Recently you answered a question that dealt with 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Is your response saying we are to having nothing to do with unsaved family after we have tried to talk to them about Salvation, and they do not want to listen? I don’t think I could turn my back on my elderly parents and my siblings. That seems like a very, very poor witness. In fact, I will not do that. Am I misunderstanding something here?
2 Timothy 3:1-5 reads,
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
My answer pertains to those who habitually exhibit this kind of behavior and was not meant as a general admonition. If your family consistently acts this way around you, then tolerating their behavior is like telling them you approve. I think that would be the poor witness. Just because you love a person who isn’t saved doesn’t mean you have to accept abusive behavior from them. In fact, we’re warned not to accept it.