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The
Lord is long-suffering, and those who speak in His
name should be also. There do come times, however,
when further witness becomes useless or even
harmful, or when continued interaction merely
invites contamination with ungodliness. In such
cases we must simply leave such people alone,
following them with prayer and trusting God alone to
deal with them.
Such
was the ten-tribe nation of Israel, led by the tribe
of Ephraim, just before God sent them into Assyrian
captivity. God, through the prophet Hosea, told
Judah henceforth to let them alone--they were
hopelessly given over to pagan evolutionistic
idolatry. The words "joined to" in our
text literally means, "under the spell
of."
The
Lord Jesus used similarly harsh language in
reference to the hypocritical Pharisees of His own
day: "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of
the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch." Mathew
15:14.
There
are other similar warnings. Of those who come,
"Having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof," Paul says, "from such turn
away." II Timothy 3:15.
He
has also warned us to "shun profane and vain
babblings |that is, the empty philosophizing of
those who reject God: for they will increase unto
more ungodliness" II Timothy 2:16.
.
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness, but rather reprove them"
Ephesians 5:11.
Most,
if not all, such warnings seem in context to apply
especially to people who once knew and understood
the truth, perhaps even professing to accept it for
a time, and then knowingly rejected it. When such
men oppose our testimony, God says to let them
alone; He can deal with them better than we. HMM
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