When Do You Mark and Avoid
 

Have you ever "marked" certain individuals and "avoided" them like Rom 16 instructs? When did you do it, how did you do it, why did you do it? Is "marking" and "avoiding" the same as "excommunicating" like Paul suggests in I Cor. 5? Did you ever "mismark" someone and had to apologize or make it right later with the individual that you avoided?

Done all of the above many times.

Any suggestions? I too would be interested in reading your input!

Input would of course be an opinion...just one of many, I'm sure.

However, after all the salutations in Rom. 16 Paul then makes this statement:

17Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

18For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Even at that early date in church history, there were already many deceivers that had gone out and were circulating heresies in the churches of God. Paul defended the Gospel of Christ vigorously but left this warning in Acts that after his departure that wolves would come in not sparing the flock. So it happened. Paul was already aware of these things even earlier than his writings to the Romans.

What heresies would he be talking about? Paul lamented over the fact that so many were so easily removed from the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. Unless we are on guard, there are those who will slip in among us sowing tares of NEW REVELATIONS which are subtilly contrary to the Death, Burial and Resurrection and that of our neccessity of being identified with it/Him in our own Jn 3:5/Acts 2:38 obedience and experience.

If the devil cannot subvert us into not obeying the simplicity of Christ, he will subvert us by adding all sorts of other requirements, usually fleshly requirements on those who are not properly prepared for them, destroying and subverting those souls from the simplicity of the gospel of Christ.

Recently, I saw a family destroyed in this manner. The Father of three had repented, been baptized but had not received the Holy Ghost as yet. The mother quickly prayed through at her fist trip to the altar. The children were happy in their little country church. Father took the family to a movie. Mother had not learned to love the ourward appearance of holiness. They were not asked to leave but they were frozen out while the phony appearance of love for them became so apparant.

Mark them! They subvert from the simplicity of Christ.

I will add a few comments later... The wife just served some Apple Flitters and Coffee. Good woman!

I feel that if someone continually sits on the pew and despises the preaching
and stays living in sin you have to part ways.You can pray for them and try to encourage them but as for hanging out its not a good idea.Especially if that person is always downing the church or ministry of the church.I don't think it has to be public but some assemblies do this publically.I have heard
of some that call the person up before the pulpit and warn them.If a person has a right heart this would be the time to repent and ask forgiveness.I would hate it done to me but I am told it does work.

I have done so. Rarely but I have done it. I did it when someone repeated sins they did to me and continued to justify themselves. I don't think it is the same as excommunication. That is an official act by the church.

Those who try to bring division or bring discord are definitely ones to mark & avoid.

The Bible does say that if ye have ought against your brother go to him "ALONE"
and try to work it out.

90-95% of our problems can be fixed that way.

The avoiding and withdrawing of ones self as spoken of by Paul in I Cor 5 is an obvious defensive mechanism lest one becomes influenced by such railings, drunkeness, fornications, on and on. Associations with sinful influences will corrupt good manners if those defensive mechanisms are not in place.

Sometimes sin becomes so greivous as Paul stated, that it was not even mentioned among the Gentiles. In such cases, there are those rare times that one must be excommunicated. I've only seen it happen once in all of my life. It was not a pretty sight, but all were warned, all were exhorted to holiness and righteos living. All received the fear of God. It served its righful use when it exercised by a very wise and godly man together with the church elders and officials in attendance.

Long before that ultimate end comes, as individuals, we need to be wary of sin in the church lest it corrupts first the saint and eventually the church.

If there is an adulterer in the church, another adulterer will stiff the wind and pick it up like a RADAR. That spirit will circulate around the church and very possibly corrupt the very pulpit. The same with other sin and vices too. I've seen churches corrupted by avarice. It might start off small such as someone promoting a multi-level program that the church eventually gets involved with. Though the intent may be innocent, yet the spirit of avarice creeps in subverting the unwary away from Christ being thoroughly infected with that seditious spirit.

On and on could I go speaking of these things that subvert the unwary and beguiling unstable souls.

Were the Apple Flitters and coffee any good?

That's what I want to know!!

:donuts

Yes, in fact they were quite good. It is an old Cajan breakfast recipe that my little Cajan wife fixes now and again. I'm looking forward to some cush-cush which I have not had lately. Maybe she will fix me some soon.

