Church Discipline

Transcript

GR 707
4/21/1985
Church Discipline
Matthew 18:15-20
Gil Rugh

Matthew 18 is a section of the Word about which there is much discussion. It has become a battleground for the church since even the courts of our society have seen fit to involve themselves in the instructions given for the church to carry out. It is very important for believers to be clear on what God says in the area of church discipline so that the church does what is biblical but only what is biblical. Believers must function in the way that God says they are to function as His church.
The context of this section is very important. In Matthew 18 Christ began by talking about the humility of the believer and the need to recognize the overwhelming value of every individual child of God. God’s perspective on other believers allows the Christian to have a proper perspective of himself. In other words, it helps me to function in humility when I emphasize how important and valuable to God you are as an individual.
As Matthew 18 began, the disciples had been having a debate on who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In that kind of debate the attention is focused on self and discussing how and why one person is superior to others. Jesus turned their attention and focused it on the humility necessary for the individual to become a believer and the value and importance of each individual. Jesus said they must become like children in humility, with total dependence and trust upon God as His children.
To be humble, pride must be broken down, and I must be willing to see myself as God sees me, as a sinner who is guilty before Him, and my pride rebels against that. That is why pride is such a big obstacle to becoming a child of God. Only as I am willing to humble myself before Him in recognition of my own sinful unworthiness and to place my trust in Him as my Savior, the One who loved me and died on the cross for me, can I experience God’s salvation. Then I am to continue to live my life in reliance upon Him. In the context of humility there is to be recognition of the value of every person who is a child of God and the worth, if you will, that God places on each of His children.

Jesus gave the analogy of a shepherd in Matthew 18:12-14. He told the disciples that if a shepherd has 100 sheep and one goes astray, that one is so valuable to the shepherd that he goes out and seeks and looks until he finds it and brings it back to the fold. Jesus said that every single individual Christian is so important that He is determined that none of them perish. “It is not the
will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish” (Matt. 18:14).
If God places that kind of value on the individual Christian, how ought we as believers look at one another? God says you are so valuable that He has secured you for Himself for all eternity. That ought to affect the way that I look at you and the importance that I attach to you.
It is in that context that Jesus moved into a section on the correction of a believer. How does one bring correction or discipline into the life of one of these straying sheep? As a sheep goes astray, God seeks him out. God as the Shepherd uses others of His children to seek out those straying sheep and bring them back to Himself. The correction of a believer is given in the context of God’s great love and the value He attaches to every one of His children. Scripture always presents discipline as a matter of love. The Book of Proverbs states that the person who loves his child will discipline him diligently and the one who hates his child is the one who holds back discipline.
Jesus covered two major issues in Matthew 18:15-20. The first issue is the procedure for discipline: How is discipline or correction of a believer to be carried out? The second issue is the authority for discipline, which is a major topic of discussion: Who says you ought to get involved in someone else ’s life? Who gives you the right to become involved in that way in someone else’s business?
Christ picked up with the procedure that is to be followed. It is very simple and easy to understand. The church has backed off and shied away from what is called “church discipline” but it is not because the Scripture is not clear on the subject. It is because we as believers do not have enough love for other believers and we do not attach enough value and worth to other believers so that we would be willing to be inconvenienced to a great degree to reach out and bring them back to proper relationship with God.
The first step in correcting a believer in sin is to go and confront him personally. “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private” (Matt. 18:15). “If your brother sins” indicates that Jesus was talking about one who is a brother, a fellow Christian. This does not apply to everyone, only one who has come to trust Jesus Christ as personal Savior and has a personal relationship with Christ Himself. That is the one who is your brother in this context.
The word “sins” in this verse means to miss the mark or to fail to be what he ought to be in light of the Word of God. He is rebelling against God in an area of his life. Some manuscripts add the words “against you” so that it says, “If your brother sins against you.” That fits the context but it is questionable whether or not Matthew wrote it. In Matthew 18:21, Peter asked the question,
“how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” The issue is the same whether you become aware of a Christian’s sin or that particular Christian sins against you personally. The action required is the same in both cases, but it may be very personal here because that tells where the responsibility really rests.
