Church Discipline Part 2Correcting the Body
Turn with me to 1 John 3:2, where we read:
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
The Church is committed to the hope that some day we will see Jesus and we will be like Jesus. Why is it so hard for us to realize, that if this monumental event is going to take place someday -- somebody has to change? And Beloved, it won’t be Jesus who is required to change! It is us. Therefore we need correction. We all need correction.
To review the steps we took last Sunday, consider the chart above.
We learned that some discipline is preventative in nature. For Christians who have a daily walk with the Lord that includes acknowledgment and cleansing of sin; and for Christians who attend regularly to the “spurring-on” of church ministries – Type 2 Discipline may become irrelevant. And for those who respond to the Private Discipline loving brought by others, we learn that Type 3 Discipline also may become unnecessary.
#1. TYPE 3 DISCIPLINE
Now before we look at a couple key texts regarding dealing publicly with a sinning brother or sister. Let me draw you attention to one that some use in conjunction with this type of correction. Let me walk you through it and you decide whether it is appropriate to do so.
A. 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
Verse 6 is the imperative:
"Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us."
Paul writes, “We command!” (note the Greek word is parangellÅ which is a very strong and authoritative word; it denotes standing beside someone like a drill sergeant and telling him what to do.) And if that wasn’t enough, Paul writes “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He calls upon us to withdraw (stellomai) meaning “come away from”. Now who is the Church to withdraw from? Answer: A fellow believer who is leading an unruly life. This, by is original writing (atakios), indicates a continual pattern of life.
Now the question we have to wrestle with this morning is what does it mean to walk unruly? How broad is this command?
Now verse 7 and 8 give us a clue to this. "For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you;"
What was going on here? It seemed that some people in the Church at Thessalonica got so excited about the Second Coming of Christ they just up and quit working. They thought, “We’ll just sit here and wait for the trumpet to sound.” Paul said, “OK, you don’t want to work – don’t eat!” Now if they had just ignored that and sat waiting to die it would have been bad enough, but look carefully at what else they were doing:
They were “acting like busybodies” (v11). Paul’s command to them is “to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.”[1] “They were using the extra time to interfere in other people's affairs. ("They are busybodies," v. 11) They were meddling in the lives of others.”[2]
What’s Paul saying here? He’s saying that when John and Mary Smith choose to sit around and be idle, disobeying the Apostolic injunction to work; and they use their time to meddle and gossip and bother those who are trying to work – tell them that you do not want to have anything to do with them. But Paul adds, “Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”[3] The point is that I would not find exegetical evidence to apply this to every scenario. I believe the principle is this: Christians are to be busy in God’s will – disassociate with those who draw you into idle, meddling behavior and exhort them not to do that – but exhort them as fellow Christians to get to work.
I would not apply this to corporate Church discipline with my present understanding of the text and context of the command. It ought to be applied to our own daily lives though.
The most familiar passage regarding public discipline is Matthew 18.
B. Matthew 18:15-17
“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. “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." (Matthew 18:15-17)
In this case the sin is private, but it becomes public because the erring brother fails to heed the admonition of those who go to him and care for him. Now notice that the church is not the Court. The Church takes up the role of exhortation – the role of pleading. “If he refuses to listen EVEN to the Church!” How might this play out? Probably during a worship service, with the erring member present or even if they are not, the elders tell the church briefly what the problem is. Then at this point the Church takes it upon them to go to that erring brother and plead with him to reconcile and make it right. The entire congregation is released to minister to this person.
If this individual fails to respond to the one person; if they fail to respond to the 2 to 3 persons; and they fail to respond to the entire Church, Jesus says then they are treated as an unbeliever. How are unbelievers treated? Are they not treated with love, with concern, with kindness? They would not hold office in the church. They would lack many of the privileges of membership. But they would not be barred or treated unkindly. The goal is restoration not separation.
Probably one of the most serious passages that deal with public church discipline is in 1 Corinthians.
C. 1 Corinthians 5:1-5
“It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)
In the Church at Corinth a well-established, well-known sin was being lived out in their fellowship. It had been going on for some time. This was not recent. It was not only repulsive to God, but it was repulsive to the world. It was a sexual sin. Ironically, rather than dealing with it, there was something that crept in even making the Church “proud” of it. It is only a matter of speculation on my part how a congregation could avoid dealing with this and even be proud about it. My best guess is that they were perhaps “proud” in the sense that they were extolling their virtues of tolerance, grace, mercy to the sinner and so on. “Look how forbearing we are?” they may have said.
For Paul that didn’t work. The issue was so undisputable that even from a distance Paul judged the situation as sin. He said that such a person ought to have been “removed from their midst” (v2). Later in the chapter Paul quotes the Old Testament: “REMOVE the wicked man from among yourselves.”[4] Apparently Paul had previously written them and told them “Do not associate with immoral Christians” (v9). “Don’t even eat with them!” I write Christians because Paul makes it plain he is not referring to the unregenerate. He is referring to the unrepentant believer. If he doesn’t deal with it, it will work itself in destruction through the whole Church.
Now I take the phrase: “hand this man over to Satan” to be identical in essence: “treat him as an unbeliever.” Let me explain. We are either in the reign and under the rule of Christ or Satan. There are only 2 options. When a person is accepted as a church member, they are not transferred from one kingdom to another; nor does membership make them a Christian. We accept a person into membership because we primarily say that “our life gives every indication that you are saved.” When we “treat someone as an unbeliever” or “hand them over to Satan” we are saying the same thing but opposite: “your behavior gives every indication that you are not.” In the first instance we are NOT saying that a person is a Christian; and in the second instance we are NOT saying they are NOT a Christian. We are saying that there lifestyle doesn’t indicate they are.
