Why is helping unbelievers important?

 Welcome back to my blog. I am so glad you can visit today. 

Over the past few weeks, we have reviewed scriptural methods to recognize true and un-true believers (tares) within the church.  Why is helping an unbeliever towards salvation so important? Bringing them lovingly to Christ is vital for the church for two reasons:

• Salvation in Christ is essential for the individual for eternal life.
• Salvation for the unbelieving church member is important for the local church. A congregation needs active members to be effective, so they help and don’t hinder the advance of the gospel and affecting society for good.
  

We'll deal with salvation in upcoming blogs, but let's consider today the influence of the unbelieving church member inside the local church.

Scripture stresses the importance of unity in the church (Ephesians 4:1-7). Unfortunately, churches sometimes can be a place of discord with angry splits between groups. No one knows all the reasons for disunity in churches, either on the personal or global level. The causes are probably multiple.  

However, an unbelieving church member may pursue an agenda that can be distracting to church unity either by wasting people's time for their disruptive purposes or a deeper discord leading potentially to division. Although I don’t know that this question has been researched specifically, I believe generally a tare could negatively influence the church in several ways, by:

• Building a power base by which they can control a portion of the church ministry
• Seeking attention for their emotional pain or desires - While appropriate biblically (Galatians 6:2) this situation can become draining if the tare is not willing to change to conform to scriptural wisdom, or is solely interested in soaking up people's attention.
• Living a passive Christian life - Even if the tare is not overtly disruptive, they can have a negative influence by merely talking continuously about subjects that are non-biblical, or not encouraging others to seek scripture or act in godly ways. Otherwise, they hide the truth by their words and actions.
  

For the church to function productively and for individual Christians to attain the greatest benefit from body life, the effect of tares and other unbiblical agendas must be limited. How to do this?

• Recognize who tares are (please read the prior blog https://teleiosresearch.com/what-is-a-tare/).
  

• As we discussed before, bringing them salvation this is the best solution!
  

• Expect tares to conform their life to the Bible. If they do not, then members and leadership should consider:
  

• Limiting social and fellowship time with them.
• Refraining from giving them spiritual or non-spiritual leadership positions from which they might build their expectations that they could influence the church.
• Consider corrective biblical action (by the church leaders) if the tare is clearly disruptive to body life (e.g., Matthew 18:15-20, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11).
  

The health of the modern church is vital! Each member should be a functioning, growing Christian who facilitates fruitful and positive teaching, praise, prayer and fellowship and enables the church to have a positive impact on their community. Don’t allow the agenda of a limited few, who refuse to come to Christ or be obedient to Scripture, to diminish the progress of Christ’s church!

Next week we will begin talking about methods to bring salvation to unbelievers/tares. Please come back and join us then.

William C. Stewart, MD

For questions or to view more of our research…

Email - info@teleiosresearch.com 

Website - http://teleiosresearch.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TeleiosResearch

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/TeleiosResearch 

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6wIbPgxeP0YvypwAn5-9Q

Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.

What is a tare?

 

Welcome back to my blog. I'm thrilled you can visit! 

We have been discussing that the church is God's plan to implement His purposes for this time period before Christ’s return. It should function efficiently with love and consistent with God's word. Last week we overviewed scriptural methods to recognize true believers in the church. This week we discuss methods to recognize those who might be churched unbelievers or tares (Matthew 13:24-30).

Jesus said there will be tares (who look like wheat but are false believers) in the church of whom we cannot differentiate until He returns. However, as part of our love for the church and its people we should try, as best we can, to discern those who are not really saved so we might help them understand the gospel.

Who are they? Again, it is difficult to determine, but on close inspection, the opposite of scripture and without the knowledge of salvation.  Regarding the list below, we all probably struggle with these issues from time to time (I do), but for the tare it characterizes their whole life. 

What they say?

• Self-focused - They talk about themselves usually expressing: self-aggrandizement, desire, jealousy, criticism and lack of gratitude.
• They speak church ‘jargonese’- It is like learning just enough Spanish to get by in Mexico City, it may sound good on first hearing, but you sure do not want to get into a detailed theological conversation. Tares will pick up just enough church jargon, which is easier than learning scripture, to fit in socially. What is ‘jargonese’? It may possess a grain of truth, sounds good, but generally teaches lies about God and cannot be found in scripture, such as: ‘I was called to do this’, ‘God has one person for me to marry’, ‘God will open a door’, ‘I'm in the place where God wants me’, ‘I don't have a peace about this (so I will not do it)’, etc.
• Victims - They often feel they are treated unfairly. Most usually their expectations for the church, its leadership and their fellow members are not met, leading often to bitterness and criticism.
  

