What should you do if a SINNER wants to join your church? WWJD? What Would Jesus Do? Well, there seem to be three types of examples.
1) He made a point of hanging out with the scum of the earth. He went out of his way to include hookers and tax collectors and lepers and Roman oppressors that would be obviously unwelcome around the religious people. We wouldn't want to be seen as endorsing their actions. That attitude is wrong, because God always loves everyone.
2) Sometimes he seemed to make forgiveness conditional. "Go forth and sin no more." This seems wonderful to me. That way I still get to act superior, but also get to act nonjudgmental.
3) Sometimes he drove the sinners from the temple with a whip. That is awesome.
So, if an obviously bad sinner comes to your church, should you welcome him, or say he's only acceptable later if he's changed his ways, or literally whip his ass?
I don't know.
Below is my response to him. Feel free to add any additional wisdom in the comments.
This is an interesting question...after all, we don't want to seem like we endorse a sin, as you said. However, the three examples you gave give further clues, I think.
Jesus hung out with the scum of the Earth because they are the ones who need saving. He also said that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and so we are all guilty of something. In addition, he condemned the religious leaders for their strict adherence to the letter of the law without exercising good judgment, mercy or forgiveness. He also stated that if our brother sins against us we should forgive him, not 7 times, but 70 times 7 times. That's generally believed to mean that he should be forgiven indefinitely by most interpreters.
When he states to go and sin no more, he is expressing the sentiment that we should all have. When we sin, we should feel that we should never do it again. Jesus would tell us never to do it again as well. However, we often do do it again and yet He still forgives us. We are actually quite incapable of ending our sinful ways without Him.
For your third example, it is clear that Jesus is talking about the body of Christ. Once he's cleansed the temple he says "my house is to be a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers". To me, this means that the "church" can sin as well as individuals. After all, there were probably a couple of merchants who got driven out that were behaving as they should, but the overwhelming majority of them were cheating people and they had the blessing of the priests in doing so. This is sort of in line with say, the Bakers and how they cheated people during their "ministry". It doesn't just hurt them, but it hurts everyone who believes because it sets the wrong example and sends the wrong message. However, even the Bakers are forgiven by Him. Rather interesting therefore what we should do.
My response would be this (and I think my church would respond similarly)...
If you are committing a sin or living in sin in a way that harms only yourself, then why would we not welcome you. After all, you need God if you are to end the cycle of sinfulness you are living in. It isn't our place to judge the sinner in that case, but rather to love them. However, where many people make a mistake here is that they think the church should compromise what it believes in order to welcome the sinner. This is not the case. Sin is sin, no matter what. Therefore, while the church should be loving and welcoming, it should not compromise on the truth. For instance, our church has a lesbian couple in it who has a child. We welcome them, they are ministered to, the child is taught in Sunday school, etc. They even participate in life group. However, the church also has made its position on homosexuality clear and has never compromised that. Yet the two continue to attend. Would we let them be life group leaders? Probably not, because this puts the church in a position of endorsing their sin. This isn't to say that other life group leaders aren't sinful or committing sin, they are. However, there is a difference in being sinful and stating that you want to live according to God's plan but fail vs. being sinful and claiming you think it is all right even if it is clearly contrary to biblical truth.
Finally, we come to our own behavior. As Christians, we are called to a higher standard than society in general. This is because we are to serve God, but also because our actions reflect on the church. Therefore, while we might confess our sins to our church openly and honestly, we are less likely to do so in a setting where non Christians are present. According to the weak brother/strong brother argument made by Paul, we should strive to deny ourselves things that are clearly not sinful for us because it might cause our brother in Christ to stumble. Therefore, while it is not sinful for me to drink because I have no problem in that area, I should not drink in front of a Christian brother (or anyone) who I know has a problem with drinking because my drinking might cause them to "fall off the wagon" and therefore I am equally guilty of the sin that they've committed. Therefore, even if someone believes homosexuality is not a sin for them, they should abstain from that activity because it is a very public activity and could easily cause someone else to stumble which makes them and the other person equally guilty.
So, WWJD? He'd welcome them, and tell them their actions are sinful without condemnation but in love (we as humans aren't very good at this part) and then he'd tell them to cease their sinning. As God, He had the right and the ability to judge others, which we don't. He did this on several occasions in fact. When he chose not to judge the woman caught in adultery, it wasn't because she wasn't guilty, but because she was. He forgave her and then told her to go and stop doing it. Therefore, the church should welcome sinners of all stripes, but never compromise the truth, while loving all people regardless of their circumstances. We can't change a person's heart. Only God can do that and sometimes, we humans have a hard time remembering that.
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