1 John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
We have already mentioned that when we walk in darkness that we no longer enjoy fellowship with the Lord. This truth is confirmed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture. To have fellowship with the Lord means that we sense His constant presence. We clearly hear His voice when He speaks to us. We know the leading and guidance of His Spirit as He witnesses with our spirits as to his will for our lives. We know His peace and comfort in every circumstance that comes our way. We have a quite assurance that He hears our prayers, and that we have every petition and request that we make known to Him. By His Spirit He shows us things to come, and He prepares us beforehand so that things do not take us by surprise. The list is almost endless. When we walk in sin however, we no longer enjoy fellowship with the Lord and all these things stop taking place in our lives.
1 Corinthians 5:6-11 “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? … (11) But now I have written to you 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.”
In the church the Lord Jesus has instructed us to withdraw fellowship from a brother who is living in unrepentant sin. In the passage of scripture quoted above this truth is clearly revealed to us by the apostle Paul, for in this passage we can clearly see that this particular brother would no longer enjoy any fellowship with his brothers and sisters in Christ. In the spirit this principle is exactly the same, for this brother no longer enjoys any fellowship with our Lord Jesus either. The Lord Jesus is not a hypocrite, and so He would not instruct His church to withdraw fellowship from a brother living in unrepentant sin while He was continuing in fellowship with that same brother. And so although this brother no longer enjoys fellowship with either the church or the Lord Jesus, he remains a brother in Christ and he has not lost his salvation. Nevertheless he is now excluded from any normal interaction with both the church and the Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. Under the Old Covenant one who was unclean was put outside the camp, and they were separated from the rest of the children of Israel until they were cleansed. This practice was a type of what takes place in the church today, for the whole purpose of this action is to bring the person to the point of repentance so that they once again can be restored to fellowship, both with the church and with the Lord Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 “(14) and if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. (15) Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
Let me say that most churches today do not obey the Lord Jesus in this instruction, for they continue to have fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ who are living in unrepentant sin, even though our Lord Jesus has withdrawn His fellowship from them. I want you to notice in the passage of scripture quoted above that the purpose of exclusion is so that the brother may be ashamed of their behaviour to the point that they repent of their sin, and thus fellowship can be restored. Sadly a lot of believers living in sin today are not ashamed of their sin, simply because the church is not being obedient to the Head of the church in this area. And so the church does a disservice to these believers by not withdrawing fellowship from them, because it hinders the Holy Spirit from producing godly sorrow in their lives thus leading them to repentance.
Hebrews 12:14-15 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: (15) looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.”
There is one further aspect to this truth that needs to be mentioned, which is the contagion effect of sin. In an earlier quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul warned the church in Corinth that if they chose not to deal with the brother who was living in unrepentant sin, that they themselves would be at risk of being affected, and he used the metaphor of leaven being spread into the whole lump of dough. Make no mistake, when believers begin to tolerate unrepentant sin in their fellow believers, it doesn’t take too long before sinful practices begin to spring up throughout that church. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit confirms this truth to us when He tells us that it is possible for the sin of bitterness for example, to spring up in one believer and then spread to others in that church so that they too become defiled.
Colossians 1:13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”
Another immediate consequence of walking in sin is that we now give place to the devil in our lives. So why is that? When we begin to walk in darkness we begin to walk in the realm where Satan is god. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that when we are born-again that God takes us out of Satan’s kingdom which is the power of darkness, and He conveys us into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we were delivered from Satan’s kingdom and conveyed into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus, Satan no longer had any power over our lives. In fact the opposite came into effect, in that we are now given authority over Satan and his kingdom through Christ Jesus our Lord. This truth was revealed to us by the Lord Jesus when He taught us that He had given us authority over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19).
Ephesians 4:26-27 “be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, (27) nor give place to the devil.”
Once we come into the kingdom of God there is only one way that Satan can affect the life of the believer, and that is when the believer gives him that authority. So how does the believer give Satan authority to affect their lives? In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit gives us insight into this, for He tells us not to sin and to neither give place to the devil. And so clearly it is through the avenue of sin that we give place to the devil. On more than one occasion in scripture, sin in the life of the believer is referred to as the snare of the devil. And so it can be said that when we give the devil place in our lives, that it is one and the same as if we have been caught in one of his snares. One who is caught in a snare is trapped by that snare and cannot escape. Our Lord Jesus put is this way, “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34).
2 Timothy 2:17-26 “And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, (18) who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. … (26) And that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
So why does Satan want to ensnare believers? We normally assume that Satan then places sickness on them, etc. but this is not always the case, for our sin not only opens the door for Satan to affect our lives but it can also open the door to affect the lives of others around us. For example think of David’s sins of adultery and murder that he committed. As a result of David’s sin Satan was able to take the life of his son, and even though David’s son went to heaven, the death of his child was still a tragic consequence of his sin (2 Samuel 12:13-23). Although Satan’s ultimate goal is to destroy the lives of those who commit sin he also uses them to destroy the lives of others around them. In the passage of scripture quoted above, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul reveals to us what Satan was doing in the lives of two believers who had become ensnared by him through sin. The context of this passage of scripture is that these particular believers had committed sin by listening to the doctrine of demons and straying from the truth. And so in doing this they had been taken captive by Satan to do his will, and Satan’s will for them was to continue spreading this false teaching in the church. One, who has given the devil place in their lives through sin, will be held captive by him to a greater or lesser degree. Satan is then able to influence them to negatively affect the church through creating strife and division, whether it is in the local church or among individual believers around them.
Michael E.B. Maher
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