Who's on Your Dinner Guest List?

Who Are Your Dinner Guests?
by py thomas
© November 18, 2013

 

Who do we break bread with?  Just who are our dining guests?  If you’re a Follower of Yeshua (Jesus), we need to consider this – not leaning to our own understanding, but acknowledging ADONAI in ALL of our ways – including those who we eat with.

The challenge for the Beloved (those sons and daughters in the blood covenant of salvation through Yeshua (Jesus)) is our willingness to obey the commandment of YHVH that the Apostle Paul directs us to that comes from Deuteronomy 13:6(5); 17:7,12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 24; 24:7.  We say the Law (Torah) no longer applies except in those instances when it’s self-serving (for example in tithes and offerings, calling our children and/or spouses to obedience, or when someone has stolen from us, etc.).  However, those who have truly studied the full counsel of YHVH’s Word, know this is not so.   (But that’s a discussion for another day).   

The purpose of this post is to draw our attention to that uncomfortable topic of sexual immorality, greedy people, thieves, people who like to get drunk, abusive people, and idol worshippers (people who worship people, carved images, money, fame, success, sports, hobbies, etc.).  Why is it so uncomfortable?  Well, it’s because so many of us (and I’m only addressing the Followers of Yeshua (Jesus)) have either been involved in sexual immorality, or we’re currently involved in some type of sexual immorality, or any of the other aforementioned sins.  Yes, sins.  (Sins  by the way is the real 4-letter word we should all take time to examine in ourselves.  Selah.)

In the Body of Messiah, we are supposed to discern right from wrong based on the sovereign authority of Adonai Elohim from His Word.  We like to quote 2 Timothy 3:16-18:

¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living; ¹⁷ thus anyone who belongs to God may be fully equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-18)

Thus if t ALL scripture is given by the Spirit of ADONAI (G-D), then all means we’re on the hook for obeying ALL of it. 

Further, folks (especially the convicted and/or guilty Followers of Yeshua (Jesus)), are quick to say “you can’t judge me.”  However, clearly the Apostle Paul calls us to consider that we are indeed to discern/judge sin amongst each other within the Body of the Messiah.   

¹² For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Isn’t it those who are part of the community that you should be judging? ¹³ God will judge those who are outside. Just expel the evildoer from among yourselves.  (1 Corinthians 5:12-13)

It is Adonai Elohim who will deal with those on the outside – those who have not come to faith in Yeshua and/or have rejected Yeshua.  (Remember we too were once numbered among that crowd until we heard and believed the Good News of Yeshua.).  But in our judging of the Beloved, we should be mindful that it is NOT our job to sentence and punish, but to turn them over to the Righteous Judge ELOHIM and allow Him to deal with them.   Our job is to stand apart from the sexual immoral, the thieves, the greedy, the drunks, the idol worshippers, and the abusive ones.  As a matter of fact, we’re told not to even eat with those that do these things (sackcloth & ashes – how we ALL need to repent).

⁹ In my earlier letter I wrote you not to associate with people who engage in sexual immorality. ¹⁰ I didn’t mean the sexually immoral people outside your community, or the greedy, or the thieves or the idol-worshippers — for then you would have to leave the world altogether! ¹¹ No, what I wrote you was not to associate with anyone who is supposedly a brother but who also engages in sexual immorality, is greedy, worships idols, is abusive, gets drunk or steals. With such a person you shouldn’t even eat! (1 Corinthians 5:9-11)

I recognize that obeying this will mean we suddenly find ourselves in a small group of friends and acquaintances, of those who are like-minded.  We are told however to live a consecrated life – to “come out from among them, and be separate.”  The other good news is that when we stand apart from our brothers or sisters in Yeshua bound up in sin and PRAY for them, the Holy Spirit is more than able to deal with them and restore them.  Yeshua reminds of us this truth in (John 16:5-10).  Our job is NOT TO BEAT THEM UP, but to tell them what YHVH’s Word says, and leave them in His capable hands.  Godly sorrow will yield repentance if we’re willing to step away and allow the Holy Spirit to deal with the brother or sister in error.

⁵ “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ ⁶ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. ⁸ And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ⁹ of sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; ¹¹ of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:5-10)

1 Corinthians 5:1-13:

5 It is actually being reported that there is sexual sin among you, and it is sexual sin of a kind that is condemned even by pagans — a man is living with his stepmother! ² And you stay proud? Shouldn’t you rather have felt some sadness that would have led you to remove from your company the man who has done this thing? ³ For I myself, even though I am absent physically, am with you spiritually; and I have already judged the man who has done this as if I were present. ⁴ In the name of the Lord Yeshua, when you are assembled, with me present spiritually and the power of our Lord Yeshua among us, ⁵ hand over such a person to the Adversary for his old nature to be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know the saying, “It takes only a little hametz (leaven )to leaven a whole batch of dough?” ⁷ Get rid of the old hametz (leaven), so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach (Passover) lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. ⁸ So let us celebrate the Seder (feast) not with leftover hametz (leaven), the hametz (leaven) of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah (bread) of purity and truth.

⁹ In my earlier letter I wrote you not to associate with people who engage in sexual immorality. ¹⁰ I didn’t mean the sexually immoral people outside your community, or the greedy, or the thieves or the idol-worshippers — for then you would have to leave the world altogether! ¹¹ No, what I wrote you was not to associate with anyone who is supposedly a brother but who also engages in sexual immorality, is greedy, worships idols, is abusive, gets drunk or steals. With such a person you shouldn’t even eat! ¹² For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Isn’t it those who are part of the community that you should be judging? ¹³ God will judge those who are outside. Just expel the evildoer from among yourselves.^[a]

Footnotes:

1. 1 Corinthians 5:13 Deuteronomy 13:6(5); 17:7,12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 24; 24:7