If I am one who is offended or if I become aware of sin in another believer’s life, what am I to do? Christ says “Go and show him his fault in private” (Matt. 18:15). Go and show are given in the imperative in the Greek language, which means they are commands to be obeyed. Jesus Christ was not giving a suggestion for consideration but a command to be obeyed. If I become aware of sin in another believer’s life or that believer sins against me, I am commanded by God to go and reprove that believer. If you sin against me or I become aware of sin in your life and I do not come and confront you about it, I have become rebellious against God and I am disobeying His Word because He told me to do it and I did not do it.
“Show him his fault” is also translated “reprove”. It means spring to life, expose, correct, convict or point out something to someone. This is the same word used of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in John 16:8. Jesus said, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
I am to come to my brother and point out his sin to him. I rebuke him for that sin: “This is wrong. You are in rebellion against the Word of God in this area of your life and you ought to stop that kind of conduct. You must stop.” This applies in areas of clear sin. A brother may be doing things that I would not do. He may be doing things I do not like. That is not the issue. The issue is if my brother sins he is in rebellion against the Word of God, then I am to go and point out his sin to him. I am to show him in light of the Word that the activity is wrong and must stop. In that situation God the Father is reaching out to a straying child and, through the ministry of the Spirit in my life as a believer, He is reproving or correcting that sinning Christian.
Titus 2:15 says “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority.” Paul says to reprove with all authority. The authority will be discussed later, but note that Paul says to reprove. This work is to be done with authority, not with arrogance or pride, but with authority. This is God’s will and God’s plan and so it must be dealt with in this way.
The next phrase is crucial: in private. Literally, it says between you and him alone. You are to go and reprove him between you and him alone. If we would follow this biblical admonition, much confusion, heartache, and gossip would be dealt with. If my brother sins, I am not supposed to go and talk to someone else about it. I am not to sit down with you and say, "you know what? So and so is sinning. What do you think we ought to do?” The point is that we oughtn’t to do anything; I ought to go talk to him.
What usually happens is that I begin to look around for ways that I can avoid my responsibility. I can think of 472 reasons why you ought to talk to him and not me. Besides how do I know that God wants me to do it? I know God wants me to do it because He said that if your brother sins, you go and you reprove him in private. The first issue is do I know about the sin? Then whose responsibility is it to go? Who does God want to go? The one who knows about it. Well, if I tell somebody else, then they will know about it and then they can go. Right? Wrong. God made me
aware so I must go in private, just between the two of us. That is going to take love because I am not going to do this without a certain churning in my stomach since I don’t know how he is going to respond. He is liable to say, “It’s none of your business. Who gave you the right to be the judge over my life?” I have to love him enough that I am going to do it because it is important for him. He is worth it. He is valuable enough as God’s child, if you will, that I am going to go and reprove him in private.
Matthew 18:15 continues, “if he listens to you, you have won your brother.” If I reprove him and he listens to me it’s over. He may respond and say, “You’re right. That is sin. I recognize it before God and I’m going to stop it as of now. ” I say, “Praise the Lord.” That is the end of it. I don’t speak of it again; I don’t stand up in a prayer meeting and say, “I want to share with you a glorious victory the Lord gave me. So and so was in sin and I went and talked to him about it and he stopped.” That would be gossip. This correction is to be done in private. The goal always in discipline is to restore the believer to a right relationship with God so that he is functioning biblically. If he listens to me, I need not go any further.
The same instruction is found in Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.” There is no room for pride or arrogance. I am not to approach someone with the attitude that I am a better Christian because obviously I didn’t get involved in that sin. Paul says to do it in the spirit of gentleness or meekness. Praise the Lord when he responds and the matter is taken care of. If he says, “I don’t see this as any of your business. Stay out of my life. Goodbye,” my response is “I wish he had responded differently but at least I’ve done my job.” No. I have only done the first step.
Matthew 18:16 gives the second step: “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.” Christ gave this as a command. I must take one or two more with me. There is nothing to debate. A lot of the problems and confusion God’s children have regarding church discipline come from debating about things that God has already resolved. I don’t have to sit back and say, “What’s the next step?” The next step is: I go back and take one or two more with me.
I must find one or two mature believers and share with them, “so and so has been involved in sin. I’ve talked with him. He was not open to stop sinning; I’d like you to come with me and confront him.” At this point one or two other people become involved. That reflects what the Old Testament set down in Deuteronomy 19:15, “on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.” In other words, it is not going to be just a matter of my word against his. These additional persons come with me, and the two or three of us together confront him for two reasons.
