Talking About Church Discipline

 Across forty-five years of pastoral ministry, I have encountered many different perspectives on Church Discipline. Some see it as judgmental and exclusionary. Some see it as outdated - a holdover from the days of Church and State being too closely aligned. “At first hearing, the issue seems as antiquarian and foreign as the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials.” Some see it as an inescapable Biblical requirement placed on churches and spiritual leaders, which they neglect to the peril of that local church, and to their own shame. I write from the last of those perspectives. 

The Scriptures really leave no doubt as to the necessity of the exercise of church discipline. In Acts 20 the Apostle Paul speaks to the elders of the church of Ephesus and states:

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.  Therefore be on the alert…” - Acts 20:28-31a

Until Christ returns enemies of the Body of Christ will regularly appear on the local level. They will come from outside of the Church and also from within. Enemies from outside have assailed the Church since its inception, and are usually apparent. Enemies from within are not always as obvious, but they, too, regularly appear. Concerning them, Vance Havner comments, “The temple of truth has never suffered so much from the woodpeckers on the outside as from the termites within.” If our Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep and opposed the wolves (John 10:11-13) then His under-shepherds (1 Peter 5:1-4) must be willing to do so as well. They must do so despite the opposition. They may be misunderstood by some, pilloried by others, and even vehemently opposed. Regardless, the flock must be defended. 

The issue of church discipline is given rise to by the character of God. The people of Israel, under the Mosaic Covenant, are told by the LORD, “Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.” God’s people are to be a unique, separate, and holy people, whose character stands out from that of the people around them, and demonstrates them to be His. This requirement of holiness on the part of God’s people clearly extends into the New Covenant (see Matthew 5:13-20 and 1 Peter 2:9-12). When there is sinful behavior publicly visible in the local church it brings dishonor to God. 

Because this issue is controversial in our age, and because this culture is so litigious, there are some practical concerns that must be considered before engaging the two primary passages which address the actual process of practicing church discipline. 

First is the issue of obedience. Jesus commanded that the church practice discipline when necessary. Thus, this is not optional, and the willingness to follow through on it is a requirement for elders. If an elder cannot engage in confrontation, then he is not qualified to be an elder. 

For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward…holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict - Titus 1:7-9.

It is part of the elder’s job description to defend the Truth, whilst confronting those who speak falsely in the church (1 Timothy 1:18-20, 2 Timothy 4:1-5 and Titus 1:9-11). Gregg Allison rightly states that, “Jesus Christ delegates divine authority to the church to exercise discipline.” Those who, by temperament or conviction, cannot engage in such an exercise of spiritual authority are, Biblically speaking, not suited to lead.

Second, Evangelical churches need to make certain that their church constitution addresses the Biblical process of church discipline. If they don’t, and if members under discipline can convincingly demonstrate in a court of law that they had no idea that such action would be taken against them if they engaged in behavior which the Bible condemns, a church which practices church discipline may lose much; up to and including its actual building and real estate. If the church you attend or serve does not have clear verbiage in its official documents which addresses church discipline, it is time to do some serious editing of your constitution as soon as possible.

Third, this whole process is one where humility is the order of the day. We are all the recipients of God’s undeserved grace, and across the lifespan we all battle with sin. For this reason we are exhorted to be humble when confronting sin in the life of a fellow Christian:

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. - Galatians 6:1

The whole time that one is engaged in practicing church discipline, one must be mindful of one’s own vulnerability to temptation, and the potential for succumbing to the lure of “the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). As Winston Churchill said of Clement Atlee, we have “much to be humble about”.

The Biblical Bases for Church Discipline

The primary New Testament text which addresses this matter is Matthew 18:15-18. There Jesus states:

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. “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. - Matthew 18:15-18.

The secondary text is 1 Corinthians:

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. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES. - 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Some say that the passage from Matthew is spoken to the body of Christ in general. Although it is a good thing to love one another enough to confront fellow believers when appropriate, the context does seem to make this a passage that is especially focused on leaders in the church. Verse 18 speaks of “the power of the keys” or the fact that the Apostles will have the power to forgive or to retain the sins of others. It is an echo of a passage in Matthew, wherein Jesus tells Peter, in the presence of his fellow disciples:

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. - Matthew 16:19

This signals us that there is more going on in church discipline than meets the eye. It is not merely something that takes place amongst human beings here on earth. It has outworking at the heavenly level.

It is important to notice the focus on conducting church discipline as quietly and inconspicuously as possible. The offending party is to be shown “his fault in private” (Matthew 18:15). After all, “love covers a multitude of sins” (Peter 4:8). Airing the offending party’s “dirty laundry” in public is to be avoided, if at all possible.

