The Importance of Church Discipline

Discipline in the Christian Community

The church is the community of Jesus’s disciples.  Every community is a group of people who gather around a set of shared values and/or goals.  The values and goals of the church are proclaiming the gospel, being conformed to the image of Christ, and advancing God’s Kingdom.  At the practical level, that means the church exists wherever Jesus’s disciples gather around the preaching of God’s word, the administration of the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and the practicing of church discipline.^[1]This is the Protestant understanding of the church.  Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians would say that the church is an institution that exists where there are bishops whose office can … Continue reading  Church discipline is necessary because every community, in order to exist and to thrive, must be intolerant of behavior that contradicts its goals and values, and must exclude from the community those who clearly demonstrate they are not on board with the goals and values of the community.  

The church is not a religious institution that exists in order to help provide for people’s felt spiritual needs.  It is not just a place for people to come and have personal religious experiences.  It is not a community that exists merely to help people grow in their individual relationship with God.  Rather, the church is a political community that stands in authority over its members.  This means that there must be order and discipline in the church.  If a member of the church acts in a way that is seriously contrary to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, the church must reprimand them.  If the church member stubbornly refuses to stop acting in this way, the church must exclude them from membership in the Christian community.  

Church Discipline in the New Testament

Many Christians believe that being loving means being tolerant and accepting of others, no matter what they do.  However, the New Testament clearly teaches that sometimes the loving thing to do is to judge others for their sins.  Three key passages in the New Testament concerning church discipline are Matthew 18:15-20, I Cor 5:1-13, and 2 Thess 3:6-14.

Matthew 18:15-20

In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus provides a three-step process to his disciples for dealing with sin in the church.  If you see a fellow Christian sinning, first, talk to them privately and point out their sin (v. 15).  If they refuse to repent, then bring a small group with you and again confront them about their sin (v. 16).  If they still refuse to repent, then bring the matter to the whole church so that the whole church can rebuke them for their sin; then, if they still refuse to repent, “let them be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (v. 17).  In other words, if it gets to this point and the sinning Christian still refuses to repent, the church must then consider them no longer to be a member of God’s covenant people, excluding them from membership in the Christian community.  

Jesus’s conclusion to this saying is very interesting: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (vv. 18-20).  While many interpreters have tried to get around the force of what Jesus says here, it seems clear that Jesus really is saying that He grants the church the power to act with His authority.  When the church makes a declaration (in obedience to God’s word and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) about whether someone is a member of God’s people or not, the church is making a declaration about whether someone is forgiven by God and saved or not.

I Corinthians 5

In I Corinthians 5, Paul addresses a situation in the Corinthian church in which a man is in a sexual relationship with his father’s wife.  Paul’s instructions are clear: “Let him who has done this be removed from among you” (v. 2).  Elaborating on this, Paul tells them, “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of the Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (vv. 4-5).  Paul here echoes Jesus’s teaching that when the church is assembled in His Name, He is there and the church has the authority to act in His Name in excluding a church member from the people of God.  Such a person is said to be delivered to Satan, who rules the world outside the church which is in rebellion against God (2 Cor 4:4; I John 5:19).  While excommunicating someone from the church community may seem harmful to them in the short term, it is intended for their benefit, in the hope that they will come to their senses, repent, come back to the church, and be saved on the day of judgment.  

Next, Paul comments, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump” (I Cor 5:6).  Some Christians think that each individual Chrsitian is responsible for their own spiritual state, and that we should just live and let live.  Paul, however, clearly teaches that allowing even one person who is committing a serious sin to remain within the Christian community will have serious negative consequences on the whole church.  God’s covenant people cannot afford to be tolerant and inclusive of serious sin and unrepentant individuals within the church.  

Finally, Paul expands on what he has been saying to speak more generally about church discipline.  Paul instructs Christians “not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister [i.e., a Christian] if they are guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or are an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler–not even to eat with such a one” (I Cor 5:11).  At the same time, Paul clarifies that he does not at all intend to say that Christians should avoid associating with non-Christians who live immoral lives.  “For what have I to do with judging outsiders?  Is it not those inside the church who you are to judge?  God judges those outside” (vv. 12-13).  It makes no sense to expect non-Christians to live like Christians.  However, when someone who claims to be a Christian stubbornly refuses to repent of a serious sin, the church must exclude them from its community, so that it is very clear to everyone that people who live in this way cannot be considered to be Christians.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

In 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15, Paul addresses the problem of Christians being idle and refusing to work in the Thessalonian church.  He writes, “Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. . . If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.  Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” (vv. 6, 14-15).  While the topic of sin Paul deals with here is much more narrow that in I Cor 5, the basic teaching is very similar.  Christians must exclude from their community individuals who refuse to repent of serious sin.  This is an act of love that is intended for the good of that individual, in the hopes that they will realize the seriousness of their sin, repent, and be received back into the Christian community.

The Importance of Church Discipline

Why is church discipline so important?  First, it is important for the sake of the spiritual well-being of the individual Christian.  If a Christian has fallen into serious sin, and their church community is tolerant of their sin and continues to include them within the visible church, this is extremely detrimental to their spiritual well-being.  God’s word is very clear that people who live lives of serious sin such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, and greed will never inherit eternal life in God’s Kingdom (Gal 5:19-21; Eph 5:3-7).  It is impossible to be a Christian without repenting of these sins.  Being tolerant and lenient towards church members who refuse to repent of these sins is not kind and loving; it is cruel and unloving.  What is genuinely loving is a firm rebuke that calls the sinning brother or sister in Christ back to the path of repentance, the path of discipleship.  

Unfortunately, there is the possibility that a church member will continue to refuse to repent, even after being excommunicated by their church, and they may even end up explicitly denying Christ after this happens.  But even in this case, it is better for them to honestly acknowledge they are not a Christian than to live as a hypocrite pretending to be one.  And this at least leaves the possibility that they may one day make a genuine conversion, repenting of their sins and truly putting faith in Jesus as their Lord.

Second, church discipline is important for the sake of the church and the advancement of God’s Kingdom.  The church by definition is a community of Jesus’s disciples.  A community can only meaningfully call itself a church if membership in it is restricted to those who are disciples of Jesus Christ.  A disciple of Jesus is someone who believes the good news that Jesus is Lord and has made a commitment to repent of their sins, to follow Jesus, and to live their lives in obedience to His Lordship.  Thus, if someone stubbornly refuses to repent of a serious sin, they demonstrate that they are not truly a disciple of Jesus.  Allowing such a person to remain as a member of the church is a serious threat to the integrity and health of the whole church community.  

God has given the body of Christ the task of showing the world who Jesus is and what God’s Kingdom looks like.  When the church is tolerant of sin within its midst and inclusive of those who demonstrate they are not committed to following Jesus, it makes itself incapable of carrying out this task.  When the church community does not require its members to be genuinely on board with the values and goals of the Christian community, there is a danger that the church will be unable to function genuinely as a church at all; instead, it will become merely a gathering of people paying lip service to Christian ideas. 

If the world looks at the church and does not see something clearly different from itself, it will be unable to believe the gospel message that Jesus saves human beings from their sin and transforms them into a new creation.  The world will be unable to see Jesus, and thus unable to believe in Him.  The credibility of the church’s proclamation of the good news about Jesus is dependent on the church visibly and concretely living out its identity as a community of genuine disciples of Jesus who are committed to living lives of repentance, faithfulness, obedience, and holiness as citizens of God’s Kingdom.  This requires the firm and loving practice of church discipline.