Ginger,

Actually, the use of “all” implies in front of the eklesia – the community. The use of ‘all’ is highly contextual in both the Hebrew and the Greek. What Paul teaches about public rebuking of elders is an exact mirror of 200+ years of practice in Judiasm prior to Christianity.

Overseers of the community were to be rebuked in front of all member of the community when caught in secret sin. There is no suggestion or implication that ‘all’ is larger than this, nor is there evidence that every time an overseer was publicly rebuked that letters describing the rebuke were sent to the Council in Jerusalem or to all of the surrounding churches.”

So I looked up the verse in the greek and the word “eklesia” (The Church, The called out) is not used anywhere in this verse. The word used is the greek “pas” which apparently litterally means “all”.

The verse in Greek (click on words to see English translation)
http://www.greekbible.com/index.php

Here is another
http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/c.pl?book=1Ti&chapter=5&verse=20&version=KJV#20

Here is the write up from Strongs on the word “pas”
http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3956&Version=kjv

So I don’t see where unrepentant elders are only supposed to be called out in the church and not in the community.

Ginger

And God is gonna do, what ever He is gonna do. I trust that.

We just wanna get our part as right as we can.

Came back to copy and paste some of the advice here in a document so we could use it in our decision making process.

Only to read your insult that you don’t believe I will follow your advice to let my husband lead, and then follow it up with a prayer for me.

Seriously?

You insult them and then pray for them?

Is there some comment I have made that somehow leads you to believe that I do not follow my husband? Man you presume all over the place.

For the record, scripture says my husband is my immediate pastor and I am in sin if I do not follow his biblical direction. I am way on board with that.

Brother, you need to take a look at the disrespect that you are showing to those you are offering advice to. You have made judgments about me with out any information to base it on.

I accepted Tim’s advice and not yours, because he used scripture and you used feelings.

There is nothing loving about implying I am in sin against my husband when you absolutely nothing about my marriage.

I think an apology is in order.

Lord Jesus, we all stand identfying with Ginger and her plight. Many of us surely did not react in accordance with the advise we now give, so we claim no self righteousness. We pray for Ginger and her family that the Spirit of God would minister to her and her family far and above our poor words. Let her know supernaturally Your love, and impart unto her and her husband the peace that passes all understanding.

She is our sister and we grive with her.

Amen.

Your story is hard to hear. I know of a similar story about a friend’s church and she is torn as to how to handle it (adultry involving high-ups in the church).

What I see, after all the steps you have taken following scripture and the law of the nation, is that you have two options:

1. Start a blog and start naming names and details and turn into just another one of hundres of people who were in the same situation doing just that and now seeming to live up to the wrongful title of “troublemakers.” Such things tend to get carried away and after a while the people seem become obsessed with adding more information. Also, it would be wrong to blast that info to the entire world, which is kind of what this original post was about.

2. Robbymac’s suggestion: let it go. It’s not a matter of not standing up for righteousness, and as annoying as the “Sunday School” answer of “God knows, and He will right this wrong, there is no secret sin to Him”, it really is the truth.

I would add, not only let it go, but be more forceful. Throw it off. Just get it out of your life and give it up to God in prayer. I don’t see how you and your husband could do anything else humanly possible; you’ve done far more than I would have. Robbymac was right: let it go. Throw it off.

It’s more a matter of you knowing the truth, you being honest before God, and still taking the beating. God is not missing any part of this story in your life. There is a millstone waiting for people who beat down and hurt His children like this.

This kind of junk in church leadership angers me a great deal. It is the ultimate abuse of believers.

I am all over that. At first it made me releaved, then it made me scared for them.

The realization that they will have to stand alone before God and answer brought into clear focus that I will have to stand alone before God and answer too.

If he says, “Ginger, I told you to tell everyone about the sin you saw, and because you didn’t, these thousand people were harmed. Why didn’t you do it”, I can’t just answer, “Well God of the Universe that knows all and is the embodiment of Truth, I just felt lead not to”.

Bye guys,
Ginger