Disfellowshipping, beyond what is written
Part Two
There has been much discussion on this board about the WTs August insert in the Kingdom Ministry entitled: Display Christian Loyalty When a Relative is Disfellowshipped.
Are Jehovahs Witnesses truly establishing and exhibiting the Scriptures by enforcing their disfellowshipping and shunning policies. Or have they gone beyond what is written?
I have experienced the harsh effects of the disfellowshipping and shunning punishment of the Watchtower Society for almost thirty years. Contemplating the manner Bible texts are used to support their punishing policies grates my conscience and I read that it grates the conscience of many others within and outside the Witness organization.
The Apostle Paul says; (all texts are quoted blue and from NASB unless otherwise noted)
Rom 2:14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law,...... they show the work of the Law written in their hearts,
their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.My conscience bearing witness motivates me to explore the Watchtowers scriptural position on disfellowshipping and shunning, to make sure of all things and hold fast to what is true.
The main text that the WT uses for its policy and is cited in their KM insert is:
Quit mixing in company
with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedyperson or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating
with such a man....Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
(NWT)Yup, sounds like they are standing on solid ground, cant argue with Paul. Disfellowship them and Shun them, cut and dried.
Or is it?Peter says about the letters of Paul:
2Pe 3:16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.2Pe 3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own stead
fastness,
With the words of Paul, be on your guard against the error of unprincipled men, I would like to explore further 1 Cor. chapter 5 verse by verse.
1Cr 5:1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife.The discussion of Paul starts with a case that would not even exist amongst Gentiles. An equivalent situation today, would be the attitude of hardened criminals towards a convicted child molester that has been incarcerated in the same premises as themselves.
1Cr 5:2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
The NWT makes this sentence into a question, I find no other translation that has done the same. In the preceding chapter Paul shows that it is not a question that the Corinthians were puffed up and arrogant. Many translations say you have become puffed up. Paul seems to imply here that the Corinthian Christians were exulting in the notoriety of this unusual fornication. They were identifying themselves with the wrongdoer. Some commentaries say that the congregation was puffed up, because such an act was beneath them and were exulting in their own self righteousness.
Instead of being puffed up, Paul states that they should have mourned instead. If they had shown sadness and disapproval for the act, then the collective attitude of the Christian group would have influenced the wrong doer to remove the evil from their midst, either by a change in attitude and conduct or by choosing to go his way because his conduct was in derision.
1Cr 5:3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present .
1Cr 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
1Cr 5:5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Paul is showing that his decision is not just his own opinion. The act that the fornicator has committed and the puffed up attitude of the congregation goes against all the teachings and principles of Jesus Christ. By delivering the miscreant over to Satan, he is allowing him to suffer the consequences of his act, especially the condemnation he would receive from the Gentiles. Again, think of a child abuser, confined within prison walls with hostile company.
1Cr 5:6 Your boasting is not good.
The NWT dilutes this text with; YOUR cause for boasting is not right. Paul is not writing to the fornicator who committed the act. He is reprimanding the congregation for their arrogance, for their boasting and their bad attitude (TM)
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?1Cr 5:7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
The congregation is puffed up from what they have been eating in a figurative sense. They should have been feeding upon the unleavened teachings and principles of the life of sacrifice of the Christ. What is the leaven that has been puffing them up? I believe, I may need verification, that the WT considers the person who is the wrong doer is the leaven that misleads the faithful. Is you think this so? Read on.
1Cr 5:8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast , not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The leaven is not the individual, it is malice and wickedness, which exists not only in the actions of the wrongdoer, but also because of the boasting, within the members of the group. Pauls accusation against them is what leads them to a state of mourning. The malice and wickedness must be cleaned out, purged away and replaced with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1Cr 5:9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;1Cr 5:10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
1Cr 5:11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler
The Greek word for associate has the meaning, mix up together, or mingle together. The NASB interlinear translates this word as associate intimately. We do not associate intimately with the evil doers of the world. Paul is also saying that if there is any so-called brother who is an immoral person we do not mix ourselves up intimately with that person either. We do not intermingle the leaven of malice and wickedness, with the non -leaven of sincerity and truth. If an immoral person comes in contact with us, whether within our own family or our own group we would make known with sincerity what our thoughts and feelings were about his conduct.
--not even to eat with such a one.
The word even does not appear in the Greek text. Many translators may feel that to include it is appropriate for the meaning. It does, though , have a double negative. It basically says, in my opinion, definitely not eat with such a one. What does not eat with such a one mean?
In context with what Paul says above about eating the leaven of malice and wickedness would not his words mean, that one does not mingle intimately with an immoral person partaking of his mixture of evil thoughts and deeds and mixing it with a Christians sincerity and truth. Not eat with such a one is a echo of the words in verse 8 above, Let us celebrate the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness.....
1Cr 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders ? Do you not judge those who are within the church?
1Cr 5:13 But those who are outside, God judges. ....
Notice to whom this letter of Paul is addressed. It is directed to the whole assembly of Christians in Corinth. Notice there is no judicial committee of three or more do decide what is what. Each one decides with whom he shall be intimately associated.
..... REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES .This is the way most translations translate this text. The above rendition is from the NASB and the reason for the capital letters is to indicate that it is a quotation from Old Testament in a number of places.
Youngs Literal Translation, renders this text as omitting the word man
1Cr 5:13 and those without God doth judge; and put ye away the evil from among yourselves. YoungsThe whole context of Pauls words are an exhortation to remove the evil of arrogance and self-exaltation from the hearts of each individual in the congregation. The cross reference to Deuteronomy says the same. It is evil, wherever it may be that is purged out of the assembly.
Deu 13:5 "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.Paul tells the whole assembly in Corinth, they all have fallen into the malice and wickedness, They all have to feed upon sincerity and truth.
A true example of what I am discussing here:
When my two sons were young, the younger well below school age, the other three years older a young man roared up our rural driveway on a motorcycle, dressed in black leather and helmet. The man removed his helmet, I could see his anger, he started shouting at me that my kids were continuously throwing rocks at him as he roared by.
My sons and a friend came out to see what was going on. When the youngest came out, he pointed his finger at him menacingly and shouted, Theres the little bugger, hes the worst.
The two older boys had incited the youngster to do most of the dirty work.
Who is the guilty party that needed to be disciplined?
The wrong doing had to be removed from minds and conduct of all the group.
In wrongdoing, one may carry out the action, the others who support it and encourage it may carry the heavier guilt.
End of Part Two. Part Three to come.
belbab