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Discipline That Can Yield Peaceable FruitThe Watchtower—1988 | April 15
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8. What advice did the apostle John provide on shunning?
8 In the apostle John’s writings, we find similar counsel that emphasizes how thoroughly Christians are to avoid such ones: “Everyone that pushes ahead and does not remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God . . . If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, never receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him. For he that says a greeting [Greek, khaiʹro] to him is a sharer in his wicked works.”a—2 John 9-11.
9, 10. (a) What happened to unrepentant lawbreakers in Israel, and why? (b) How should we feel about the arrangement today for dealing with persons expelled for unrepentant sin? (2 Peter 2:20-22)
9 Why is such a firm stand appropriate even today? Well, reflect on the severe cutting off mandated in God’s Law to Israel. In various serious matters, willful violators were executed. (Leviticus 20:10; Numbers 15:30, 31) When that happened, others, even relatives, could no longer speak with the dead lawbreaker. (Leviticus 19:1-4; Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 17:1-7) Though loyal Israelites back then were normal humans with emotions like ours, they knew that God is just and loving and that his Law protected their moral and spiritual cleanness. So they could accept that his arrangement to cut off wrongdoers was fundamentally a good and right thing.—Job 34:10-12.
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Discipline That Can Yield Peaceable FruitThe Watchtower—1988 | April 15
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a John here used khaiʹro, which was a greeting like “good day” or “hello.” (Acts 15:23; Matthew 28:9) He did not use a·spaʹzo·mai (as in 2Jo verse 13), which means “to enfold in the arms, thus to greet, to welcome” and may have implied a very warm greeting, even with an embrace. (Luke 10:4; 11:43; Acts 20:1, 37; 1 Thessalonians 5:26) So the direction at 2 John 11 could well mean not to say even “hello” to such ones.—See The Watchtower of July 15, 1985, page 31.
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