Church Discipline

The word discipline brings with it many presuppositions. We must discipline our children. We must discipline ourselves. We must practice the disciplines as Christians. Most commonly, we look at the word discipline as having negative connotations. Being disciplined is no fun…in fact, it’s hard work. Kids love to taddle on each other. I don’t know what it is about it, but for some reason, it seems to give them a satisfaction knowing that someone else is in trouble besides them. My girls are no different…it’s always a constant battle of Dad, she hit me! Mom, she’s spitting at me, she looked at me, she touched me! Sometimes, however, it is something much more serious; like playing with scissors, teasing the dog, throwing a cat, or running out in the middle of the street. When these come, it’s a serious matter that needs to be looked into. One time a schoolteacher wrote a note to go home with one of her students. The note read: “Dear, Mrs. Jones, your son, Jimmy, is a smart boy. He’s one of the smartest in the class, but he spends all of his time with the girls. I am trying to break him of this habit.” The next day, a reply came back to the teacher. It read: “I wish you good luck in this. Please keep me informed as to how you are able to do this. I have been trying to break his dad of the very same habit for years.” Today’s topic is not only discipline, but Church Discipline. It is a subject covered by Jesus in Matthew 18:15-20. If you would, open your Bibles to this passage and we’ll read it. 15 "If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he won't listen, take one or two more with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. 17 If he pays no attention to them, tell the church. But if he doesn't pay attention even to the church, let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you. 18 I assure you: Whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven. 19 Again, I assure you: If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there among them." This passage is often used for verse 20 saying that where two or three are gathered in Jesus name, he is there with us. A comforting verse indeed, but to get the fullness of this verse, we must read the surrounding text. The reason verse 20 is there is because it is the round-out to a section that talks about discipline…church discipline. There was a time when I presented this method to someone and they had no idea that we, as Christians, had a duty to discipline people. This section here talks about this very thing. Let’s start at the beginning. Verse 15 talks about rebuking a brother…in the NIV it says to show him his fault. We have a moral duty to rebuke our brothers and sisters in Christ…in love. Not harshly or in a mean way, but lovingly show them their fault. One of the dangers with Christians is the “silent approval”. The silent nod of approval is a problem in our country. When I worked for Holiday Inn as the Food and Beverage Manager, one of my employees was known for standing around, texting his friends, and talking on the phone at work. It was against company policy, but he was able to do his job appropriately, and I didn’t want to make a scene of it, so I just didn’t say anything. It started off small, but then it grew…it started affecting his performance, and yet, I said nothing still. Pretty soon, another one of my employees started doing the texting and talking on the phone bit. Before too long, my boss, the GM of the hotel pulled me aside and asked if I noticed my employee’s texting and using their phones. I said that I had, but it wasn’t affecting their performance and I didn’t want to cause a ruckus, so I ignored it. She explained to me that by ignoring the problem, I was giving my ‘silent approval’ that it was ok for them to do it, even though we all knew that it was a wrong. I soon started getting on them about their phone usage, and it eventually quit. How many times in your life have you silently approved of something? What would you do if you found out that a friend of yours was cheating on their spouse? Stealing lighters from the gas station? Had lied to get a job? What would you do? If you would say you’d say nothing, you’re giving your ‘silent approval’. We have a duty to correct and rebuke those whom we know are doing wrong. That’s what’s wrong with the major issues in our country like abortion, homosexuality, adultery and so on. We shouldn’t be outside picketing and hating people who do these things, but we shouldn’t just be sitting aside either. The first step is to go to your brother one on one and privately discuss the matter. The avoidance of publicly doing this is of the most importance. This is why it’s one on one first. The second step, is to take 2 or 3 witnesses with you to rebuke them. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 19:15, where it talks about not being able to establish wrongdoing or sin against someone without a couple people who’ve witnessed what they are doing or have done. It has to be established by 2 or 3 people. This is where we start tying things together. Remember what I said about verse 20 being the main thing people remember? Where 2 or 3 are gathered in Jesus name, he is there? Keep that in mind as we explore these next steps. If we still have not won our brother or sister over, even after confronting them face to face, then with 2 or 3 witnesses, then we are told that we must tell the church. Then the church must be confronting the sin that is at hand. If, after having dealt with this in a public manner, the person is still unrepentant, we are told to treat them like a pagan…tax collector…an unbeliever. This is where the debate comes in. Some use this to say that salvation can be lost, others contend that it was never had in the first place. Most churches use this to ‘excommunicate’, ban or kick people out of the church. I contend that this practice is correct and dead wrong at the same time. “A computer virus on the loose is a computer user’s worst nightmare. A virus can destroy everything in a computer’s memory. According to S & S software international and writer James Coates, here is how a computer virus works. A computer virus is software, or a piece of programming code whose purpose is to replicate…Many viruses enter the computer via [an email, or memory stick] or are downloaded from another source…Once the computer is infected, the virus checks each time a program is opened to see if the program is clean. If it is, the virus copies itself onto the program. Because viruses need time to spread undetected, most will not affect the proper functioning of the computer right away. But eventually, their destructive power is felt as files are erased or corrupted. Just as a computer virus spreads through the files of a computer, so sin can spread in the church.” We cannot let sin run rampant in our churches. However, we cannot be treating people with hatred either. The practice of kicking people out of churches is correct in this manner, because we are told to purge the evil from among us. Six times in the book of Deuteronomy we are told to purge the evil from among us. Deut. 17:7, 19:19, 21:21, 22:21, 22:24, 24:7. However, kicking people out of the church is dead wrong in the respect that we then end up treating them with contempt and hatred. Wrong. How are we supposed to treat unbelievers? Like sinners that need to be saved because, in truth, that’s what needs to happen. So when Jesus tells us to ‘treat them as an unbeliever’, then we need to be reaching them with the Gospel message. We need to be convincing them of the salvation that can be had in Jesus. Does this mean some people might need to be kicked out of the church? Yes. Does this mean we should pour contempt and hatred on them? No. But I say that we should love them and witness to them so their salvation might be had. By kicking people out, we pray that it is enough to move them to repentance and restoration. Every step is a move that is trying to get them to repent. Finally, it mentions that what we bind on Earth is bound in Heaven and what is loose on Earth is loosed in Heaven. This simply is talking about if we take these actions here on Earth, they are done so in Heaven as well…because we are acting in the full knowledge of Jesus. This brings with it a serious notation. We have a duty, that when we are engaging in Church discipline, to do it with prayer and fasting, seeking the will of God, not our personal wants and wishes. Verse 19 is the precursor to the big verse 20. Jesus says that if two or more agree on something that we pray for, it will be done. It’s not if we agree on something…but the fact that it is done in prayer…seeking God’s will. And lo, we have verse 20…where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus, he is there among us. Discipline is never fun. But it has to be done. We cannot let sin run rampant. It must be confronted and repented of. Only by seeking God’s Will in prayer and fasting should we be gathering and pursuing Discipline within our church…because sin cannot be allowed to run rampant. It will eventually cause the downfall of a congregation.