Biblical Church Discipline, Part Three

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Last year something strange happened when I dropped Aaron Stalsberg off at the Dodge dealership to pick up his car. I was driving in the parking lot right next to Sleepy Hollow when a man with a hard hat stepped in front of the car and motioned for me to stop. As soon as we were stopped he pushed a button on a hand-held device and then we see a huge pile of rocks being blasted into the air and falling to the ground. They were doing demolition work behind Sleepy Hollow because there were some huge rocks in the way of their expansion project. It was quite cool to see actually, and it was especially amazing to watch him do the blasting with his small wireless device.

As we enter the third week of this series I feel like there is a huge mountain of rock standing in our way and the name of this rock is church discipline. Most of you probably started this series with a similar feeling. After the second message someone mentioned to me that this subject immediately conjured up bad feelings from a negative history of church abuse. This subject is poorly understood and poorly practiced with the result being that we have in front of us a mountain of rock called church discipline. Before we can move forward with our plans the first task is demolition—we need to blow up this rock and clear away the debris so that we can build a Biblical model of church discipline. This is my stated goal—to remove all of the negative connotations of church discipline and, brick by brick, build a Biblical foundation. We need to tear down the wall of misunderstanding and rebuild the foundation of Biblical understanding. When it comes to a topic like this, this is no small task, but I think it is worth our time.

Let me again plead the case for making sure you read all of the messages in this series. If you don’t see the entire picture of Biblical church discipline, at best you will be confused and at worst you will be misled. If you look at just a few bricks in a wall you have no idea what you are looking at, but when you take in the whole picture then you can understand.

Two weeks ago we said that the paradigm for church discipline comes from 2 Timothy 3:16—“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This means that there are four uses of Scripture—two of them are formative and two of them are corrective. So then if we believe that ALL Scripture is the authoritative word of God AND if we are going to be faithful to Scripture, our teaching and our walk with the Lord must also be both formative and corrective. Also we looked at the Lord’s discipline in Hebrews 12. “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, ^6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”^a The Greek word for discipline in Hebrews 12 is the exact same word for training in 2 Timothy 3. Therefore, training and discipline are inseparable entities—one cannot exist without the other. Church discipline then is nothing more than church discipleship.

Let me start this morning by answering a common objection that arises at this point. Most of you can accept that discipline and training are inseparable and that correction is a necessary part of the Christian life, but you believe that this correction should come from the Lord. After all Hebrews says, “do not make light of the Lord’s discipline” and “the Lord disciplines those he loves”. You may be willing to receive discipline and correction directly from the Lord but you object to being disciplined or corrected by another believer. This objection makes sense on one lever because who knows us better than the Lord? Who but the Lord can offer the best discipline and do it with the perfect amount of grace and truth? We are horribly sinful creatures so when the responsibility of discipline is given to us, some would argue, we immediately distort the process and destroy fellow Christians.

See what I mean? In some ways this is a strong objection, but I believe it can be easily answered. The answer is that even though the discipline comes from the Lord, the Lord uses his people to do his work. Think about evangelism—God has put us in charge of spreading the gospel to all the nations? Are we up to such a monumental and vital task? Won’t we mess it up? Won’t we fail miserably? Yes we will fail, but the Lord still trusts us to do his work of evangelism in the same way he trusts us to do all of his work. He is the Great Shepherd but he trusts us to shepherd our local body of believers. He is the Great Lover, but he trusts us to love one another as Christ has loved us. He is the Great Teacher but he trusts us to teach one another. He is the Great Father, but he trusts us to be fathers and mother to our children. In the same way, he is the Great Trainer and Corrector, but he trusts and enables us to do his work of training and correcting. Ultimately Christ has left us in charge of everything he has. We are all stewards of his perfect creation. He has taken all that he has and has turned it over to us and said, “Here is all of my stuff—my church, my people, my possessions, my creation—I am giving all of it to you to take care of and manage properly.” If we fail to evangelize then we have failed to be a good steward of his precious gospel message. In the exact same way, if we fail to train and discipline one another we have failed as stewards. Yes, discipline comes from the Lord, but he trusts and empowers us to do his work of discipline through us. It is simply and powerfully just the way he works.

What I want to do for the next is to use a few Scriptures that speak directly to why and how we discipline. Here is the main principle for these Scriptures: the one doing the correcting benefits as much as the one being corrected. In other words, if I am being corrected, God intends it for my spiritual growth, likewise, if I am doing the correcting God also intends this for my spiritual growth. The entire process of correcting and being corrected is a necessary part of sanctification for everyone involved. We will start with several principles from Matthew 5.

^21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder,^a and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ^22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother^b will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,^c’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. ^23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ^24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

1. Unresolved conflict interferes with your worship of God.

Jesus said that we should leave our gift at the altar. If we are unreconciled to a fellow brother or sister in Christ, we should not even try to worship God. How can we approach God who is the author of relationships when we know full well that we have a broken relationship with another Christian? Worship cannot resume until this relationship is reconciled.

2. It doesn’t matter who is at fault, both parties are liable for a quick resolution.

Jesus said, “if you remember that your brother has something against you”, then you are supposed to approach him or her as soon as possible. What is it that this other person has against you? You may have sinned against them or it may just be a misunderstanding, but the point is that whatever the reason, resolution is commanded.