First: It is a testimony against his unbiblical conduct. He may have said to me, “That’s your interpretation of the Scripture. I don’t see why I can’t live with someone I’m not married to. We love each other. Just cause you interpret the Scripture to say that this is sin, I don’t.” Second: If I take the additional Christians and we share together that God says this is wrong and it must stop, then they will also be there to testify against his unbiblical conduct before the church should he persist. So the witnesses are important. But the witnesses do not get involved until you have had the personal confrontation. That ought to be done one on one.
If someone says to you, “So and so is involved in sin. Would you go with me and talk to them.” The first question is, “Have you talked to them personally yet?” If the answer is no, then you must tell the person to go and talk to so and so personally and if so and so will not respond, then you will accompany the person. We have to follow it in the biblical pattern if we want God to work.
This will be especially hard if the person being confronted was very upset when you spoke to him alone. If you return with one or two others, you will expect the person to be even more upset. However that is between that person and God. You have to do what God says.
If they respond positively, that is the end of the matter because the goal is the restoration of the believer. It goes no farther than these witnesses and this individual.
Matthew 18:17 explains what to do if the response is still negative: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.” If he fails to listen to you and the witnesses that go with you, your responsibility is still not over. The goal is to restore that believer. Until he stops sinning I have to persist on the plan and pattern that God has set down.
This sin is getting progressively more known. Matthew 18:17 says to “tell it to the church.” At first only I knew about it and he knew about it, but he would not deal with it. Then he knew about it and several witnesses became involved and they also knew about it, but he was still not willing to deal with it. Then it becomes a church matter. The way that it would be brought to the body in our local church is that it would come to the leaders or the elders of the church.
The board of elders would question the person bringing the issue to make sure the biblical pattern had been followed. If not, the matter would not be brought before the church until the biblical pattern has been followed. The person must talk to the individual involved in sinful activity in private. Then if there is no change, the person must take one or two with him before bringing the issue to the church. If the person has followed the biblical pattern to this point, then the leaders as the representatives of the church confront that individual about his sin. If the individual does not turn from his sin, it is presented to the church as a body.
Our church leaders have talked about this and debated it. It would be nice to find a way to get around it in many cases. But what does the Word say? “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church” (Matt. 18:17). The church is not the board of elders. The church is not the staff or the pastors. The church is comprised of the believers gathered together in this local congregation. Therefore it is necessary for the church leaders to tell the congregation about the individual involved in sin and that he has been unwilling to stop the sin. Then the church knows.
Then there must be a response from the church because Matthew 18:17 continues, “and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” The
church agrees that this is sin and a period of time is given for members of the body to make contact with that person, to pray for him, to try to get him to see the seriousness of his sin. It says, “if he refuses to listen even to the church.” It has gotten progressively more serious. He would not listen to you. Then he would not listen to the witnesses. Then he would not even listen to the church, which is comprised of the representatives of Christ on earth.
If he will not listen to the church, then he is to be as a Gentile and as a tax collector. If he listens to the church, it is over and goes no further. If he does not listen to the church, then the church has to cut off all association with him. That is what is meant by referring to a Gentile and a tax collector. This is very serious.
Several passages of Scripture emphasize this same thing. In Paul’s letter to the local church at Corinth, he wrote to them regarding members of the church involved in immorality about which the church was not doing anything. “In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:4,5). Paul wrote that this happened in the context of the assembly of the believers and that such a one must be delivered over to Satan. That means you cut him off from the fellowship of believers.
In 1 John 5:19, John wrote, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” So when you remove this person from the fellowship of the believers in the local church, you have put him out into the realm of Satan. Satan then is given the opportunity to take special liberties with this person in afflicting him and bringing trial and difficulty into his life.
Paul continued in 1 Corinthians 5:11, “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler-not even to eat with such a one.” The word “so-called” means anyone who bears the name of a brother. This person may be a false professor but he is dealt with on the basis of the fact that he professed to be a believer in Jesus Christ. Paul wrote that the church should disassociate itself from him. They were not to be involved with him in order to emphasize to him the seriousness of his sin. At the end of 1 Corinthians 5:13 Paul wrote “remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” The church has to take a stand against him.
