The Archangel
Well-Known Member
This is what man can not always discern. Only God knows what is happening here. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it. Certainly not man.
But what you're so willfully dismissing is that the fruit of the heart shows the heart. In that case we are not discerning in a vacuum; we are discerning based on evidence. And in the case of an un-repentant, sin's-side-against-God person...if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc.
Your entire line of argumentation literally falls in upon itself. Your line of reasoning requires the absolute abandonment of any kind of discipline. As such, what would you say to Paul who is obviously engaging in church discipline in 1 Corinthians 5? Would you tell him that he can't know the sinful man's heart? Would you tell him he is wrong to judge his actions?
Though you wouldn't tell Paul, you are, in effect, telling him so here with your line of argument.
You forget that the heart is where the actions, thoughts, attitudes, etc. stem from. If those actions, thoughts, attitudes, etc. are "unrepentant" it is clear that there is an unrepentant heart--a heart that has not been regenerated.
An orange tree will produce oranges and an apple tree will produce apples. It is not "judging" to say that, though someone claims to be an orange tree (Christian) their fruit is that of an apple tree (non-Christian).
The Archangel