A joke:

"Hey Boudreaux, what do you have in your sack?"

"Chickens, Thibodeaux."

"Boudreaux my coosan, if I can guess how many chickens you have in your sack would you give me one of them?"

"I'll do better than that Cousan Thibodeaux, I'll give you both of them."

As a pastor in all my ministry I have only had to public disfellowship an unrepentant saint twice and it was very agonizing and traumatic to say the least. I hope to never have to go through it again. I cannot discribe the utter failure you feel to have to do this. All those questions what else could I have done? But sometimes it has to be or they will corrupt the assembly.

I have been the recipient of 'mark and avoid'...I am so glad that Jesus loves me, and He alone can see my heart.

I know of one or two that should have been...but not many follow that principle any more because of the legalities as well as the flack they would have to take. I commend you for being able to do that...I know it must be a very difficult thing to do.

Blessings, Rhoni

I mark and avoid BEARS! IF I see one walking towards me, I won't make eye contact and avoid him (or her) at all costs! :D

*hugs*

I understand your situation. Our church has recently experienced this phenomina. This is the first church I've been in where a public call to disfellowship followed biblical protocol. In our church the pastor read the scriptures regarding marking an individual. Then he read the scripture that dealt with the malicious gossip and the rumors and innuendos going around about the preacher. Would you know that those people marked themselves by publicly speaking out against the pastor? When you tell the pastor to shut up, you pretty well mark yourself.

You are correct. If you don't mark them, they will destroy your congregation.

When the battle is fought in the heavenlies, the legalities take care of themselves. The people who were marked in our congregation still were coming to church. But they were ostracized. You can't tell anyone they can't come to church but you can make their life a living hell while they are there. Imagine going to a place where no one talks to you. No one acknowledges you are there. Eventually the person gets the hint and stops coming.

What we did at our church was high intense supernatural worship. Something about intense worship that drives out devils. This past Sunday was the first Sunday in ages we didn't have to fight those devils in service. It was almost a breath of fresh air. The battle isn't over, but the enemy is mortally wounded. We can't wait until those spirits are completely destroyed.

I counciled a pastor to do this to a saint. this person had done so many unspeakable things already that justificaiton would have been very easy. he did not. A pastors love for souls can be boundless.

after her son shot a church member with a pelet gun while laying in ambush, and the other church members present were witnesses against the little child of his mother, she decided she couldnt stay at the church because the pastor would not support her and her family.

it took someone getting shot with a powerful pelet gun and almost killing themself in the subsequent crash, but it seems God found his own way to move her.

I once took a fishing trip to Alaska, we were told to pack high powered pistols in case a bear got after us. I had a .44 mag.

on the plane ride up, i was reading a magazine about alaska and it told about how the natives laughed at the mainlanders that came up carrying their high powered pistols for bear protection.

the knew that such would not stop a mad bear. it would just make them madder. but hey, it made the yahoos feel safer!

I think we all mark certain people and avoid some too. And for good cause.

As long as you have scripture to back it up...

How do you mean bro?

We don't mark people just because we don't like their personality. THe Bible gives clear instructions on the when, wheres, whys and hows. If the people are choking the life of the church it needs to be brought out to the public. Through it all we are admonished this is a spiritual battle. We don't take it personally a person marks themselves. I hope these people get to a place of repentance where God can restore them.

I understand what you're saying.

I was using the "mark and avoid" issue in a larger scope than the scriptural context. There are people I've met that my spirit clashed instantly with. Later on I found out that there was good reason for that. I would never be rude to them or "shut them out" so to speak but their company would not be the company I would choose to keep.

In our situation demonic spirits were involved and the best thing one could do was stay away. There was no way these people wanted release from those spirits. They were carrying those spirits around for years. They would go around trying to attach themselves to the weaker saints in the church. The only thing to do is ostracize them and fight the war in the heavenlies.

I pray this never happens again. I would not wish this on my worst enemy. But if I have to fight those spirits, I will fight for total anihilation of those spirits.

We went through something similar so I know exactly what you're talking about.

Ahhh...it's ok, sis. It was a long time ago, and my preacher daddy always taught me to respect the Man of God's position, but to realize that he was still flesh and would make mistakes at times. This man of God was terribly wrong in what he perceived as FACT- when it was really his misconception of the truth of the matter...*smile*