What they know?

• Scriptural knowledge - They do not know much! They usually are familiar with a few individual versus that they learned in high school or college and fill in the rest with whatever legalistic system is pushed by their domination or church, or the youth group where they first learned Christianity. This makes for a person who may be inflexible and does not know or enjoy the freedom offered by scripture and living by faith.
• They know they are right - Not knowing scripture and clinging to a legalistic system does not provide them a strong basis to make decisions or handle change.  This may cause the tare to become defensive, and cling to their stance despite biblical evidence to the contrary.
• Salvation by what? - If you simply ask them ‘what gives you the right to enter heaven when you die?’ they will not give you a coherent or correct answer, but they hesitantly may give you a long, circuitous and confabulated explanation.
  

What do they do? 

What they do is simple, ‘pseudo’-scripture.

• Christian practice - They may show up for church, but rarely practice on their own the five tools to maturity (prayer, praise, teaching, Bible study and Bible-based fellowship) outside of church. They do not exhibit spiritual growth. They are more comfortable with non-spiritual (but often needed) service activities such as keeping nursery, arranging showers, etc.
• Scriptural application to their lives - When confronted with scripture they doggedly dig in and hold to the system of Christianity they learned in their youth (e.g., ‘this is the Baptist Church, we immerse here’).
• Comfort - They typically desire a secure churched-based earthly existence within social Christianity.
• Teaching and evangelism - These are not parts of Christianity with which they are comfortable with perhaps not their ‘gift’. If they do teach at all it is typically from prepared material from a book or video. In contrast, a true believer, even if young, over time will start to speak and do the things of God in a loving but truthful manner. They will grow to love His Word.  We should seek to identify and then help those who do not know the full regenerative power of the Holy Spirit through Christ's forgiveness in faith so they too may contribute to the church.
  

That's all for today thank you for joining me. Please return next week as we discuss how to handle tares in the church.

William C. Stewart, MD

For questions or to view more of our research…

Email - info@teleiosresearch.com 

Website - http://teleiosresearch.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TeleiosResearch

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/TeleiosResearch 

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6wIbPgxeP0YvypwAn5-9Q

Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.

Who are the people helping the church?

 

Welcome back to my blog. I'm happy you can visit. Last week we discussed how the church is God's plan to implement His purposes for this time period before Christ’s return. It should function efficiently with love and consistency with God's word. Attendees who push their own non-biblical agendas, whether for emotional comfort or personal power, represent a danger to the church. 

How do we recognize these people and what should we do about them? Let us consider the first topic over the next two weeks. We will deal with their treatment afterwards.

A bible-believing church is generally started by well-meaning Christians who, because of their lifestyle and biblical teaching, typically attract other people to the church. This makes sense; good message, nice people! Many of these new members will serve and desire to grow in Christ. 

However, others may come for alternative agendas, such as seeking fulfillment of their own desire for personal power or emotional satisfaction, with no real intent to grow in their faith. They may or may not be a born-again Christian, but their effect is often the same, at a minimum slowing the church by consuming the time of effective believers, or actively damaging the church by causing dissension. 

Christ himself said there would be unbelievers (tares) in church who would be impossible to detect (Matthew 13:24-30). However, as best we can, I believe we should try to uncover unbelieving or unfaithful churchgoers to prayerfully help them (as they allow) and to protect the church.

The Bible assists us in providing standards for Christians and how to recognize a faithful believer. If we know who is faithful it makes it easier to know who is not (discussed next week). Here are some key sections of scripture.

Spiritual growth process

1. Basic measures (1 John 2-4) - This important book describes three major criteria that should characterize a true believer in the process of maturing (i.e., those in the fellowship of Christ, 1 John 1).
   

• Love - They have a biblical (agape) love. This type of love is not just an emotional feeling but is primarily based on truth and what is good for the believer, both actions and speech (Philippians 1:9; 1 John 5:2).
• Proper doctrine - This centers around Jesus and that He: came from God, is Man, is God and is the Christ (our Redeemer, 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:2; 1 John 4:15; 1 John 5:1; 1 John 5:20).
• Obedience - A true Christian’s life is generally characterized in following the precepts of Scripture (1 John 2:4-5).
  

