Well meaning Christians have seen for a long time an anomaly in the Christian church. People claiming the name Christian while living lives of obvious unrepentant sin. Their solution? Craft a whole new level of being a Christian. In this new setup, there are “regular” Christians and then there are “followers” of Jesus, the ones who really do what Christians are to do. I can not tell you how often I see this phrase used in the wider church as a way to set apart one group of Christians from another.
Here is the problem. There are not different levels of Christians. Christians do follow Jesus. Not because they will it, but by virtue of God’s work for them and in them. He in baptism plants them as good trees by streams of living water, and such trees produce good fruit quite naturally. He makes them new creations. To say that one is a follower of Jesus is a way that does not rest on God’s work alone is to return to the law, making our life in Christ about following perfectly rather than receiving his forgiveness, grace, and re-creation with joy.
So the solution is wrong, but the observation that gave occasion for this mistake is valid. When trees are being seen fruitless, there is an issue. “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” The only reason for a fruitless tree is unrepentant rejection of the work the Spirit does through Word and Sacrament.
But for so long the church has looked at fruitless trees and done nothing. It has refused to use church discipline in order to seek repentance from these trees. It has not done the lovingly work of returning these trees through repentance to faith. Yes we are to be long-suffering as Christ is, but if unrepentant sin continues, then the tree must be removed from grove.
For to see sin in the Christian Church is normal since our flesh and the world often leads us away from the victory over sin Christ gives (Romans 7), but to see consistent unrepentant sin within the church is not normal at all (1 John 3:6). But the answer is discipline, not some new level of discipleship. If those given authority in the church will do their duty (God help us), we would not leave it to others to come up with other solutions.
Special thanks to brother Jon Bonine for helping me think this out at last month’s Winkel.
