Fellowship With The World

The Body: Our Fellowship is Not With The World
Joshua 23:1-13; Judges 3:4-8

Introduction:
Joshua was an amazing figure in the Old Testament; he had lived in Egypt as a slave building Pyramids, he wandered the desert with Moses as a prophet, a warrior, a spy and a leader; he was only one of two Israelites not born in the desert whom God allowed to enter Canaan. After leading the nation of Israel into the Promised Land and helping them to secure a large portion of their inheritance, Joshua called the people together and gave them this warning… (Read Joshua 23:1-13).

What advice would you give to young people at the end of your life? Would it be about RRSP’s? Or career choices? Or how to use the equity in your home to buy rental properties to create passive income? The most important advice Joshua could give us as he neared the end of his life had to do not with money, or career or possessions, but with relationships.

Knowing that all other victories come from the Lord, Joshua focuses his advice on human responsibility, namely our godliness or lack of it, which begins with our choices of association. In the case of a bad choice, he says,

“Know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations
from before you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges
on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish….”

Could he have been any more clear and emphatic about the effect of bad relationships? And yet Israel did not take his advice, look at Judges 3:4-8.

Joshua’s fear was quickly realized not long after His death- Israel began to fellowship with the wicked nations around them. What made those nations wicked? For one thing, they sacrificed children to false gods of fertility; they practiced male and female temple prostitution; young peasant girls like Rahab (the great grandmother of Jesus) were often taken from their parents by rich landowners and forced into prostitution.[1] And Israel compromised- maybe they just wanted their religion to be relevant- they began to serve their gods alongside Jehovah, practicing their same wickedness.

Just so you don’t think this Old Testament command was just for Israel but New Testament believers aren’t under the same prohibitions because we are not a nation like Israel, look at 2 Corinthians 6:14,

14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with
an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For
you* are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them
And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."+
17 Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do
not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you."* 18 "I will be a Father
to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty."*

This command against fellowship with the world, if anything, is intensified rather then diminished.

I. With Whom are We not to Fellowship?
“So far I agree with you rick, at least in principle” you might say, “but how does this work itself out practically? After all we can’t all move into a commune and live like the Amish; that would violate the essence of Christianity, to be witnesses to unbelievers. How can we be witnesses and show people our changed lives, if we are supposed to shun them?”

I agree. And I am not saying we should hide our heads in the ground and pretend that we are not all living in the world. Most of us have family members: children, parents, siblings; we have co-workers, lifelong friends, neighbours, people we come into contact with daily (and some times we prefer their company over fellow believers). We can’t just shun them- maybe God is using our relationships with non Christians to draw them to Christ.[2]

1. The World In General
But, I also believe that there must be degrees of associations- a kind of overlap between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world. For instance we are all in the world- believers, unbelievers, martyrs and persecutors; we are all affected by international, national, and local events, personalities and issues and we affect them too. In the parable of the Wheat and Tares, Jesus described the church in terms of Wheat seed that is sown in the field of the world. And, in spite of the intermixing of weeds, He says we are to remain in the field until the harvest. There is a way in which the presence of Christians in the world is like salt which is used to preserve meat and at the same time adds flavour. We preserve the world because God withholds His wrath on our account and the Holy Spirit in us restrains the chaotic forces of sin. That makes the church the most beneficial organization in the world- even Al Quaida needs us!

And there is a way in which the church benefits from the world. For one thing, the world is our only source of prospects for evangelism. And we need unbelievers, many of them provide jobs, the perform medical tasks, even save our lives.[3]

So we are to be in the world, influencing it, shining the light of the gospel, but we are not to of the world, conforming to its passions and lusts.

John wrote something similar in his letter,
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 Jn 2:15-17)

Our Christian walk is drained of power and victory and it becomes a 1 hour a week in Sunday thing. We only do it because we have to, so why invite want to add a useless burden to the life of unbelieverst? Paul wrote, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Don’t invite your friends to church, invite your friends to crucify the world to themselves as you have done.

Crucifying oneself to the world is easier to preach then it is to practice- it implies pain; it means leaving behind lesser glories which we enjoy for a greater glory which we only see in part- but keep in mind, we will one day see the glory of God; on that day the world will be an ash heap.

2. Unbelievers… to a degree:
Now within the world there are two kinds of people, wheat and chaff. And for the most part they look the same and more often then not they even behave the same. In fact, sometimes chaff behaves more like wheat and wheat behaves more like chaff. But God knows who the wheat and who the chaff are- we can only guess and our best guess has to do with whether or not the person claims Christ as their Saviour- we do that by preaching the gospel and so there is a way in which we must associate with unbelievers in order to separate the Wheat from the chaff via the gospel.

Some places where we should not have fellowship with unbelievers:
1. Worship: We should never allow unbelievers to dictate the content of our worship and preaching. Sunday morning is not about the seeker, it’s about God and the church worshipping Him and being faithful to His Word. That does not mean that unbelievers cannot attend worship; but when unbelievers attend, we do them a service by focusing on God rather then on them- that’s what they expect. I think seekers are deprived when they visit a church that obsesses with their felt needs- it’s idolatrous.