1. Unity (Ephesians 4:1-7) - The apostle Paul often stresses unity which involves both proper doctrine and love for each other.
   
2. The true disciple (1 Thessalonians 1:5-7) - A true believer is:

• Saved by faith.
• Secure in salvation.
• Accepting of the guiding principles of God's Word in their lives.
• Imitating scriptural principles and mature believers around them.
• Influencing others to the faith.
  

1. Believer’s growth (2 Corinthians 3:18) - In short, a true Christian changes over time to become more Christ-like, as this verse states ‘from glory to glory’.
   

Spiritual Outcomes

1. Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) - These are measures of a person's maturity in the Holy Spirit and include: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, humility, and self-control.
2. Qualities of an elder/deacon (1 Timothy 3:1-15) - This is a wonderful group of measures we can all use to assess ourselves and include generally: family values, personal attitudes, ability to minister and community reputation.
3. Controlled by the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) - This means we think, act and speak as the Spirit would.
   

These scriptures help you assess fellow believers. Importantly, assessment is not judging! Christ judges ultimately at the end of the age (John 5:22). Our job is to consider others so we can better understand them and help know how to love and help them (1 Timothy 4:16; 2 Timothy 2:25-26).

Interesting discussion! Let's continue next week by thinking about what a Christian should be doing in the church. Thanks for joining me I'll look forward to seeing you again next week.

William C. Stewart, MD

For questions or to view more of our research…

Email - info@teleiosresearch.com 

Website - http://teleiosresearch.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TeleiosResearch

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/TeleiosResearch 

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6wIbPgxeP0YvypwAn5-9Q

Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.

So why are we at church anyway?

 

Welcome back to my blog. I'm happy that you can visit. The purpose of Teleios is to use the scientific method to show the validity of God's word as wisdom and guidance in daily life. 

Teleios recently performed a survey in six evangelical churches evaluating members’ impressions of their church leadership and the church itself (full report here Influence of church leadership on congregant wellbeing - Teleios, Inc. (teleiosresearch.com). We presented choices that were positive in relationship to the member’s own maturity (e.g., prayer, fellowship and biblical preaching) and also those which might indicate immaturity, such as self-focused motivations.  Fortunately, the negative rating responses were fewer than the more mature, biblically based scores, but did represent a significant minority of members’ choices.

What are the implications of members using the church for their own agenda? We believe they are extensive and potentially severe. What do these people want? Here are some examples of what we gleaned from our survey.

Who are these people in the church? We do not know for certain but here are my best guesses:

• Earnest, suffering believers needing help from the church - There are afflicted Christians who are honestly seeking God. Although it may take time and emotion from the church leadership and caring church members, scripture tells us to ‘bear one another’s burdens’ (Galatians 6:2) and assist suffering believers back to spiritual health (1 Thessalonians 5:11-12).
• Young believers who do not know any better and need to be taught.
• Immature believers seeking emotional attention with no intent to change - These members may cause significant damage, sucking away people's time and good grace to satisfy themselves without any intention to change their lives. They are not truly seeking God and provide little benefit the body of Christ.
• Active anti-church agenda - These members use the church as a personal power base, or to aggrandize themselves in some manner. They may cause harm at a minimum by distracting other members from seeking and serving God and at worst by creating divisions that could divide the church.
• Tares - Christ mentioned (Matthew 13:24-30) that tares would afflict the church. Tares are non-believers who come to church. They learn the jargon and how to fit socially while maintaining an ungodly agenda that may cause factions, waste people's time, and distract the church from biblical pursuits.
  

The church is God's plan to implement His purposes for this time period before Christ’s return. It should function efficiently with love as consistent with God's word. Attendees who push their own non-Biblical agendas, whether for emotional comfort (with no desire to change) or for power, even covered in a pseudo-spiritual façade, represent a potential danger to the church. 

How do we recognize these people and what should we do about them? We will discuss these important questions over the next several weeks. Our prayer is that this information will help you make your own church more biblically effective while attempting to lovingly bring destructive members into proper fellowship. 

Thank you for joining me today. I pray for those of you who read my blog and that the blog might be encouragement to you in your daily life.

William C. Stewart, MD

For questions or to view more of our research…

Email - info@teleiosresearch.com 

Website - http://teleiosresearch.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TeleiosResearch

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/TeleiosResearch 

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6wIbPgxeP0YvypwAn5-9Q

Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.