Separation or Division?

Sometimes we have to separate from our brothers in Christ. I believe that that ought to cause us personal heartache as we take a difficult final step to demonstrate to him our concern over his willful continuance in sin. Our goal is not to make ourselves more acceptable to God but to see him turn from his sin and have our fellowship with him restored. I don’t believe that it a default position that we must take immediately whenever differences arise.

What kind of behavior must our brother be guilty of to merit such action?

It has been suggested that separation should occur if our convictions would be compromised by continued association. What kind of convictions?

Case in point: In a small town (population 9000) there are 30 Baptist churches. 19 of those are independent. Most of them have separated from each other over “convictions”. (Four of them are KJVO churches who’ve separated from each other over their convictions on aspects of the KJV.) In that town one doesn’t have to explain that separation is important to those churches.