In 1 Timothy Paul addressed a case of doctrinal error where two men were teaching heresy, doctrine contrary to the Word of God. In 2 Timothy 2:17,18 Paul wrote that the sin of Hymenaeus and Philetus was saying that the resurrection had already taken place. They denied the bodily resurrection of believers and for that they were under church discipline, so they must be cut off from the body. In 1 Timothy 1:20, Paul wrote, “Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.” This is the same thing he said to the church at Corinth. They were to be cut off from the body of believers and put out in the realm of Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme because they were speaking against God and His Word.

Paul also wrote to the church at Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 3:6, “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.” Paul was dealing in the context of believers again. He continued in 2 Thessalonians 3:14, “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame.” Note this because one of the issues discussed regarding church discipline involves whether the church has the right to shame someone. God says we are supposed to be putting him to shame for his good.
Believers are to admonish the sinning Christian. 2 Thessalonians 3:15 says, “Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” But if I am not supposed to have anything to do with him, how do I admonish him? I can admonish him by getting together with him to talk about his situation, to encourage him to stop sinning and get right before the Lord and to offer to help him do that in any way I could. But I would not get together to socialize with him. I want him to understand that his sin is not acceptable and cannot be tolerated. This is the responsibility of the church. This is the instruction given to us as believers in following the pattern.
If he repents at any time, he is to be welcomed back with open arms. Paul wrote about the disciplined believer who did want to be welcomed back in 2 Corinthians 2:6, “Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.” This was discipline meted out by the church when it was assembled together as noted in 1 Corinthians 5. This is not the elders’ discipline or the preacher’s discipline. It is the church’s discipline.
The goal is restoration of the believer to fellowship, not to punish him or hold him up to ridicule and not to get vengeance. The pressure is put on him so that he realizes his sin is so unacceptable before God and other believers that he is going to have to deal with it. The shame and the guilt resulting from the stand of the church against the sinner and his action is meant to be more than he can bear so that he humbles himself before God and acknowledges that it is sin. Then the church welcomes him back with open arms. This also may be difficult because there may be those that think he has not suffered enough and is not really sorry. But if he expresses his conviction of sin, then we take him at his word and we respond in love. The issue of doing it repeatedly will come up and Peter will ask, “How often do Iforgive him?” Christ dealt with that matter as well.
Some people ask what good is accomplished by cutting the believer off? They think it would be better if the sinning Christian was allowed to come and be involved with other Christians and then they could continue to work with him. He would continue to be exposed to the teaching of the Word. Remember God’s plan is always better than yours and always better than mine, and God’s plan is clear. You never improve on God’s plan, so that alone would be reason enough. But also remember, there are two purposes for discipline.
Number one: Discipline reflects love for the one disciplined and a desire to have him restored to the flock and the fellowship of believers. Proverbs 13:24 indicates that he who disciplines his son loves him.
Number two: Discipline maintains the purity of the body of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 5:6 Paul wrote, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?” If you do not cut off this sin, it will spread like leaven through the rest of the body. Galatians 5:9 says the same thing. It will spread to others because they will see this person indulging in sin and that he is enjoying it and they will think there aren’t any real consequences. The purity of the body necessitates that we take a stand publicly against that sin.

If I develop an infection in my arm, I will do all I can to have that infection cured, but it may come to the point where the doctor says that in order to prevent that from spreading into the rest of my body and destroying me, I am going to have to have the arm amputated. Now that is serious, but do I sacrifice my body for the arm or do I sacrifice the arm for the body? That is analogous to church discipline. For the purity of the body we take a stand against this sin.
The two purposes are crucial: One, to put that person to shame and to cause him to realize the greatness of his sin, and two, to maintain the purity of the body.
If a Christian decides to ignore the discipline and leave the church, does the church have to discipline him? Yes, it does, because the church is responsible to carry out God’s Word. The church is reaching out in love to a straying sheep. The church wants to have him feel the impact of the shame of his sin in an effort to bring him back. Yet at the same time if he decides to ignore the discipline and stay in the church, the church is not allowed to tolerate him while he continues in that sin. It is important to understand both reasons that the Scripture gives for discipline so that it is properly applied.
The second major topic of discussion is the authority for discipline. The authority comes from God. When I professed to trust Jesus Christ as my Savior, I became His child and subject to His authority. This authority is meted out in my life through the local church. Sometimes Protestants have reacted so strongly to the emphasis of the Roman Catholic Church on the authority of the church that they have moved the other way to an unbiblical position claiming, “I am responsible only to God.” The Bible says you are responsible to God through the fellowship of believers. There is no such thing as an independent, “off-on-his-own” Christian. That concept is totally foreign to the New Testament. When you trusted Jesus Christ you became His child, a member of His body, which is expressed in the fellowship of the local church.
