CHURCH DISCIPLINE

Matthew 18:15-20 tells us what to do when a brother is engaged in wilful sin. The first step is to confront the brother with the word of God (Hebrew 4:12) in private (Matthew 18:15). Our confrontation should be aimed at edifying our brother (Ephesians 4:29), while holding to counsel (Proverbs12:15) in order not to wrongly or ineffectively rebuke our brother. If the brother does not change then we move on to the second step which is to multiply confront with two or more individuals as witnesses. They are there to confirm the act and to confirm that this act is out of God’s teaching and needs repentance (Matthew 18:16). It would be good if they know the brother well and in an act of love and concern, if this brother does not repent then step three has to be taken. Here the situation is brought to the Church (Matthew 18:17) so that with the help of the relationship in Church God can persuade him to repentance. It should not be every member of the church but dedicated persons who could be church elders who have a spiritual oversight of the Church who will decide how to proceed to minister to the individual. If the person persists in the sin, the fourth step is to cut all social relationship with the person (Matthew 18:17) and so there is disfellowshiping with him; and the Bible also tells us even not to eat with him (1Corinthians 5:11). We are not expected to be rude anyway but to keep our distance socially from such a person until he repents; the hope is that this will lead the person to repentance.

The purpose of church discipline is because our Lord instructed us in Mathew 18:15-20 and it is supported by 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, Titus 3:10-11 and 1 Thessalonians 5:14; and so in like manner we are loving our neighbours as ourselves. The reason for church discipline is for restoration in order to have true fellowship with the lost one (1John 1:7). This is also for the purity of the church to spare others from the infection of the sin (1 Corinthians 5:1-13). We discipline our children because we love them and feel responsible for them (Hebrew12:7-8) and so we have to do same for a church family member. Wilful sin is the action which is performed in conscious disregard of what the Scriptures clearly teach as
wrong. So to discipline is showing love and holiness of God ((Matthew 22:39-40; 2 John 5-6). We are to confront any brother in Christ who is willingly sinning, it does not matter whether we go to the same local church but in the body of Christ he is a brother. If the individual is in another local church where church discipline is ignored we still have the possibility to go and minister to the brother and even with one or more individuals even though the local church might not come in. As part of the body of Christ we are supposed to exercise discipline because we are holy temples of God and should act accordingly (1Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21), and if we fail then the Lord in his loving-kindness will discipline us (Hebrews 12:6-13). So if a church does not confront sin it is unthinkable and disobedient as Paul shows its seriousness in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. for church discipline to come in the sin must be wilful; the scriptures tell us what to do for the other cases in 1 Thessalonians 5:14. The sin should also be an action expressly forbidden in God’s word (1 Cor. 5:9-11). Sinful thoughts cannot be put under church discipline because we are limited in knowledge on what is in a man’s heart (1 Samuel 16:17) and what is in a man’s heart will be expressed (Matthew 15:15-20), so church discipline will only come in when it is expressed outwardly in word or in deed. So we cannot discipline too on the basis of conscience (Romans 14:1-12) say a man who thinks a certain television program is not good but watched by a brother but we can discipline if he steals a television set because the Bible says clearly that “do not steal”. In like manner a man might not be discipline for not loving his wife but would be disciplined for unloving act like being unfaithful to his wife. The process of discipline ceases when the person repents and is restored as seen in Matthew 18:15-20, and 2 Corinthians 2:5-11. Discipline should always be done with care not to harm the unity of the fellowship due to factiousness (Titus 3:10-11).