Biblical Church Discipline, Part Four

2 Timothy 2:14-18

^14 Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. ^15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. ^16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. ^17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, ^18 who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some

As we enter our fourth week on the topic of Biblical church discipline I believe we have established the purpose of genuine discipline—it is a matter of love and discipleship. Fifty-percent of the use of Scripture is formative—teaching and training in righteousness, and fifty percent is corrective—correcting and rebuking. I hope we are in agreement that church discipline is necessary for a healthy church. This morning we begin to answer the question about the scope of church discipline. What kinds of things should receive discipline or not. This is a vital question otherwise you could easily end up vigorously pursuing a type of legalism. For example, if we decide that card playing is a sin, then as a church we will discipline all card-playing members.

This morning’s text is about corrective discipline as it is applied to false teaching. We should discipline aberrant behavior, such as the man in 1 Cor. 5 who slept with his father’s wife, but behavior is always linked to teaching and doctrine. The false teaching in Corinth included the idea that the body and the spirit are separate entities, therefore Christians are free to do whatever they want with their bodies. Can you see how this would lead to a man sleeping with his father’s wife? His wrong beliefs led to his wrong behavior. False teaching always leads to devastating consequences, therefore it is necessary that a healthy church discipline those who are promoting false teaching.

But some might object to discipline of varying beliefs. They might say something like this: “Do we all have to believe exactly the same way? Shouldn’t there be some freedom in our beliefs? Discipling wrong beliefs sounds a bit like the thought police arresting us for thinking a certain way.” Let me be clear—we should have freedom of thought, we should have freedom on what we call non-essential doctrines. I might engage in a friendly debate with you about the timing of the rapture, but you certainly would not be a candidate for church discipline because you disagreed with me. A good deal of the New Testament letters were written in response to false teaching of some kind. Just a quick glimpse at statements about true and false doctrine hint at the importance of right beliefs. Before I read these, pretend for a moment that you know absolutely nothing about Christian beliefs.

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer. 1 Timothy 1:3

for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine. 1 Timothy 1:10

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Timothy 4:16

If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing.  1 Timothy 6:3

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Titus 1:9

You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Titus 2:1

If you didn’t know anything about the Bible, what would you conclude from reading just these verses? You would have to conclude that the Bible is very serious about right and wrong beliefs. You may not have any idea what those beliefs are, but you cannot escape that the Bible strongly promotes correct doctrine and condemns false doctrine. You would understand that a body of knowledge exists that is called true doctrine and that there are severe consequences for veering from true doctrine into false doctrine. False teaching always leads to devastating consequences, which is exactly what Paul was teaching in this passage. Here are some of the consequences of false doctrine.

Catastrophe—it is of no value, and only ruins (Greek=catastrophe) those who listen (14)

In the original language, the word for “ruin” is catastrophe. False teaching is not just bad theology—it’s not just a matter of getting the wrong answers on your Bible test—false teaching can lead to ruin and catastrophe.

Shame—Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (15)

Those who cannot correctly handle the word of truth can be led into shameful beliefs and actions.

Ungodliness—because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly (16)

God’s character and being is truth, therefore false teaching will only lead you further and further away from the source of all truth. It leads to ungodliness.

Spiritual disease—Their teaching will spread like gangrene (17)

Several hundred years before Paul wrote this, the Greek physician Hippocrates described gangrene. For thousands of years, infectious gangrene has been taking limbs and lives. It can spread quickly or slowly, but it always spreads, and even with our modern medicine often the best remedy is amputation. Gangrene is the spread of necrotic, rotting flesh. If I showed you pictures of gangrenous flesh, some of you would instantly become physically sick. Paul said that false teaching is just like this—it is dead, rotting teaching that spreads and destroys everyone it touches. Anything that is not Biblical Christianity fits into this category. It’s not just the church that is affected, but the whole world is negatively impacted by false teaching. The untouchables in India exist because a billion Indians do not know the truth. Millions of children in Africa die from AIDS because they do not know the truth. Militant Islam spreads like wildfire because they are deceived into following and blowing themselves up for false teaching. An enormous veil of deception covers the globe and results in untold pain and suffering. False teaching does not just impact the church. Jesus taught the same thing when he said that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. Even a little bit of false teaching like that of the Pharisees was sufficient to work through the whole body.

Paul gave one more result of false teaching.

Destruction of your faith—who have wandered away from the truth…they destroy the faith of some (18)

False teaching spreads like a gangrenous plague ultimately destroying the faith of those it touches. Churches are split over false teaching.

