Is Shunning Biblical? The episode clarifies that while distinct from cultic isolation, shunning is biblically supported through Matthew 18's church discipline process and Paul's command in 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 to "have nothing more to do with him." This corporate action aims to shame sinners into repentance without treating them as enemies, serving as a loving bridge between confrontation and excommunication. Ultimately, the discussion affirms shunning as a necessary tool for restoration rather than abandonment, distinguishing healthy church discipline from destructive separation. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Loving Repentance Over Shunning00:06:18
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Is shunning a biblical concept?
If so, what would be a biblical example of shunning?
Is it related to excommunication?
Okay, that's a great question.
Shunning is not the same that you would see it, it is biblical, but it's not done by Christian churches the same way that you would see it done by certain cults.
Okay, so even Matthew 18, church discipline that ultimately culminates, if there's no repentance, it culminates in excommunication.
Well, what does it say, right?
You go to your brother between you and him alone privately.
If he listens, you've won your brother over.
If not, bring one or two others along with you so that the testimony may be established upon the evidence of two or three witnesses.
And if he doesn't listen to them, you tell it to the church.
If he doesn't listen even to the church, then treat him as a tax collector or a Gentile.
A tax collector or a Gentile is not an untouchable.
So it's not like in India with this class system and there's certain people that you just can't even speak to.
A Christian, without doing anything immoral, is permitted by God to speak and even have some degree of relationship, even perhaps a certain degree of friendship with a tax collector and a Gentile.
Of course.
What do you do with a tax collector and a Gentile?
You preach the gospel to them.
You don't shun them entirely.
It's not an all encompassing shunning.
So there is a shunning in the sense that we are no longer extending to this individual Christian brotherhood.
I'm no longer regarding you as a brother, but that doesn't mean that I cannot treat you in some measure as a friend.
Okay, now I'm aware there are other texts.
That's Matthew 18.
There are other texts.
One is where the Apostle Paul says, If anyone does not take note of what I've written in this letter, have nothing more to do with him that he might be ashamed.
Now, that's a great shunning text.
It's literally saying, Have nothing to do with him.
And precisely for the goal of shaming him.
So the Apostle is literally commanding the church to, in a joint effort, in a corporate effort, to.
To ignore someone for the purpose of publicly shaming them.
But even then, it's out of love.
It's so that the individual will come back into the fold.
And Paul actually goes further in that text and says, but do not regard him as an enemy, but as a brother.
And so, this, I believe, is actually, if we're looking at the Matthew 18 process of go privately, then bring one or two others with you, then tell it to the church.
And if he doesn't listen to the church, then hand him over, treat him as a tax collector or a Gentile.
I think what Paul says about.
About having nothing more to do with him, this would actually be before excommunication.
It would be somewhere probably in between step two, the two or three going to the individual, and the final step of treating him as a tax collector and a Gentile, that somewhere throughout the church discipline process.
So, not this is how we now regard the individual after excommunication.
No, because the Apostle Paul says, but do not treat him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
So, you're still referring to the individual and regarding the individual as a brother, which if the person has been excommunicated, Now treated as a tax collector and a Gentile, treating him as regarding him as a brother is precisely what you can't do.
So, I think the Apostle Paul, even, this is my point, I think the Apostle Paul actually, he doesn't just say it's permissible, he actually commands and prescribes that Christians employ the art of shunning even before excommunication.
That's significant.
The church corporately, and I think it would probably most likely be tell it to the church.
And so it wouldn't even be after what I said earlier, the two or three step, two or three now coming to the individual.
It would be in between telling it to the church.
And then him not listening even to the church and then treating him as a tax collector or a Gentile.
It would be in between those two steps.
So, the whole church, right, we've been very slow, very patient.
Others who are wise and discerning have been brought into this, the one or two others.
We've addressed this multiple times.
There's been no repentance.
We are now bringing it to the church.
And what we're not doing is we're not, the elders are not telling the decision to excommunicate this individual to the church.
No, we're telling the situation.
What's going on to the church, and there's now going to be an appointed time before we excommunicate the individual for him to listen to the church.
And during that time, where he should be listening to the church, one of the things that the church is going to do is have nothing to do with him.
Now, not nothing in a literal sense.
The one thing that we are going to have to do with him is calling him to repentance and praying for his repentance.
But we're not going to have anything to do with him relationally as far as we're just buddy buddy and acting like nothing's wrong.
In that sense, we're shunning him, but not treating him as an enemy.
He's still regarded as a brother.
We haven't gotten to the final step of handing him over.
So, all that being said, to answer the question, yes, shunning is biblical.
It's explicitly in the Bible.
Have nothing more to do with him that he might be ashamed.
I think that's shunning.
But it's for a loving purpose, not just love for the church and protecting its purity from the alleged sinner, but also a love for the sinner.
That he might come to repentance, that the Lord may use this love as tough love to win the sinner over, to bring him back into the fold.
So I think different purposes than cults that shun, and different methods than cults that shun.
Reformation Day Pricing Ends00:01:07
But does the Christian church ever shun at all?
Biblically, we would have to say yes.
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