Mark VII: Church Discipline

Mark VII: Church Discipline
1 Cor 5

Church Discipline! There is a huge temptation to avoid this topic altogether. And I suspect that many pastors and churches do because it’s awkward and uncomfortable and not very seeker sensitive. I mean, when was the last time you heard a sermon on the topic of church discipline? Maybe you’re okay with that.

But I think most people want a certain amount of church discipline and rejoice in the fact that there are churches who give their pastor to the freedom to choose topics like church discipline. I also believe that a church that upholds some level of church discipline is beneficial to both believers and unbelievers because it curbs hypocrisy and easy-believism as well as protects the sheep from wolves- people whom Paul described as going from church to church and taking simple people captive into captivity.

I suppose Baptism Sunday is as good a Sunday as any to preach on church discipline. In fact, it is very appropriate. After all, baptism signifies a willingness to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the mediation of that lordship through the offices of the church, his visible representative.

Let’s read the text.

Did you know that if a five year old behaves better than a 2 year old it is because he has parents who have the backbone to discipline their boy? Sure, my 5-year old can be bad, but imagine how much worse he would be if we never disciplined him?

Have you seen a child whose parents were inept disciplinarians? I’m sure we all have horror stories. So if Parents do society a favour by disciplining their children then churches likewise do society an even greater favour by disciplining their members.

And disciplining children is a on going self correcting, self adjusting process that is refined as our children mature. My kids are getting better at doing things that need to be disciplined. Their crimes become more complex, more cleaver, more difficult to discern.

And so do the sins of Christians. For instance, when I was a new Christian, it was simple, read your bible, pray and come to church to sing. Then I learned about the Ten Commandments, and I realized how sinful I really am; then I learned The Royal Law, the golden rule, the commands of Jesus, the demands of the gospel, the exhortations of Paul and the Apostles and I realized how my sins went from the simple, like failing to read the Bible or missing worship, to the complex, like doing acts of charity with uncharitable motives, trying to impress people with my righteousness while ignoring the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And I needed more help from the Holy Spirit to discipline myself. I also needed gentle rebukes from friends and the support of a community of faith.

I need discipline –self discipline and church discipline- to steer me through the winding road of Christian discipleship to Christ-like maturity.

I’m going to keep this message simple by telling you what Church discipline is not, what it is and how its done:

Church discipline is not
Let me start by stating what church discipline is not. Church discipline is not retributive, nor penal, nor revenge, nor is it done in anger or haste. When a church performs church discipline, it is not for the purpose of inflicting punishment.

The church should be the safest place on earth. It must be a place where we feel like we can be transparent about our struggles and weaknesses. We need to have room to fail. We need to encourage people to be open about their failures. When someone fails in the church, we support them, we encourage them, we try to help make things right. We don’t jump on people who fail and point the finger and say, “I told you so.”

Church discipline must be done with tremendous humility, love for man and fear of God. We need to examine our motives, check our own holiness and, if necessary, deal with our own sins before we deal with those of others- take the log out of our own eye so that we can see the sliver in the eye of our brother.

The goal of church discipline is not punishment, but restoration- moving people in a loving way towards wholeness and Christ like maturity.
Church discipline is discipleship

Church discipline is a natural course of the discipleship process. In fact, church discipline occurs on a constant basis in the church to varying degrees. It may be as simple two brothers working through a disagreement, or pointing out to a sister that here words were hurtful.

Church discipline occurs every Sunday in Sunday School and when we listen to the preaching. This is because (hopefully) the message deals with Issues that convict us of our sin and points us to the grace of Christ and the and his power to change our behaviour. Every week we are being bruised and healed in preaching and hearing God’s counsel.

Jesus gives the process for church discipline in Matthew 18:15-17. He lists four stages of dealing with sin:

1. Stage one: the one on one stage
15 “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.

That seems simple. So why is it that when a brother sins against another brother, the first thing so many Christians do is call other people and send out emails and talk to every one else but the offending brother?

Nor does it say go tell the pastor and get him to talk to the offending brother. It says go and talk to him yourself with the hope of winning him over, not telling him off.

Notice also that is says go to him in person. It doesn’t say send him an email. If you’re hurt, the last thing you should do is confront someone via email. Emails can be written hastily, the words can be read with the wrong tone and misinterpreted and they can also be forwarded or blind carbon copied. Church discipline should never happen via the internet.

Stage 2: Bring witnesses

16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’

This is scary, because it means that the conflict is escalating and other people are involved. You need to choose wisely who you will bring with you. Perhaps an elder or someone who is gifted at peacemaking.

Stage 3: Call a meeting

17 And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.

Now whatever the issue, it better be very important before you decide to bring it to the congregation and risk splitting the body of Christ. We don’t divide the church on whim over petty disagreements. The unity of the church should never be treated flippantly because God is one, so should we be. Preserving unity is a spiritual matter of the highest importance.

It is best to try to settle something privately and in a godly manner before we cause bad feeling among brothers and sisters. Better to take Paul’s advice and be wronged than to cause disgrace to come on the church.

Stage 4: excommunication

But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a  heathen and a tax collector.

Now, I should note that the case Jesus is referring to involves and interpersonal conflict, but the same process applies to dealing with other forms of sin in the church.

Some things that should be disciplined

Let me quickly list the things that should be dealt with in a healthy church context:

1. Issues of sexual immorality. That’s the problem in 1 Corinthians. A man has committed sexual sin with his father’s wife. Notice it is not talking about the man’s mother, but the father’s wife. Most commentators agree that the situation, which was common in that day, was that the man’s father married a much younger woman and she and the man’s son became involved in an inappropriate relationship.

Paul rebuked the Corinthians for doing nothing about it and said (metaphorically) deliver him over to Satan so that his soul may be saved. Even when Paul uses the sternest language, he still has the restoration of the man’s soul in mind.

2. Another situation that requires church discipline is false teaching. This isn’t over things like, one guy is teaching amillenialism and the rest of the church is post millennial, or one person is an Arminian and the majority are Calvinists- those are disputes that are within the realm of church orthosdoxy.
But teaching that Jesus isn’t God, that his death on the cross didn’t pay the price for my sins, that Christianity is just one of many ways to God, that the Bible is not the authoritative inspired word of God… The Bible says that if anyone teaches another gospel, let them be anathema.

3. Causing division is also something that needs to be corrected in the church. One of the seven things that are an ABOMINATION to the Lord is one who sows discord among brethren- its in the same category as shedding innocent blood.

4. Another action that needs to be confronted in the church is Gossip and slander. James says that a gossiping tongue fueled by hell:
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of  iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it  defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell (James 5:5ff).

Instead Christians should, “consider one another in order to stir up love and good works…”

So the next time someone calls you up or sends you an email commenting about the character or motives of another person, your response should be, “Have you spoken to him/her about this?”

Conclusion:
Did you notice that three of the four items I listed as needing discipline in the church were issues related to the mouth?

God seems to take our use of the mouth very seriously. So should we. Let’s use our mouths to build up this church, to build up people, to spur them on to love and good works. And when the tongue is not used that way, let’s not let the root of bitterness grow- like a weed let’s rip it out before it flowers and spreads its seeds.

A healthy church is a church that is vigilant to preserve its purity and holiness and unity.