The Basics of Church Discipline |
We grow more into Christ’s likeness not only through Bible study and prayer, but through mutual care and accountability.[i] This care and accountability includes the practice of church discipline.
When you exhort a fellow Christian to repent of disobedience to one of God’s commands, you are practicing the first step in church discipline. Jesus commanded, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Matthew 18:15). Jesus instructs us to escalate the process of admonition[ii] until the offender repents. If the individual does not repent, and great effort and patience have been expended in seeking to appeal to him, the final step in the process of church discipline is expulsion from church membership (but not from attending church services, that he might continue to hear God’s Word) and exclusion from the communion table (excommunication). This does not give us a license to nitpick fellow believers, for “love covers a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8). But in the case of gross and unrepentant violations of God’s commands, we should humbly and lovingly confront the offender.[iii] The Westminster Confession (30.3) lists five concerns that should motivate us to practice discipline in the church: “Church censures are necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren[iv], for deterring of others from the like offenses[v], for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump[vi], for vindicating the honor of Christ, and the holy profession of the gospel[vii], and for preventing the wrath of God[viii], which might justly fall upon the church, if they should suffer His covenant, and the seals thereof [the sacraments] to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders.” Even when discipline proceeds to the final step, excommunication, the goal is to reclaim the offender. Since the Lord’s Supper is for Christians, excommunication alerts the impenitent about the ultimate implications of his rebellion[ix]. From his outward behavior, he does not appear to be a Christian and, should he continue in his rebellion, he will perish in hell. Only God knows the heart; the church can only judge by words and actions. The church, while making no final judgment about the offender's spiritual state, is to treat him as if he were an unbeliever since his lack of repentance makes him appear so[x]. When we announce the excommunication of a church member to the congregation[xi] we say, "We will cease to call him brother, and now call him friend." In regarding him as a friend, we will pray for his repentance and seek to win back into the brotherhood. Repentance and its fruits[xii] allow excommunication to be reversed. We should celebrate when the offender repents[xiii], as well as forgive and forget[xiv], exhibiting the grace that God has shown to us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [i] Hebrews 10:24: “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” [ii] Matthew 18:16-17: “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” I Thessalonians 5:12: “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.” [iii] Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” [iv] I Corinthians 5:4-5: “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” [v] I Timothy 5:20: “As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.” [vi] I Corinthians 5:6-7: “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.” [vii] I Peter 2:12: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” [viii] I Corinthians 1:27-32: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” [ix] I Corinthians 5:5: “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Paul seems to be saying that to put the man outside the church is to deliver him into the region where Satan holds sway (Colossians 1:13; I John 5:19). [x] Matthew 18:17: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” [xi] I Corinthians 5:4: “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus….” [xii] Matthew 3:8: “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” II Corinthians 7:10-11: “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you….” [xiii] Matthew 18:12-14: “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” [xiv] Hebrews 10:17: “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Peter Kemeny, Pastor Good News Presbyterian Church P.O. Box 1051, Frederick, MD 21702 www.goodnewspres.org |