2. Church Leadership: We must never allow unbelievers to have authority or leadership in the church much less membership or baptism: “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3). This is what happens when churches get caught up in numerical growth at the expense of growth in godliness.[4] This a huge problem with Southern Baptists. Did you know in the US, The SBC claims 16 million members in SB churches and according to some estimates a full 8 million of them are awol? The same problem exists in Canada as well, and it’s not just a Baptist problem.

3. Marriage: Unmarried Christians should not seek to marry unbelievers. But according to 1 Corinthians 6, should you find yourself married to an unbeliever, you are not violating any rules, just honor your unbelieving spouse because the unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the believing spouse they might see your conduct and come to faith.

4. Business: I also recommend that you avoid economic partnerships with unbelievers, because you will be unequally yoked and possibly put in a position to accommodate or excuse the less then ethical behaviour of unbelievers.

5. Friendships: And in your private relationships you need to spend more time with believers then you do unbelievers. This does not mean that you should not seek to develop friendships outside the church, but they must not become your primary relationships. If you spend more time with unbelievers then you do with believers, then you are unequally yoked. You risk becoming like them- snared in their practices and having our eyes gouged by their way of thinking.

You also deprive the church of your gifts, talents and abilities, spending them on unbelievers rather then for the cause of the church.

3. Finally, those who cause division:
Churches like ours are always under attack from divisive of people. They are attracted to small churches. Such people easy to spot because they usually jump from church to church and will give you a short list (or a long list) of what is wrong with every church they’ve visited so far. Soon we will be added to that list. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t good people out there who transfer to other churches because they can no longer tolerate the heresy, or abuse, or coldness of a previous church- we want to attract those kind of people and we need to find ways to let people know we’re here.

Romans 16:17 says, “note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.” These are the people who are theologically divisive. They try to introduce beliefs and practices that are divisive and sometimes cause people’s faith to be shipwrecked. They go from church to church always learning but never coming to the truth. Peter calls them the untaught and unstable who distort the word of God to their own damnation. They’re are worse then unbelievers and more detrimental to us spiritually.

Then there are some who are divisive because they call themselves believers, but they lead secret lives without conscience:

…[do] not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral,
or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not
even to eat with such a person (1 Cor 5:11).

Then there are brothers or sisters in the church who cause pain to another brother or sister through gossip, pettiness, rudeness and other mean behaviour. Rather then telling everyone else and putting it up on your Blog, when this happens, go to the person who caused the sin- that doesn’t mean send him an email and blind carbon copy it to everyone else (it should be a rule in the church that we do not BCC personal correspondences. In fact, the internet should not be used for personal rebuke if at all possible. It should only be used to communicate information and to encourage). Matthew 18:17 says,

…if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him
alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear,
take with you one or two more… And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the
church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a
heathen and a tax collector.

So we are not to have fellowship with the world, but we can live in it; we are not to have fellowship with unbelievers to certain degrees and we must avoid people who cause division in the church. What will happen if we don’t?

Joshua warned they will become a snare; God will no longer give us power and victory, we will end up in idolatry worshipping creatures rather then the creator; our behaviour and thoughts as well as our conversation become lewd and profane. Eventually we will share the same judgment as unbelievers if we continue to fellowship with the world. Come out from among them the Bible says!

Conclusion:
Fortunately, we are preserved by grace, no temptation ceases us, but what is common to man, but God is faithful to give us an escape. That’s what Jesus prayed for us in the garden before his execution: Read Jn 17:1-18.

I believe that Jesus Prayer will be answered!


Notes:
[1] (in contemporary terms, they based abortion and gay marriage on their religious beliefs and ran kiddy-porn web pages).
[2] After-all, most people who become Christians, do so as a result of a relationship with a Christian and very few people have ‘Road to Damascus” experiences- those are exceptions rather then the rule.
[3] You know, I bet it would be impossible, at least in our day, to even manufacture a Bible without the help of unbelievers. After all, many of the lumberjacks who cut the wood are not Christians. And the tools they use, axes and chainsaws- they’re not always made by Christians; the fuel to cut the wood and get it to the mills comes from Moslem nations; much of the math and chemical formulas originate in India and China and they’re not generally Christians. Then there’s the economic and legal issues related to covering the costs of manufacturing the Bible…. And that’s just one example, of the many ways in which Christians are dependant upon the world and benefit. That won’t be the case in the world to come.
[4] Pastors are sometimes the culprit behind this because the success of the church becomes all about them and their résumé. They start padding their baptism reports and membership reports claiming members that don’t exist and feeling the pressure to live up to those numbers they baptize unregenerate people and let them into membership. Eventually the mission of the church becomes worldly because the church is overrun by unbelievers and unbelievers are unable to discern the spiritual things of God.