The initial focus of the passage from Matthew 18 is upon the restoration of the offending party, or upon “winning one’s brother”. Jesus describes the escalating process of confrontation because of the very real potential for belligerence on the part of the offender. No one who is godly wishes to see the escalation of this process. No one in whom the Holy Spirit dwells rejoices to see a fallen believer barred from the worship of the local church. Because God is at work in His people they wish to see the sinning party restored. Michael Horton rightly states,

Just as God’s future ‘intrudes’ on the present through Word and sacrament (the inauguration, sign, and seal of the new creation and the wedding feast), excommunication is an eschatological sign of the last judgment in the present. As a sign, however, it is declarative and not definitive: absolution is always held out as the end goal.

Whereas the first passage above (Matthew 18:15-18) is the definitive New Testament description of how church discipline is to proceed, the second passage (1 Corinthians 5) gives 21st Century Christians a window into such discipline actually being enacted in the early church. The Corinthians boast in their tolerance (verses 2 and 6), but Paul confronts them with how grievous and profane this situation is, and with their error in being tolerant. Nevertheless, as strong as his condemnation of their handling of the situation is, the measures which he commands for dealing with the offending party are still redemptive in their intent. Paul has 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.” (verse 5).

It is important to notice that Paul’s understanding of what needs to be done is framed in terms of the Pentateuch’s emphasis on the need for the people of God to “purge the evil” from their midst. Paul’s words in verse 13 echo a repeated command that recurs throughout Deuteronomy: “But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.” That phrase appears in one form or another at least ten times in Deuteronomy (Deut. 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:13, 19; 21:21; 22:21,22,24; and 24:7). As was said early on, the issue of church discipline is given rise to by the character of God. Those people known by His name must practice visible purity before the world because He is holy. Francis Schaeffer spoke about this emphasis upon the Church practicing holiness before the world as “orthodoxy of community”, as over against orthodoxy of doctrine. This is a helpful way of thinking and speaking. A church can have right doctrine and yet still be in grave danger spiritually (Revelation 2:1-5). There is a congruency which must exist between a church’s beliefs, actions, and passions. 

Across the years I have been involved in church discipline many times. Sometimes those who are in rebellion against the Word simply jump to the third of Jesus’ three steps of discipline in Matthew 5:17, in effect excommunicating themselves by leaving the church. When this happens it is advisable amongst the nearby evangelical churches that fellow clergy be alerted to the situation, so that it is not easy for the offender to immediately take refuge in another body which is unaware of his/her sin, and refusal of church discipline.

Sometimes those who are the subjects of discipline are initially furious and reject all attempts to restore them. In my experience slightly better than half of those individuals will eventually return, ask forgiveness, and, on occasion they will, in time, thank you for loving them enough to employ the “tough love” techniques which Jesus appointed when you were dealing with their sin.  They recognize, in retrospect, that they were previously headed in a destructive direction, and that church discipline was actually the most loving response possible to their rebellious behaviors.

A number of years ago now I had the experience of having a man who had been our first convert in a church planting situation, and whom I had personally baptized and had been discipling for two years, take up with a married woman from our home church, and begin co-habitating with her. She left her husband and teenage children behind. He was unrepentant and assertive of his own autonomy when we went through the process of church discipline. He said, “I have never let anyone tell me who to sleep with, and I don’t intend to start doing so now.” Some of the sisters-in-Christ from the church plant had much the same experience with the woman who was sleeping with him. She utterly rejected their loving confrontation. In sorrow I viewed his whole conversion as abortive, and watched, with great remorse, the fallout of his very intentional adulterous relationship in the life of our fledgling church and also in his newfound partner’s family.

About four years ago he got hold of me. I had tried to track him down, but he had moved twice. He heard that I was making inquiries after him. He and his now wife, my former parishioner, invited me to their home. They both were repentant and sorrowful over their actions. He asked me to forgive him, and I did. The damage was done in both the church that I pastor and in our church plant. Additionally, there were some very negative effects of their choices in the lives of her children. The couple was now in fellowship, in a church where they had been honest about the nature of their relationship, and what they had done. They are being discipled, and they are trying to right the wrongs they brought about as much as they can. It is not a happy ending, but they do recognize and acknowledge the rightness of the discipline to which they were subject, and they are remorseful at their rejection of the loving confrontation that they experienced.

Church discipline is hard. It is messy. The unchurched look on and do not understand. Be that as it may, it is the will of our Lord, and it is done in obedience to Him. It is done because our God is holy and His people must behave differently than the world around them. If we are to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9), we must be in a moral state from which to do so appropriately. When we practice church discipline we are to do so humbly, and we are to do so with restoration and redemption as our objective, but we are to do so. We dare not think that we know better than Jesus when it comes to this very necessary practice.