Sin in the Camp God abandoned Israel because of the unknown sin of one man in their midst.  This to you and me maybe does not sound fair.  This event remember, is written for our learning (Rom. 15:4).  Now consider the passage in Joshua chapter 7.  God’s people are promised by God a land.  They have crossed over the Jordan and have begun by conquering Jericho.  However the all seeing and all knowing God knows that there is impurity in the midst of the camp of Israel.  With a congregation of over a million God sees one man Achan who has chosen not to fear God or keep His commandments.  Nothing was to be taken in the conquering of Jericho.  Someone chose to maybe turn a blind eye to what Achan was doing.  Achan apparently had no fear of getting caught regarding his disobedience before God.  Should  God let this just slide by?  Should God ignore this situation as if were just trivial?  A pure and holy God who seeks to possess a pure and holy people can not and will not ignore SIN IN THE CAMP!  “Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them.” (Joshua 7:11).  As a result of this compromising spirit thirty-six men lost their lives in the battle at Ai.  There is a high cost to the secret sins of some to many innocent people.   The Lord God commanded Joshua to, “Get up, sanctify the people and say, “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘There is an accursed thing IN YOUR MIDST, O Israel’ (Joshua 7:13).   LET US LEARN that our individual and secret sins can hurt the congregation of Christ that is to be pure and holy.   God does not turn a blind eye to such rebellion but constantly calls for repentance.  Observe the extreme and severe punishment for Achan and his family.  Observe that the entire congregation is invited to participate in the judgment by stoning and fire of not just Achan but also his family.  I believe the proper response for the God fearing in that generation and our  generation today needs to be the same.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Ps. 111:10).  It is not terror the Lord wants us to possess but rather He would have us always have a sober awareness that we are not hiding anything from Him.  He sees all and He knows all.   In our congregations today we do not stone one another for sins nor are we authorized to burn up one another.   However there is to be a mindset that will not tolerate or compromise with sin in the congregation.  Such a judgment is not to be just among the leaders in the congregation but the entire congregation is invited to participate in such a mindset.  If we will choose to have the mind of God we will strengthen one another against our temptations to sin and compromise.  If we will choose not to have the mind of God then we will act deceitfully as did Achan.   Unfortunately many in the church today feel that it would be unloving or unkind to practice church discipline when it needs to be practiced.  Church discipline is the last resort.  It is something that we with fear and dread need to practice.  God can use us as He used Joshua to help keep the body of Christ pure and holy.           Often we don’t want to practice church discipline because we know in our own hearts that we are not right with God.   We may be afraid that the church family might find out our sin and discipline us.  Such self-condemning thinking is not right before God. Too often we forget that the body God has placed us in is to be holy and pure.  Christ did not die to permit us to continue in our sins.  Christ died to both forgive us of our sins and to empower us to resist sin.  Obviously when we are first born again into Christ we are like babies and are not very strong in fighting against sin.  Let us not forget however that we are not to stay in this position but we are to grow or mature wherein we become stronger and more like the sinless Christ. Here is our COMMAND: “But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.” (2 Thess. 3: 6).  This is not the norm for most churches today and not even the norm within our own fellowship.  Part of the reason for this is that too many of us have a low view of the church.  We have a low view of the church often because we will not do what we are commanded to do.   Satan who will quote Scripture to us will often use the words of our Lord to try to dissuade us from doing what is right.  Satan might say to us something cleaver like did not Jesus say, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone … first.” (John 8:7).  O.K. Christian are you tied up in knots yet?  Are you paralyzed yet where you can’ t move forward or backward?  Satan wants us to be confused and divided.  God wants us to be united and focused on doing His will.  Yes we all do sin.  And those to whom Paul gave the command to withdraw also themselves were guilty of sin no doubt.  They were still commanded to try to do what was right and in so doing both strengthen and purify the body of Christ.  Latter this month I will share a lesson with you regarding this issue.  Pray about this.