Jesus dealt with this in Matthew 18:18: “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Christ said the same thing in Matthew 16:19 when Christ gave to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. In that context, Peter was being given authority in the kingdom yet future that Christ will establish on the earth and in that kingdom Peter will have the authority of heaven to represent Jesus Christ.

Christ said in Matthew 18:18 that this authority was “to bind” and “to loose.” To bind is to forbid something. To loose is to permit it. The church has the authority of heaven in permitting things and forbidding things, and it is said grammatically the same way for permitting and forbidding.
The authority of God is given to the local church to represent God in carrying out the instructions of His Word. The authority to bind on earth is preceded by what is bound in heaven. Similarly the authority to loose something on earth is preceded by what has been loosed in heaven. It is not an independent absolute authority. Whatever you bind and whatever you loose are to be done representing heaven so that involves following God’s instructions as revealed in His Word. The local church has no power and no authority to speak in areas where God has not spoken. The church is to reflect the mind of God as revealed in the Word of God.
God uses His people to accomplish this part of His plan to reach out to correct the erring way of His sheep, His children, and draw them back to the fold. This means that the unwillingness of a sinning Christian to respond to the admonition of the church in speaking to his sinful conduct is direct rebellion against God and God’s authority in his life. When the sinning Christian refuses to respond to the admonition of the church regarding his sin, he is in effect saying, “I don’t care what God says to me. I have determined to pursue my sinful activity.” But the Bible says that the church has the authority of God in this matter.
In Matthew 18:19 Jesus was more specific: “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.”
This verse is often quoted out of context. The context of Matthew 18:12-14 is correcting an erring Christian. This is also the context of Matthew 18:21-35. This does not have anything to do with having a prayer meeting. There may be an application for this verse to a prayer meeting, but that is not what Christ is talking about here.
Christ said “if two of you”. What two have been mentioned in this context? Matthew 18:16 says “take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.” In the presence of the church these witnesses have testified and the church has agreed concerning the sin of this individual and the authority of God stands behind that action.
Matthew 18:19 continues “it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” God
gives His full support to this action of His body and He takes full responsibility for the effectiveness of the discipline that is meted out. The church is doing this as His representatives and He is responsible. It is tempting to wonder, “What good does it do?” Remember that the effectiveness for this is in God’s hands.
In Matthew 18:18 Jesus said that whatever you bind on earth has been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth has been loosed in heaven. In Matthew 18:19 Jesus further carried out this authority by saying if two of you agree on earth, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. So God is saying He stands behind the agreement that His church has made in light of His Word. This is in the context of church discipline. It is a very serious matter for a person to persist in his sin to the point that the church has to cut him off. Do you realize that the sinning Christian is saying to the very face of God “STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS” and yet claiming to be His child? Things are going to get rougher, not smoother, for the individual in sin as will be further elaborated. But Christ is still not done on the issue of authority. It amazes me that Christ spent almost as much time or more time explaining the authority for the discipline as He did explaining the steps of discipline.
Matthew 18:20 says, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Christ has said you have the full authority of heaven behind you, you have the agreement of My Father in supporting you and you have Me in your midst. That is strong authority.
I do not think Matthew 18:20 has anything to do with the definition of a church. A church is not established everywhere there are two or three gathered in His Name. There is more to a church than that, including the biblical structure and leadership. What two or three have been mentioned in this context? Again Matthew 18:16 says “take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.” Matthew 18:20 does not stand on its own, it is in the context of church discipline. These witnesses have come together and confronted this person and shared their testimony with the church. Christ is there in their midst.
This same Greek expression, en meso, “in the midst,” is used of Christ in Revelation 1 and the context is almost identical. In Revelation 1, John was given a vision of the resurrected Christ in His glorified body. He was pictured there as Judge and as Priest. Revelation 1:13 says that Christ was “in the middle of the lampstands.” That expression “in the middle” is the exact same expression “in the midst” in Matthew 18:20. Each lampstand represents a church. The seven churches described in Revelation 2 and 3 were to give off the light and make God and His Son, Jesus Christ, known. Revelation 1:13 says, “and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.” The robe and the sash give the picture of Judge and High Priest. Where is He? He is in the midst of His churches. What is His purpose? Revelation 2 and 3 indicate that He is to mete out judgment on His people and on the church of Jesus Christ. Matthew 18:20 says that He will also be in the midst of the church as it exercises discipline upon rebelling sinful believers. Jesus Christ is the Judge. His judgment, or verdict is sometimes good as with Philadelphia and Smyrna, as he encouraged them to persevere to the end.
