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In the Old and New Testaments many people departed from the truth and fell away.
At John 6:66 it says many of Christs’ own disciples went back and walked no more with him. He noted that HE, Christ had chosen the 12 and one, (i.e. Judas) was a devil.
At 2 Tim. 4:10 Paul says that his good friend named Demas forsook him having loved this present world.
At 1 John 2:19 John says: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Jude says at verse 4: For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Esau would not walk in the ways of his brother, Jacob, his father Isaac, or his grandfather Abraham.
So this is not a new thing, it is an old thing, it a part of the proving ground.
Christ said this would happen in the parable of the sower in Mat. 13. He said the seed will fall into stony places and a man that has no root in himself will endure for a while and tribulation and persecution will arise and he will be offended and wither away.
Christ and the Holy Spirit gave the Church an express command for what to do when a person fell away.
The remedy is to withdraw from that man, to have no company with him, to not be unequally yoked together, to be ye separate, to let him be as a heathen man and publican so as to not corrupt the clean with the unclean or intermingle the unleavened with the leaven. Here are a few of the verses:
2 Thes. 3:6 – Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly.
Christ said at Mat. 18:17 if a man is not walking orderly and neglects to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. That is, do not talk or have conversation with him.
2 Thes. 3:14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
2 Cor. 6:14-17 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? …Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
Rom. 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Christ said at Mat 10:34-38 “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”
We are specifically warned that a great danger lies in continuing to be fast friends and make common cause with those that walked among you in the Church, regardless of your relationship in the flesh, because they are a danger to your soul. Paul says that we should not eat with one that was a brother in Christ and turned to proud sin.
1Co 5:11 I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
Heb 10:26-31, 38, 39 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God … Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Amen.