Every local church should receive all kinds of genuine believers in Christ (Rom. 14:1-6; 15:1-7). We have no right to give up any believer, unless he is divisive. When a believer becomes divisive, he is divided from the church already. But as long as a believer is not divisive, we should not give him up. If a believer prefers to keep the Sabbath whereas we take the Lord's Day, or if he eats only vegetables whereas we eat every kind of food, we still must receive him. We must receive him because God has received him (Rom. 14:3) and because Christ has received him (Rom. 15:7). We must receive every believer in Christ according to Christ (Rom. 15:5).
We should not receive the believers according to their diet or according to our preference. Whether we like a particular believer or not, we have no choice but to receive him. Suppose you were born into a family of twelve brothers. You might like only yourself and one of your brothers and not like the rest. However, the fact that the other ten are in the same family is not up to you; it is up to your parents. They begot those peculiar ones. Therefore, you have no choice but to receive them as your brothers. Likewise, in the church a particular brother may have certain characteristics that are offensive to us. But we need to realize that our Father has begotten him and has received him. If we give up this brother, we would give up our Father. Thus, we must receive all kinds of genuine believers, not according to anything of ourselves but according to Christ. We must receive them because they have Christ; Christ is in them. If a church does not receive all kinds of genuine believers, it is divisive and becomes a sect.
A believer can be kept away from the fellowship of a local church, that is, the fellowship of the Body of Christ, because of only three things.