God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Patience is a vibrant and virile Christian virtue, which is deeply rooted in the Christian’s absolute confidence in the sovereignty of God and in God’s promise to bring all things to completion in a way that most fully demonstrates His glory.
It is neither obedient to Christ, nor in the church’s best interest, to permit an expelled person to attend the meetings of the church so that he can be exposed to biblical preaching. He was expelled because he has already heard, and rejected, the biblical message of repentance. The determination to exclude such a person from all church functions is primarily based on the command for Christians not to keep company with those who are under the discipline of expulsion (1 Corinthians 5:11), which in turn is based on the principle that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). Leaven (sinful influence) can only be prevented from spreading throughout the whole lump of dough (the church) when the two are not allowed to come into contact with each other. It cannot be right, therefore, to give a person who is openly unrepentant the opportunity to exert an immoral and/or divisive influence on the other members of a local church (Jim Elliff and Daryl Wingerd).