Failure of the Church Can Have Disastrous Effects

Recently here in Birmingham we had a little child die from injuries to his face and head.  His unmarried mother and her live-in boyfriend said that his injuries came when he fell off the couch.  The doctors said his injuries came from repeated blows from a blunt object, probably a fist.  Momma's alibi was that she was at a prayer meeting at church when it happened.

If the church had been doing it's job, the child would still be alive.  "What!!!????" you say.  I meant what I said.  If the church had been doing it's job, the child would still be alive.

This church was apparently tolerating a situation which it should have challenged.  Single, unmarried mothers and their children definitely belong in the church, but single, unmarried mothers who continue to have children by a series of men to whom they are not married, or single women who persist in living with men to whom they are not married, must be challenged if they wish to call themselves Christian and to remain in the Church.  Otherwise, the Church is giving tacit approval to their behavior.  If sexual immorality can be allowed to continue within the Church, what else can also be tolerated?

In 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, Paul addresses the Corinthian church which was apparently not alarmed that one of its men was living with his mother (or possibly his step-mother) as if she was his wife.  Even the pagans viewed this as incest and Paul adamantly insisted that the situation could not be allowed to stand.

The Church must perform its prophetic (speaking God's Word), teaching, and nurturing duties.  The young Birmingham mother could have been challenged about her behavior, counseled, and encouraged to repent and adopt more appropriate and biblical behavior, and sheltered if she and her child needed protection from the abusive boyfriend.  It seems that none of this was done.

Jesus, in Matthew 18:15-20, even gives the Church instructions on how to lovingly carry out it's corrective instruction and nurturing and what to do about it if its attempts at reconciliation are rebuffed.

Some readers of this blog are already itching to say, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."  Yes, Jesus said that, then He turned to the woman and said, "Go, and sin no more."  John 8:1-11.