Sola Scriptura: Church Discipline

In the last couple of post I have discussed two weaknesses in the church today either directly or indirectly. Directly I attacked the sort of preaching that is happening in many of the churches of the world today. Ones those are weak and insufficient to the mark which God has called pastors to preach. Indirectly I attacked the number of people in the church who are mistaken of their salvation, thinking they have received the salvation of God, but actually have just been deceived and claim to their salvation, which they don't have, because they came at the end of a service to the front of the church.

Well with weak preaching comes weak people, both on the level of leader and layman. Christ has called us to be His body and it should be our goal to resemble His ways, which are perfect. “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). That is what we are called to be: perfect. It is a high calling and one none of us are able to reach. Yet it should be the goal of all of us, and the goal of the church as a whole. And Scripture shows that we are to hold one another accountable and even discipline when needed, to maintain the testimony of one's self, the church, and Christ.
Yet we do not do it very well as a whole. Many members of my church are in sin and the majority of them are lazy. Why is it then that the church does not correct those who are wrong? Is not Scripture adequate? "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

I think the reason the church does not like to discipline is because its members don't want to offend anyone, and they find themselves in sin themselves and how are they to remove the speck from another's eye with a plank in their own. So the church is left weak because no one is willing to stand and correct the wrong. Now, I don’t want to sound as if there are none who are trying to do what it right in the sight of the Lord by rebuking and encouraging the sinful. But for the most of the church they don’t feel that it is their responsibility, but that of the leadership. So they go to the pastors and tell them of the other peoples' sins.

This is the first flaw in those who think they are doing right. The Word calls us to go to one another and tell them of their sin so that they might turn away from it (Matthew 18:15, Galatians 6:1). We need to understand that some one might not be aware of their sin. They might not be as far as another in their spiritual journey and the Word and Spirit of God might not have yet enlightened them to the understanding of there error. So before it becomes a wide spread issue in the church, go to the brethren and tell them their sin so that them might know and turn from there wickedness. Some might know they are wrong, but lack the strength to stop and just need the encouragement and accountability to do so. "Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). If the brother repents from their sin then we have won your brother (Matthew 18:15).

This will hopefully be the end and no more action will need to be taken, but some times people fall into sin and do not wish to exit without a fight. Matthew 16-17 list out the next steps in dealing with a fallen brother; we are to go and take with us one or two others to rebuke and exhort (though Scripture does not say this, reason goes to show that this should be a man of spiritual maturity and most likely an elder of the church). It is the hope that this person will repent, but if not then you go to the church and announce the sin to the whole congregation. Then the church goes to the brother to encourage and rebuke and if the fallen brother still wishes to live in his sin then he is to be excommunicated and treated like a Gentile and a tax collector.

With that said, we are not to see that person as an enemy of the body, and we are still called to love them. "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. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother" (2 Thessalonians 3:15). The reason we remove him from us is for his good (along with the sake of the church and Christ's name), so that he will be put to shame and that he might go hateful of his sin, in the loss he has, and then be willing to turn from that sin and be reconciled to the church.

Some people say that discipline is bad because it means kicking out people who aren't saved and they might never hear the gospel of Christ again, thus we are condemning them to hell. Some might say that it would be foolish to kick out a fallen brother as we are signing his death certificate in which he will fall away from God's love. Well, are we greater then God? Do we know His will better than Him? We are simply to obey what He has commanded in this Word, and trust that He at work and doing according to His purpose.

If we remove a sinner, one never saved by the atonement of Christ, because he refused to repent then we are not responsible for their blood, for it is the Father who draws and the Son who saves. If it is God's will for that sinner to be saved then they will be, whether or not we remove them or not. And if the brother who is removed never comes back then we must trust what John spoke, "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:19).

In the end we must realize why all things happen the way they do, and that is for the glory of God. We must trust that He is sovereign and allow Him to do as He wills and we must do as His Word dictates. When we try to do things by our own means then we will be found in error; thus says the Lord, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways...For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).