of spiritual disease--the beginning of what may end in death. Like the spots on the body, indicating the first stages of the plague, which the Armenians call the pilotti, the pilots or harbingers of death, so upon the character of such “unruly” ones there are spots, which are pilots of the ruin of the soul. It is therefore dangerous for those who are whole to have company with these; but it is especially needful for the good of the erring brother himself. He may be led in this way to a wholesome shame, which Carlyle has called “the soul of all virtues, of all good manners, and good morals.” Yet he is still one of them, “a brother,” notwithstanding the severity of the treatment to which he is to be subjected. He is to be won back in the right way by brotherly admonition. “Too harsh chiding,” says Gregory Nazianzen, “is like an axe which flieth from the handle. It may kill thy brother, when it should only cut down the briars of sin.”
A faithful admonisher
Do you know nine-tenths of the trouble in this world is the manifestation of a wrong spirit? There was a man down in Georgia, one of the leading members of the Methodist Church in his place. He paid liberally, was wealthy and respected. There was a renter on his farm who belonged to the same church. They had a quarrel, came to harsh words, almost to blows. On Friday the preacher heard of this difficulty. On Saturday he came to his appointment. He first went to the renter and said, “I hear that you and Brother So-and-So have had a difficulty. That won’t do for brethren. I want you to agree with me, your pastor, that you will settle it and bury the whole question.” “I am perfectly willing to do anything that is right about it. I am ashamed of the way I did and talked. I am perfectly willing to do anything that you and the congregation say is right to do.” He drove over to the rich man’s and said, “I understand you had a quarrel or difficulty with another brother of our church. I want you to promise me that you will drop the whole matter, and let us all go along as if nothing had happened.” This brother said, “That man has treated me badly. I will quit myself if you don’t turn him out of the church.” The pastor soon saw that he was possessed of a bad spirit. They walked out in the grove together, and the pastor said, “Let us pray,” and said he, finally, “My brother, for the cause of Christ, for the sake of souls and harmony in the church, will you not give me your promise?” “If you don’t turn him out I will never pay another cent.” The preacher looked at him and said, “I have done my best on you, and unless you become reconciled to your brother I will turn you out, if you paid 1,000,000 dols. a year!” That man left the church and became a common drunkard, and has gone to ruin. What was the matter with him? Just a bad spirit. O Lord, create in us a right spirit. If you have a right spirit you will do right. (S. Jones.)
