Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Peter 4:17

How should the church--and the individual Christ-follower--handle conflict when confronting the sin of others? While many in the church will applaud when pastors preach against the media, or abortion, or infidelity, they will become quiet to sin within the church. But the Bible gives us clear instructions on how to deal with sin in the church, and also makes it clear that we cannot fail to deal with sin in the church. In this message, Dr. Merritt strikes a biblical balance between grace and correction when confronting the sin of others.

"It is the job of the church to deal with sin lovingly, but firmly whenever it finds it. We don’t have a problem with that in other areas. We make sure that our flower gardens are weeded out, because we know otherwise weeds will kill the flowers. We want that cancerous tumor to come out, because we know the tumor will sicken, if not kill, the body. Remember that sin that nobody deals with becomes sin that eventually everybody has to deal with. I think the greatest problem that people have today with what I am talking about is because they forget what a church is. A church is not a country club. A church is a body of believers. We are all parts of a body and we are connected to one another." --Dr. Merritt

Keywords: sin, repentance, church, righteousness, cancer, evil, disobedience, confront, call, contamination, difficult, profession, Christian, open, serious, refusal, repent, loving, grace, heart, fellowship, refuse