In this week’s assigned epistle lesson, Paul concludes his warning against idleness and laziness with this instruction,
2 Thessalonians 3:15 Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
Surely these words refer to how we are to approach all error within the body. I am sure that at times I have not followed this instruction as well as I should. And that must lead to confession for me.
But I am concerned that treating the erring as enemies is all to common. Some of the most read confessional Lutheran blogs might as well have a page where their enemies are listed. And it is no less prevalent in the “Jesus First” part of the synod. The vitriol expressed towards our current president which I have heard is no doubt enemy talk.
This type of enmity between brothers should not be. And unfortunately it was filtered all the way down to the circuit level. People not communing together. People not meeting together. People not talking together.  Why? Because they think of each other as enemies and not erring brothers. An erring brother you seek to restore. An enemy you seek to expel or destroy.
This is not to say that we are to take error in the body lightly. Paul’s words make that equally clear. But we are to go to our brothers and seek to restore them rather than just putting them on the enemies list. We must pay the brother down the street a visit instead of launching grenades from afar.
Let us confess all the enemy talk and then receive the forgiveness of the One who humbled himself to be called our brother. Then we will be free to treat another as we are through baptism, as members of the same family.