Why would Paul use the term “hand over to Satan” instead of “treat him as an unbeliever”? Please note carefully, the goal is not there damnation (just as Matthew 18). The goal is there salvation (see v5! Let me tell you what I think and you weigh it carefully.
Point A. The god of this age is Satan (1 John 5:19). He is in subjection to Almighty God and he is under God’s sovereignty. But he has been given dominion in this life.
Point B. The Christian who is in right relationship with God is under the protection of God (Psalm 91:1-2) and Satan cannot touch him (1 John 5:18).
Point C. One of the temporal means that God employs to display His judgment is the Divine initiative called “handing over” (see Romans 1:26). I take that to mean that He removes His protective care and “hands one over” to the natural (Satanic) consequences of their behavior.
So I am convinced that what the Apostle is saying is this. Rather than put up with obvious, flagrant immorality and even gloat over it, the church is to seek correction from the individual(s) and if they refuse, they are to remove them from the privileges of membership and thus the protection of Christ. That is scary!
Interim Summary
Paul’s hope is that the unhappy and grievous effects of living life outside of the will of Christ will bring the prodigal home. All this work of correction is not the civil authorities; it is neither the elders nor the deacons; it is not just the individual Believer – this work of discipline at this level is the congregation! It cannot possibly be accomplished with successful results unless the Church sees that this is our Divine commission – albeit regrettable. That is why we are teaching on this matter.
There are two other areas that the Scripture speaks to that are to be handled in a similar manner as 1 Corinthians 5 in the case of wanton immorality. We will look at them briefly. The first is found in 1 Timothy.
D. 1Timothy 1:18-20
"This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme." (1 Timothy 1:18-20)
Here we have another situation of someone being “handed over to Satan” (“treated as an unbeliever, by my understanding). What’s going on here? These two men have somehow rejected “their faith”. In 2 Timothy 2:17, Hymenaeus is mentioned as someone who has strayed from the truth. My understanding of this is that these two people are likely teachers in the assembly and have deviated from the established faith. They are teaching heresy.
Now when it comes to Christian doctrine we need to accept the reality that some aspects of the faith are more significant than others. There are some things that are disputable and at least for the present, unresolved. There are certainly issues where people can disagree and the integrity of the faith is not damaged. But there are cardinal, absolute and unalterable truths that if you mess with them you are a heretic and you are blaspheming the truth. This is not the time nor the place to go into this in great depths but this must be clear in all our minds:
a. We only see in part in some areas therefore we must express humility and kindness to those who disagree.
b. We differ as Christians on important issues. Healthy, meaningful intramural debate is good. None of these things ought to interrupt our fellowship.
c. But there are some hills to die on. Some truth is unalterable and the denial of them must affect our fellowship.
Just so we’re clear, let me give you an example of this: I will die on the hill of Biblical inerrancy and authority. I will not die on the hill of translations. I will die on the hill that the Holy Spirit is the absolutely the Third Person of the Trinity. I will not die on the hill of the gift of tongues. And of course my list and yours will go on!
Elk Point Baptist Church needs to come to grips with this. In a few weeks I will preach on Membership as to what must be the criteria for receiving people into membership. Please remember this point: Some issues must not be allowed to divide our fellowship. Some will. The wisdom to know the difference is critical.
Whatever these characters were teaching in Ephesus, Paul ascertained that it was a hill to die on.
One further instance where the Church needs to consider association with someone calling themselves a brother is found in Titus.
E. Titus 3:10
Let’s see the context (vv9-10):
"But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned." (Titus 3:9-11)
Here we have a factious man. This is a man that is a trouble maker. This is a man that is consistently causing divisions and conflict. As we examine this passage though, like in other instances, we must consider carefully the context. That word translated factious is the Greek word hairetikon where we get our English word, heretic. It literally means “to choose, prefer, or take for oneself.” It means to hold an opinion despite the clear and obvious instruction from God’s Word. It “essentially characterizes what is a self-chosen opinion or viewpoint; because of their insistence on their opinions devoid of a true scriptural basis, the dissidents stir up divisions.”[5] So there is a sense where this scenario is similar to the last.
Here’s the point, brothers and sisters: Pastors and congregants can easily develop theological hobby-horses. They are based upon sheer speculation. The integrity of biblical exegesis gives them no credence. They only cause division and they are rooted in pride and self-adulation. Get over it! The context speaks of speculations and ideas that emerge from Judaism. I have only been in ministry for a few years, comparatively, but I have seen movement and movement even in that short period of time that is here today and gone tomorrow. To mention some would offend some of you. Stay away from such and after warning people --stay away from people who promote such things.
Application
Generally speaking then, when someone is known to have sinned, you have the responsibility to go to them and “show them” their sin. If they don’t listen you should return at a reasonable time with 2 or 3 others. If that brings restoration we are thankful, if not the entire church is mobilized for ministry. If all attempts to restore fail then the individual loses the privileges and protection of being right with Christ and His Church. Hopefully the misery that results will bring them to repentance. They are not to be avoided. They are to be loved and shown kindness. They are to be objects of your affection and mercy. They forfeit the privileges of Christian membership but they do not forfeit your love.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (2 Th 3:12). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2] Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Thessalonians/Exposition of 2 Thessalonians/IV. Encouragement to Gainful Employment (3:1-15)/B. Proper Solution for Idleness (3:6-15)/2. Renewed instruction (3:11, 12), Book Version: 4.0.2
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (2 Th 3:15). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (1 Co 5:13). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5] Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Titus/Exposition of Titus/IV. Concerning Believers Among Men Generally (3:1-11)/C. The Reaction to Spiritual Error (3:9-11), Book Version: 4.0.2
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