Naming Names

Paul even named some of these false teachers in v.18. . Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, ^18 who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. And this is not the first time Paul mentioned Hymanaeus. His name came up in 1 Timothy 1:19. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. Paul named the false teacher, he identified the false teaching and then he described the church discipline that had been applied. Hymanaeus was handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. Wow, Paul, there you go again being intolerant! This sounds pretty severe, does it not? This poor man Hymanaeus was handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. I thought we were supposed to run away from Satan, why would Paul hand him over to Satan? This is serious church discipline, but it was necessary because it was serious false teaching with serious consequences. By handing this man over to Satan, Paul was removing him from the protection of the church body and allowing him to suffer his own consequences. By his own false teaching, Hymanaeus was removing himself from the fellowship of the church. Paul was merely formalizing his own choice for the protection of the rest of the body.

This false teaching was spreading like gangrene. No doubt Paul had tried to treat the disease long before this, but eventually the only choice that remained cutting off the diseased limb, meaning excommunication from the church. If Paul had done nothing he would have been participating in the demise of the church. When a physician is faced with a gangrenous limb I am sure there is a process of treatment. First you try to treat the infection with antibiotics. The physician will do all she can until the painful decision is made to cut off the affected limb. Cut off the limb or else the patient will die. This is precisely the difficult decision that Paul made regarding Hymanaeus—either cut him off or else risk the death of the church.

It is no different today than it was in Paul’s day—if we don’t guard our doctrine closely and keep guard against destructive false teaching, the same disease can creep into our church and cause catastrophe and ruin. But how do we guard against this kind of ruin? The answer is formative church discipline and corrective church discipline. Formative church discipline is what Paul meant in v. 15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. If we can correctly handle the word of truth, we will not easily be led into false teaching. If we know truth we can readily recognize error. This is what we mean by formative church discipline. Corrective church discipline comes into play when falsehood and error worm their way in and we have to actively defend ourselves against it. We have to correct and rebuke the false teachers and if necessary, cut them off from the body like a gangrenous limb.

You might be wondering why I would spend so much time warning against false teaching because it may not seem very likely that a false teacher will come into our church and lead us astray. That is true for the most part. Plus I know that Tony and Rod are standing guard at the back door sniffing out false teachers and making sure they can’t come in. That was the concern in Paul’s day—they had to guard against false teachers spreading lies right in their church. We still have that concern today, but since the advent of the printing press, radio, tv and the internet, we have to be even more diligent to guard against false teaching. When you combine the rampant Biblical illiteracy in our churches with the onslaught of false teaching, you get a very dangerous outcome.

Paul named names, didn’t he? He named Hymanaeus, Philetus and Alexander. As you know I have not hesitated to name names in the past. For example, if you know me you know I am no fan of Benny Hinn. For your protection and discernment I will name two more names this morning. The first is this man, Joel Osteen pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston. With 40,000 attenders, Lakewood is the largest church in the U.S. I think it is pretty easy to pick on Joel Osteen because like Benny Hinn, he believes some outrageous things. I want to offer you a compliment—I don’t believe anyone at Grace would read this book. I think you are too smart for that, but just in case a friend or relative gave you a copy, be very cautious when you read it. The message that he preaches is a different gospel. He will lead you astray. But some might ask, can 40,000 people possibly be wrong? The answer is YES!! Numbers mean nothing and truth means everything. Two weeks ago the lead article in Time magazine was called “Does God Want You to be Rich?” and they focused largely on Joel Osteen. The unbelieving world is snickering at Christians! We need to avoid this kind of teaching like the plague.

Another man I want to alert you to is Pastor Rob Bell. It’s possible that few of you have heard of him, but his influence is growing rapidly. One of the ways he is influencing people is through this video series called nooma. The website says that millions of people have watched these videos. I want to show you a 2-minute clip of one of these and have you decide what is wrong with his message.

Did you see any problems? The one line that most caught my attention was the one about the creation story. He said, “Maybe the truth of the Adam and Eve story…is not so much that it happened, but that it happens.” Can you see what he is implying? It doesn’t really matter if the story is true in all of it parts. It doesn’t matter that it did happen—that it was a true, historical, Biblical story that ushered sin into the world. According to Rob Bell, what matters is that it is happening. I am not even sure what that means, but after reading his book I can tell you that he does not have a high view of Scripture. The liberal churches have proven that once you give up the inerrancy of Scripture, then you can believe anything you want to believe. Truth becomes relative, but it is most dangerous because it is dressed up in Christian garb.

The other real problem is that Joel Osteen’s book and Rob Bell’s book are available in any Christian bookstore. The publishers are not discerning about what they print and the stores are not discerning about what they sell. So what should we do? Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. We need to practice formative church discipline by continually recommitting ourselves to sound, Biblical doctrine, but we also need to practice corrective church discipline by warning about false teachers, and if necessary, cutting off the false teachers and their necrotic, ruinous teaching.

Do you still dislike the idea of excommunication? Make sure you catch the fifth part of this series next Sunday when we talk about the Heart of Church Discipline. Can you have a Godly heart and still practice excommunication?

Rich Maurer

October 1, 2006