# When to treat people as Christians/brothers and sisters in Christ?



## Afterthought (Aug 13, 2014)

When should we treat people as Christians, or as brothers or sisters in Christ? Is it simply their profession of the Christian faith, however corrupt it may be (since that means they are in the visible church)? Is it when they are validly baptized, and we presume that simply because they say they were baptized, that they were validly baptized (since that means they are officially in the visible church)? When they join a local congregation? What about those in the Church of Rome (I presume the validity of their baptism)? What about "liberal Protestants," who act, behave, and think in almost no way different from an unbeliever, right down to the denial of Scripture's authority? What about the "Evangelicals" who act like liberal Protestants, except they profess adherence to Scripture's authority?

So that this thread does not veer off topic, I ask this question not to know when I can stand on a "high horse," but rather I am often unsure when I should treat someone as a Christian, who needs better understanding and to whom I have additional obligations, or as an unbeliever, who needs to hear the gospel and be newly converted. And so I am unsure how to be most useful in my behavior to them. The cases of "liberal Protestants" who don't even hold to Scriptural authority I find especially confusing. They don't hold to the Scriptures or the true gospel, so it is tempting to work with them as those who need to be newly converted. Nevertheless, if they are Christ's visible disciples, well, then they hold to the same religion in the most outward sense, so seemingly don't need to be "newly converted" in the same way as one who does not profess adherence to the same religion in general?


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## Andres (Aug 13, 2014)

So if I'm understanding you correctly, you are asking how to distinguish whether someone is a Christian or not in order to know what you should share with them? First, there is no way for you to know whether or not someone is truly regenerated or not, so I'd trust their membership in a true, visible church. Second, the best way to determine what someone "needs" to hear is simply by dialoguing with them. Get to know them and see where they are in their walk with Christ. As for obligations to people, I'm not sure what you mean by that so perhaps you could clarify.


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## DMcFadden (Aug 13, 2014)

> When the apostle says that love “believes all things,” he is not saying that love is naive, blind, or imprudent. Love and wisdom always should go hand in hand, and discernment and prudence should be part of every Christian’s character. What the apostle means, therefore, is that love does not think ill of others and is not quick to believe negative reports. The loving person wants to believe the best about someone until the evidence is just too overwhelming to deny any longer.
> 
> Tabletalk Magazine, September 1999: The Reformed Pastor (Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 1999), 45.



If we are loving Gospel proclaimers, we will be speaking the Gospel to all as the answer to our inability to live up to God's law. We will either be evangelizing the unconverted or confirming the faith of the converted.


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## Afterthought (Aug 13, 2014)

Andres said:


> So if I'm understanding you correctly, you are asking how to distinguish whether someone is a Christian or not in order to know what you should share with them?


Close, but not quite what I'm getting at. I am not trying to distinguish regenerate from unregenerate but rather trying to understand interactions with people who profess the Christian religion. Distinguishing whether someone should be considered a Christian or not, without considering questions of regeneracy or unregeneracy, will affect how one deals with them. As an easier case, if I meet someone who holds to Scriptural authority, but I believe them to be wrong on some matter, then if the time is appropriate and the subject matter important enough, then I would not be treating the person as though they need to convert to Christianity. Rather, I would go on to show what I believe from the Scriptures.

Your second point is mostly what I was thinking on the matter, but it is tricky to know what to do or say when the person professes Christianity but clearly has no interest in religion (or invents a false religion by rejecting Scriptural authority and replacing it with something else, e.g., one's reason). The temptation is to treat the person as one who needs to repent and be converted for the first time in that person's life, i.e., as one who is an unbeliever.


By "obligations," I was thinking along the lines of passages such as Galatians 6:10, where good is to be "especially" done to those of the "household of faith." I was thinking of this as an added obligation, but perhaps my terminology was not the best. Maybe a "stronger" or more "emphatic" obligation would be more accurate?


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## Alan D. Strange (Aug 14, 2014)

Given the widespread pluralism in a country like the US, Raymond, it has become increasingly difficult to answer your question with any precision.

These are challenging waters to navigate. Here's how I handle it: On the one hand, I give to anyone who is part of a visible church that is gospel-preaching and believing the judgment of charity and accept them as fellow-believers. This itself is not always easy to define. Others, who are members of visible churches that are questionable in this regard, I tend to deal with on an individual basis. Similarly, those in churches that are clearly not gospel-preaching.

On the other hand, all parties, even those from the soundest of churches, need the gospel, and I always try to have that front and center in my dealings with all persons. All of us, in other words, need to trust in Christ alone, either for the first time, or once again to be renewed in and refreshed by that faith once for all delivered to the saints. At the end of the day, then, it's not really that complicated: we need the Lord Jesus Christ, and there may be those resting in Him who come from rather unsound situations and those not resting in Him who come from the soundest and most orthodox of churches. I realize that this further complicates things, but I don't think that there's any way of escaping it. 

Ultimately, I need to be actively resting and trusting in Christ alone and holding Him forth to all about me in the encouragement of the same, leaving it to the Holy Spirit to apply Christ to the hearts and lives of all those with whom I have to do. 

Peace,
Alan


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## earl40 (Aug 14, 2014)

Alan D. Strange said:


> Given the widespread pluralism in a country like the US, Raymond, it has become increasingly difficult to answer your question with any precision.
> 
> These are challenging waters to navigate. Here's how I handle it: On the one hand, I give to anyone who is part of a visible church that is gospel-preaching and believing the judgment of charity and accept them as fellow-believers. This itself is not always easy to define. Others, who are members of visible churches that are questionable in this regard, I tend to deal with on an individual basis. Similarly, those in churches that are clearly not gospel-preaching.
> 
> ...



Pastor Strange I just want to express what a blessing you are here at the PB.


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## Alan D. Strange (Aug 14, 2014)

You are very kind, Earl. (I just hope that Tina remembers that, particularly around a certain day in early Spring!). 


Peace,
Alan


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