Church Discipline--Our First Responsibility

I have found that in the modern church--the 21st century church--discipline is not really much of an issue. Most churches don't practice it and those who do are many times seen as legalistic. Why is it that churches don't like to practice discipline? It could be that in this day, were numbers means more than anything, pastors and members are fearful of running its members off. It could be that pastors and members lack the training on how to deal with the issue. It could be that pastors and members are so sinful themselves that they can't imagine judging another so as to say they need to be disciplined. Why is discipline in the church so important?

I will order them from least importance to most important. (3) The sake of the believer's testimony and his relationship with Christ. (2) The sake of the church's testimony and her relationship with Christ. (1) The sake of Christ testimony and His glory. So what is our first responsibility in administering church discipline?

Love! The church must love the believer enough to confront him of his error. Individuals of the church must love the church enough to keep sin out of it. And the church must love Christ enough to protect His testimony to the world. So why have we failed so miserably in the administering of church discipline? Because we lack the sort of love needed to discipline. It is easy for us to talk behind some ones back and make jokes about them and their sin. It is easy to scorn them and make them feel shameful. Is that any good though? Does it work? No. What it does is causes a fallen believer to fall away from the church because the ones who should be there to support him are cruel and insensitive.

How many people have left the church because they have felt betrayed and ridiculed, and eventually forgotten? The reason church disciple isn't done in many churches is because all the discipline they have seen was done without love. So how should we administer church discipline?

I won't go through all the steps here, but if you like, check out a previous post. Rather I want to stick to the heart of discipline--love. When we see a brother in sin we should not be filled with anger, but rather mercy. As a father disciplines his son so shall the church. A father doesn't discipline his son for his enjoyment, but for the good of his son out of love. When we see a brother sin or we have one sin against us we need to be filled with love. We need to think about the issue and decide if the issue needs discipline (Will it hurt the testimony of him, the church, and Christ? Some issues need to just be forgiven and left at that). If it does then we go to the brother humbly in love and tell him of his offence and hope for reconciliation. If the brother repents then Scripture tells us we have won a brother. Here is the hardest part. Out of that love, whether he repents or not, we must forgive him of his sin. That doesn't mean that you don't continue to discipline him if he fails to repent, but it means that you must give him mercy and grace--just like our Father has done for us.

Does not our Father discipline us when we are wrong, does He not do this out of love, but have we not been forgiven by His grace? We have been forgiven, and yet He disciplines us to lead us to reconciliation with Him, so that we might be more intimate with Him. That should be the desire we have when we see a brother sin. We should be filled with love and grace and go to him to reconcile him back to the church by disciplining him so that he can be intimate within the fellowship.

I wish that more of the flock had this sort of love. That one would be willing to go and tell another he is wrong for his sake, the sake of the church, and the sake of Christ. I have been extremely blessed to have others in my live that have disciplined me in spiritual matters. I haven't always listened at first and many times it has put a strain on my relationship with them; but praise God that I later saw my foolishness, repented of my sin, and asked for forgiveness from my brethren. The most joyful part of all of it was going to them and asking for their forgiveness and seeing that they already had. They had already forgiven me, before I even asked and they were just waiting for me to be reconciled back to them. This is brotherhood and friendship in the faith. This is love. And this is what we are all suppose to have for one another.