But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he listens to these, you have gained him.[294]
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the whole church of the faithful, for the multitude may cause him to feel shame and, convinced by the truth of their arguments, he may be won over. And if he refuses to listen even to this multitude and scorns its admonition, let him be to you as a Gentile and a flagrant sinner, avoid him, and have no Christian fellowship with him. With the same reasoning Saint Paul says:
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral men; not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy, or robbers, or idolaters, but rather I wrote to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber – not even to eat with such a one.[295]
He forbids associating, eating, and drinking with them; that is, he commands us to segregate ourselves from them… And he speaks also of loafers and busybodies who are not busy[296]; do not associate with them, but let them keep quiet and earn their own bread they have to eat. Let no one look after somebody else’s bread.
All these things are based on Christ’s purity and perfection, which the apostles have promulgated among the early Christians who lived simply on the foundation of Christ’s words. It must be apparent to all wise men that Christ’s perfection is preached to a fallen human generation – fallen because of the pagan rule of the kings of earthly realms and (their) civil administrators. Yet, as was said before, malefactors cannot be compelled to punishment for their sins, nor is vengeance allowed upon them; through brotherly love alone can they be brought to repentance and redeemed. This is the plain good news which proclaims that a sinner can again obtain divine grace after he had lost it through his sinning; yes, he can even be saved while, on the contrary, civil administration everywhere administers death to men for such offences without giving them (a chance) to reform.
The confused people of this world act so badly that, while they bemoan iniquities and material damages, they are ready to murder human beings on their account. This killing of humans is the way of the people of the world, who love the world, who pity the world for all the wrongs that befall it. Yet they can have no communion with Christ. In the first Christian community, however, if brotherly love mended not the way of the guilty, the people did not associate with him, eschewing him. If they were unable to help him and to move him to repentance, still they caused him no evil by adding murder to his sins. They separated themselves from him, remaining without guilt. But the heathenish civil administration does just the opposite: it does nothing good for evil; all it cares about is to murder the evil one, and to throw the burden of his sins on those who render evil for evil.
