Public Sins

From WJXT Jacksonville, FL:

A divorced Jacksonville woman said her former church has threatened to "go public with her sins" and tell the congregation about her sexual relationship with her new boyfriend.

Rebecca Hancock said harassment from Grace Community Church in Mandarin over her sex life caused her to leave, but she said that didn't put an end to the problem. She said she received a letter from the church's elders telling her the church plans to make her personal life very public. [You can find video of the interview here]

"I'm basically run out. I'm the church harlot," Hancock said.

The 49-year-old said she has been dating a man for a while and she said members of the congregation at Grace Community Church haven't been happy about the relationship.

"Because I have a boyfriend that I'm involved with … to not be married to that person is a sin," Hancock said.

She said the issue caused her to leave the church. However, she said the church has not let go of her.

The letter Hancock received from the church states that because she has refused to end her sexual relationship with her boyfriend, "you leave us with no other choice but to carry out the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ" … "In accordance with Matthew 18:17 we intend to 'tell it to the church.'"

"On January 4, my sins will be told to the church, publicly, with my children sitting in the church and my friends," Hancock said.

How intolerant… at least that’s how this incident is being portrayed in the media. Several questions came to my mind when I saw this story. First, how did the news media become involved? I doubt the pastor called them—especially since he refused to comment to the reporter. I also doubt that the reporter casually stumbled on the story. That leaves only one plausible option as to who tipped off the reporter—Ms. Hancock herself.

Now that leads to the next question. Why would Ms. Hancock find it acceptable to broadcast her “personal” sexual escapades all over Jacksonville (and the country, thanks to Matt Drudge and Sean Hannity), but resist her church’s overtures of biblical discipline? If she would actively seek to be local television news fodder, why would she vehemently refuse to be brought before the church?

This brings to mind the most important question. Why would the church want to bring this on itself in the first place? Grace Community Church seems to be a dynamic, biblically sound church in the mold of its namesake, Dr. John MacArthur's Grace Community Church. I can only assume it is a church where they take the Bible seriously—even the difficult parts. Matthew 18 is a difficult part, because it requires accountability. And that’s where the problem lies. According to the news report, pastors with whom the reporter spoke stated, “announcing a sin to a congregation is not abnormal. They said [Matthew 18] is written in the Bible to punish sinners who continue in sin.”

No it’s not. Matthew 18:15-17 is the foundational passage on church discipline in the New Testament. The concept is further expounded in 1 and 2 Corinthians where Paul required the Corinthian church to exercise church discipline for an unrepentant immoral church member. The man in question was openly living in a sexual relationship with his father’s wife. The church knew about it but arrogantly refused to do anything about it. They accepted the man and his openly immoral lifestyle without question. They were “tolerant.” See what Paul’s reaction was in 1 Corinthians 5:3-5:

“For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Paul told the church that he had already judged the man. That wasn’t hard to do, because what he was doing was clearly contrary to God’s Word. Not only were the man’s actions sinful, they were wanton and blatant. They were begging for judgment, so Paul did. But not only did Paul offer personal condemnation, he “decided to deliver such a one to Satan.” In other words, Paul cast him away from the godly protection and fellowship of the church. He threw him out of the sheep pen, into the field where the ravenous wolves roam.

OK, so now for the final question—why was Paul so harsh? Why was he so judgmental and intolerant? Didn’t he know that the church is a “hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints?” He must not have subscribed to the theology of Dear Abby, the originator of that statement. Instead of succumbing to feel-good sentiment, Paul held to the words of Christ in Matthew 18:15-17: “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Gentiles and tax collectors were people who were obviously unsaved. They were the lost that Jesus came to seek and save. Paul was harsh because he realized that if a person lived in continual unrepentant sin, they were lost. And he knew that a lost person is not part of the full fellowship of the church—yet. That person has to be saved. He has to experience a life-changing gift of grace from God. But as long as the unrepentant sinner continued in the full fellowship of the church, he could easily be duped into thinking he was OK. If the wolf hung around the sheep long enough, he might begin to believe he was a sheep.

How cruel would that be—to be lost and have all the Christians around you convincing you that you’re OK? Paul was far too kind and loving to let that happen. So he commanded that the church exercise discipline—not to dole out some sort of capricious punishment on the sinner, but in order to show him the seriousness of sin with the hopes that he would repent. And upon repentance, he would be restored to full fellowship. Each step of church discipline is designed to show an incorrigible sinner his sin, with the desired result being that he would be humbled and turn from it. The end goal is clear as the Corinthian sinner was restored to full fellowship in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

So, why did Ms. Hancock refuse to submit to the discipline of her church and instead publicize her offense in the media? Because she is an unrepentant sinner who is seeking to publicly justify herself. She has stated that she is unwilling to change her immoral lifestyle because, “Jesus knows her heart”—implying that He doesn’t care about the willful disregard she has for His commands. He certainly does. That’s why He placed her in a church that cares enough about her to seek her repentance.