Who gave me the right to be judge? Nobody. Who gave the church the right? Jesus Christ. He is the Judge exercising His authority through His body. That is the picture portrayed by His presence in their midst. This makes it a very serious matter for a church not to exercise discipline. In Revelation 2 and 3, John was writing to churches that were tolerating sin in their midst and not exercising discipline to remove the sin. John wrote that if the church did not do something about the situation, Christ was going to snuff out the lampstand. He made it clear that it was no good to Him to have a church that would not maintain its purity. If the church is unwilling to cut off sinning Christians, the church itself is guilty of rebellion against God. Is it any wonder that the blessing of God is withheld from a church that fails to obey? We would like to tell God that we will do it according to our plan and ask Him to bless it, but God never indicated He would do that at all.

The church must love other believers enough to do this. Discipline is terribly inconvenient. Some parents never discipline their children because it is a bother. When I discipline one of my children, I often find myself thinking, “Do I really have to do this? Maybe I can let it go this time.” The main issues usually are the inconvenience and how unpleasant it is. I have to decide that I love them enough that I’m going to do it even though I don’t want to because if I don’t they’ll suffer for it. Similarly in the church we must decide that we love other believers enough to do this. They are of such great value that we have to do it even though we find it unpleasant. It must be done for their good and to honor Jesus Christ.
The discipline is not finished if the individual has refused the admonition of the church. If the church has done all that it can do in making a statement about the individual’s sin, the believers in the church can still admonish him from time to time to see if he might be willing to reconsider his actions, but God picks up the discipline directly. Passages like 1 Corinthians 11 indicate that God had brought to those people physical weakness, physical sickness and even physical death. 1 Corinthians 11:30 indicates that this happened in the church at Corinth because of sin.
James 5 also indicates that God brought physical weakness and even physical death to those believers who persisted in sin. That does not mean every case of physical weakness, physical sickness or physical death is caused by personal sin in one’s life. But in the case where a person has been disciplined and they find themselves with these afflictions, they can be sure it is the hand of God heavy upon them. That is why we ought to love them enough to attempt to win them back with the milder discipline before God has to intervene. The church at Corinth did not exercise love by letting people go on in their sin so that God had to plague them with physical sickness. The way 1 Corinthians 11:30 is worded indicates there was a good number of them who had died prematurely in the physical sense.
If I thought that my own children would die a premature death if I didn’t intervene, there would be nothing that would keep me from intervening. Why? I love them too much to let them go to an early grave. Do I love other believers that much to prevent them from going to an early grave? It is tempting to say, “Yes, I love them. Ijust don’t want to get involved in their life. I will just pray for them.” Hogwash! That wouldn’t show that I love them. I might as well not bother praying. If I am refusing to do what God said to do by refusing to intervene in another believer’s life, then why would I pray about it? What would I pray? “God, even though I won’t do what You tell me to do and even though I’m in rebellion, please help so and so who is in rebellion against You.” That would be what that prayer would amount to. Church discipline tells something of the value the church places on believers and the willingness to be the instrument used in others’ lives! Any time you talk about discipline it sounds harsh, but the Bible always puts it in the context of love.
Hebrews 12 points out that we ought to count it a privilege to be disciplined by God. Illegitimate children, children that do not belong to Him, are the ones that do not get disciplined. Hebrews 12:7-9: “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them.” How much more shall we respect our Heavenly Father? “He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:10,11). God’s goal is to conform believers to His character. He chastens believers along the way and He also uses believers in one another’s lives for good.
Proverbs 13:24: “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” Proverbs 23:13,14: “Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you beat him with the rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with the rod and deliver his soul from Sheol.”
Important reminder. Any time you spank your children there will be a little bit of squawking. Sometimes the child makes it seem like the spanking may be fatal, but appropriate spanking never has been. Church discipline is often the same way. There is a lot of squawking and a lot of hollering; but it is for good, to deliver the believer from death.
We in the church must trust God to give us the wisdom, the courage and the love to function biblically in this important area in our relationships with one another.