James rebukes Christians who are tangled up in the web of lust and envy: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Js. 4:4). James echoes Moses in Deuteronomy, where immediately after Moses reviews and restates the Ten Commandments, he summarizes the whole law as loving God with all that you are: all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength, with no remainder, with nothing left over. All of the law is summarized in this command, but the First Commandment points most directly to this. There are to be no other gods before the one true God. This is God’s own loyal claim of His people, His jealous love for His bride, and unfaithfulness to this claim is adultery and betrayal. Moses continues and says that this means that Israel is required to declare holy war on the pagan nations in the land that the Lord is giving them. “You shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them” (Dt. 7:2). You shall not make friends with them, Moses insists, and James says this is still true in the New Covenant that friendship with the world is to be at war with God. To make friends with the world is to become an enemy of God. Friendship with the world is adultery, betrayal of the love that God has shown for you. Modern Christians are no more immune to this spiritual adultery than first century Christians. What do you lust for? What do you envy? Do you lust for the attention of the godless? Do you want their favor? Their respect? Do you study their magazines, their fashions, their music and movies? Do you pretend to be like them? Do you envy their looks, their style, their luxuries, their ways? And the question is before you this morning: Are you honestly here seeking the blessing of the Triune God? Are you here in need of His love, in need of His mercy, in need of His grace? If so, whether you have been a believer for many years or you are not even sure if you are a believer, you are welcome. There is rest and safety for you here no matter what your past is, no matter where you have been. But if you are here wishing you could be somewhere else, if you are here lusting for other gods, envious of the pagans down the street, here only to flaunt your rebellion, you are not welcome here. In the name of Jesus, I command you to leave.
“When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” (Jn. 2:15-17)
C. Frank Bernard says
“If so, whether you have been a believer for many years or you are not even sure if you are a believer, you are welcome.”
The unbaptized unsure should not be welcomed into the worship service but rather kindly taken aside, taught, and if professing, baptized publicly (politically) outside the worship service. It’s not good order to baptize during the renewal service, or for the comfort and convenience of a body of witnesses or relatives (especially those not in good standing). Baptism is not an intermission, photo op, or evangelistic outreach. It’s a proclamation of someone finally being washed from the dust of the world, dying through water, and entering as a citizen of the heavenly city welcomed into table fellowship.
Toby says
Thanks for the comment, Frank. I guess I would respectfully demur from your position.
Jesus ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, and so I think those searching for grace, mercy, and salvation are most welcome into His presence on the Lord’s Day. We do invite them to baptism first, before communing at the Lord’s Supper, but we do not practice a divided service, nor do our deacons escort unbelievers out of the service and guard the doors for the Eucharist as was practiced in some contexts in the early church.
While I agree that worship should be oriented to baptized believers and is not primarily an evangelistic service, there was a court of the gentiles in the temple, and the gentiles/unbelievers of our age are welcome to witness what God is doing in our midst as well.
C. Frank Bernard says
If professing unbelievers and unbaptized are let into the gate of the worship service, then it is “a divided service” however mixed/adulterated. Fencing of and for the sheep is around the sheep, not just around a tiny table during the Communion part of the service. That fencing is usually helped by the sheltering walls of the sanctuary. If, after being escorted out, they want to watch from the sidewalk or courtyard, fine. Or they can witness/listen to televised/broadcast/streaming services elsewhere. When we come together (as Paul repeats throughout 1 Cor 11), we do so by coming out from those not united to Christ or clothed with their baptism. They should _feel_ left out of a wedding party as they should _be_ left out. But after the worshipers are commissioned to go out, then they eat and drink with the tax collectors, prostitutes, etc. And they are most welcome to come respectfully watch a public baptism anytime before or after worship services and hear a call to repent and likewise be baptized, etc. Do I know of such a church? No. Some decade I shall help form one.
Matthew N. Petersen says
I bet you could find Old Calendar Orthodox churches which would still escort Catechumens out at the proper point in the liturgy.
C. Frank Bernard says
This reminds me of your initial reply a few days ago to my facebook post (linking ‘Ask Doug: How do you know when to give your child Communion?’): “So if the most important question is feed what to whom, if someone is somewhere where there isn’t a CREC church, should they become Orthodox?”
Don’t worry; I’ll (re)form a church before going Orthodox.
Matthew N. Petersen says
This one was mostly a joke.
C. Frank Bernard says
I’m not. There are many problems with allowing the unrepentant and unbaptized into a worship service. Consider an excommunicant welcomed into almost any other church along with other unrepentant visitors and regular attendees. The problem is compounded by having baptisms in the midst of the body of the worship service when the excommuned seeks to be present, especially if the recipient is a relative. If the baptisms were in out in the public/political/polis as a testimony to the world, the excommuned could be present without blemishing the worshiping and communing bride.