3. Anger grows quickly in a conflict

The context of this conflict resolution is about the danger of anger. Anger that is not resolved quickly leads you to committing murder in your heart.

4. This form of corrective discipline requires action on our part. The Lord is involved in the correction but he chooses to use his people to do his work.

5. Finally, the benefit that is received by the person initiating reconciliation is a restored worship.

Do you know what church discipline is? Not only is it discipleship, but it is about basic Christian relationships. How do we treat one another as Christians? Do we let our anger build up until we have committed murder in our hearts? Do we callously worship God when we are painfully aware of a broken relationship with a brother or sister in Christ? Do we ignore problems and just hope they will go away? These are not God’s principles for Christian relationship. Rather God says: “Don’t pretend you are worshipping me when you know that you can’t get along with the guy sitting two rows in front of you. Stop your worship and deal with the problem right now. It’s that important—it cannot wait!”

This next verse begins to tell us about the character and motives of the person doing the confronting. This is from Galatians 6:1-2. Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. ^2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

1. “Brothers”—All church discipline is solely reserved for those who are in the church. As Paul said in 1 Cor. 5, God will judge those outside the church but we are to judge those inside the church.

2. “if someone is caught in a sin”—Sin is a trap and we should want to release fellow believers from this trap. This does not mean that the trap is inescapable or that it was not your fault that you are trapped. Sometimes a sinful trap can be a blindspot that we have lived with for years. We develop patterns in life and patterns of relation to others that are not helpful, but we have been doing them for so long, we cannot see them and we are trapped in our sinful patterns. We need someone to love us enough to tell us that we are trapped. Correction always starts with love—a love for God and his holiness and a love for the person who is trapped by sin.

3. “You who are spiritual”—before you attempt to help another person caught in a sin, the requirement is that we should be spiritual. At first glance that sounds somewhat arrogant. Most of us are not likely to say, “I’ll help you, I’m quite a spiritual person”. So who exactly is spiritual enough to help someone escape from sin? This passage comes from the first two verses of chapter six, but do you recall what comes right before this passage? “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” The spiritual person is not an arrogant person who merely thinks he is spiritual. A spiritual person is one who is walking according to the Spirit and regularly growing in the fruits of the Spirit. Now this is going to leave some people out. If you are not a spiritual person according to the fruits of the Spirit, then you should not be confronting people with their sin.

Notice that the burden is on the one doing the correcting. We mistakenly think that correcting someone is hard on the person being corrected, but if it is correction according to Biblical standards, then it is much harder on the person doing the correcting. You have to be a spiritual person and if you are not, the burden lies with you to become a spiritual person.

4. “should restore him”—How do I restore a brother back to fellowship with the Lord? We will talk about this next week, but the short answer is that you point them in the right direction. To restore a Christian trapped in sin begins by speaking the truth to them in love. As we will see next week, we have a part in the restoration process and God has a part in the restoration process and we must never confuse our part with God’s part.

5. “gently”—correcting and training should always be done in a gentle manner. This goes hand in hand with the spiritual fruit of gentleness. It follows that those who are walking in the Spirit would practice restoration in a gentle manner. But in such cases, a spirit of gentleness is so important that it required a double warning. The result is something like this: Those who are walking according to the Spirit in gentleness, should gently restore those who are trapped by sin.

6. “But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted”—We see again that the burden for speaking the truth in love is hardest on the one doing the correcting. First you have to be a spiritual person walking in the Spirit. Then we are reminded to be gentle and lest we miss these warnings, we are sternly warned to watch ourselves because we can be tempted to fall into the same trap as the one we are attempting to help. Church discipline is not something to be done quickly or lightly. We must walk ourselves through these warning steps to make sure that both our motives and our actions are bathed in love.

7. “Carry each other’s burdens”—Do we love one another enough to carry this burden of correction and restoration? It is no small task to do this well. It’s not easy to be corrected, but it  truly is more difficult for the person doing the correcting.

8. “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ”—How do we fulfill the Law of Christ? One day a Pharisee asked Jesus a question. He said, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” When we seek to restore a brother caught in sin we are fulfilling the law of Christ to love God and love our neighbor. Do you see, church discipline is love. Church discipline is discipleship and to neglect Biblical church discipline is an unloving act. To ignore a brother caught in sin is to hate that person.

Do you remember my friend from Minneapolis who was divorced from his wife because she committed several acts of adultery? I got to spend some time with him last week while I was in Minneapolis for a short training seminar. I can tell you two things about my friend. The first is that I have rarely met a more mature Christian in my life and I have never met someone so mature who just experienced a painful divorce. This man has his eyes set firmly on Christ and not on his own problems. But the second this is this: I have been excited about this series on church discipline so I was telling him about it, and a little later he stopped me and said, “I don’t know why my pastor never attempted church discipline with us. All he did was recommend counseling.”

I am glad he was not saying that about me, because I don’t want to be that kind of pastor and I don’t want to be in that kind of church. Do we care enough to confront one another? If I was caught in a sin, would you love me enough to tell me? As your pastor, I am giving you permission to confront me and I begging you to love me enough to do so.

Rich Maurer

September 24, 2006