Saluting Even Your Enemies
Published on Facebook, September 6, 2010
By Bud Powell
Glad to meetcha!
Matthew 5:46, 47 "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?"
I do not think that the practice of "shunning" is biblical. Leaving aside the treatment of those excommunicated from the church, Jesus gives us the very clear instructions for Christians of all ages. We are not called to be physicially separated from unbelievers as the Jews were, for then we must needs "go out of the world." [1Cor. 5:9-11] Excommunication is not a private judgment, but is the judgment of the church in its official capacity. It is a frightful offense for individual Christians to usurp the office of the keys, which are given to the corporate church through its stated officers. We would put a man in prison who appointed himself judge and jury and became the self-appointed enforcer of civil law, yet often we look the other way when individuals assume dictatorial, self-appointed authority in the church and bully other Christians.
Jesus said to "Salute" not only your brothers, but your enemies also. In modern language we would say "Shake hands." A person who refuses to do good to his enemies is no better than a publican, Jesus said.
Jesus ate with publicans and sinners, to the scandal of the Pharisees. Jesus replied that a doctor cannot succeed in his mission if he refuses to have contact with his patients. Christians cannot be the light of the world if they sit in isolation and refuse to see people who are in darkness. This is what the Pharisees did.
I have never allowed others to decide for me who my friends will be. If I am invited somewhere I do not ask who else will be there. I don't care who is there. If I am disposed to go, I will go. A person who decides that they will not come because I am there is to be pitied and gives me far more power over his life that he should. But I will not be ruled by his wickedness. I am sure that Jesus did not participate in the sins of the publicans and sinners, just as a doctor does not participate in the diseases of those he treats, but he did not sniff in the air and say, "If so and so will be there, I will not come." "If so and so comes to the Lord's Supper, I will not participate."
I know people who, as self-appointed judges, will look around when communion is served and refuse to participate if a "sinner" is there. Look again, and you will find that there is nobody there who is not a sinner. If you have a complaint against somebody, then go talk to them and follow the rules of your church for solving disputes. Don't excommunicate yourself, because that is what you do by your refusal to participate. I will not allow the sins of others to excommunicate me from the Lord's Supper. It is a frightful sin to use the sacrament of the Lord as a weapon against people you don't like.
Fundamentalism used to quarrel about degrees of separation. I don't know whether they still do, for they ran away from me years ago. But the quarrel was about whether it was ok to fellowship with those who fellowshipped with unbelievers. I remember those at Bob Jones who used to criticize John Rice because he appeared in Southern Baptist churches that, although these churches had Bible believing pastors, they were part of a denomination that had pastors that were heretics and seminaries that had unbelieving professors. So they wondered whether it was ok to fellowship with John Rice because he had fellowship with pastors who had fellowship with unbelievers.
There is no question that those who deny the cardinal doctrine of the faith, or who scandalous lives, must be excluded from the Lord's Supper and are not to be given recognition as Christians. This note is not about official actions of a true church, but about the private, arrogant actions of individuals who think they are important enough to shame all sinners into repentance. Most people will be happy to be excluded by these wretches.
It reminds me of the rules of uncleanness practiced by the Jews. Edersheim wrote that the reason that they condemned Jesus because of their external view of purification. They accused Jesus' disciples of eating with unwashed hand--that is, they were not purified. They believed that if an idol stood in a grove of trees, the grove of trees was unclean and all who passed through the grove were unclean. Hence, they would not go through Samaria. Further, if you cut down one of the trees in the grove, anything made from the wood of that tree was unclean. If it was the shuttle for a loom, then all cloth woven on that loom was unclean, and any garment containing any of that cloth was unclean. Also, if that garment was hung in a closet with other garments, those other garments were unclean and all who wore them were unclean. Thus a man could not attend the sacrifices if he wore a garment that hung in a closet where there was a garment that had cloth in it woven on a loom that had a shuttle made from wood that came from tree that was in the grove where there was an idol. There were devils everywhere and a man couldn't be too careful about such things. So the Jew went through constant cleansings involving the sprinkling of water. This is the reason for the large pots of water at the marriage feast of Cana, when Jesus turned the water to wine. It took a lot of water to wash away all the devils.
Jesus said that it was not what entered into the man, but what came from his heart that defiles him. You will not be contaminated by shaking hands with an unbeliever; you will probably be contaminated by the thing in your heart that causes you NOT to shake hands with him. We are to love our neighbor's as ourselves. Even the ornery ones! Snubbing is sinful.
