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Practicing biblical church discipline is vital for the health of a local church. It is given to us by the Lord in His Word. Let us not grow weary in walking in accordance with what the Scriptures teach.
Church discipline is hard to practice because it involves people we love, have cared for, and are shepherding. It is hard because one party does not see the destructive nature of their sin. This destructive nature of sin and its spread through the people of God is one of the reasons for entering into church discipline no matter the difficulty.
The question then becomes not should we practice church discipline, but how should we do so? Here are three encouragements for how I believe we should practice church discipline in the local church:
Teach, teach, teach
There may be many opinions about church discipline in a particular local church. Some have never heard of church discipline, some are informed by their experience, and others have heard horror stories about a discipline case that was undertaken in an ungodly manner.
So, we begin our process of practicing biblically healthy church discipline by teaching about church discipline. The first time a church hears about church discipline does not need to be in the form of a recommendation from the elders. Instead, the church needs to have been taught and grounded in the biblical teaching on discipline from texts like Matthew 18:15-20, 1 Corinthians 5, and Titus 3:10-11.
We began by teaching on church discipline in our membership classes so anyone who joins knows our church will know we take unrepentant sin seriously. Let us not be like the church in Corinth, which allowed sin within the church that is “not even tolerated among the pagans.”
Church discipline is a gift to the church for the sake of her holiness and witness in the world. Because church discipline is vital to the health of a local church, it is important to teach on the topic.
Follow the biblical teaching regarding practice
Even if your church has not practiced discipline in the formal sense by removing someone from the fellowship, it has likely been participating regularly in the informal discipline as we see laid out in Matthew 18.
Here we see the road map for how we are to most regularly practice church discipline. Step one: We confront the sin in the life of our brother. If there is repentance, we have won a brother. But if there is no repentance, we move to step two. In step two, we take other witnesses with us to establish the charge. Again, we hope for repentance, but if there remains an unrepentant heart, we move to the third step. Lord willing, this step will be a rarity in local churches. In the third step, we bring the situation before the congregation. It is important to remember the church is the one that is acting in formal church discipline.
If all these steps do not lead to repentance, we are to remove the person from among us. We are to no longer treat them as one who belongs to the family of God (see 1 Corinthians 5). We do this recognizing we can no longer affirm they are one of the Lord’s people because they refuse to repent when faced with their sin. This is a sobering and heartbreaking reality. At this point a church has acted to say it no longer recognizes this person as someone who belongs to the family of God. It is worth adding that accurate, meaningful, regenerate church membership is a prerequisite to practicing biblical church discipline.
Remember the aim
In 1 Corinthians 5:5, we read, “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.” We are hoping for repentance and restoration. We are hoping for salvation on the day of the Lord. Our aim in church discipline is repentance and restoration. Let us not grow calloused into thinking the Lord will not save those whom the church disciplines. The church’s act of discipline may be the instrument the Lord uses to bring salvation to a sinner.
Oh, how sweet the day is when a sinner repents. How wonderful is the moment when we bring one who has wandered from the fold back into fellowship! We ought to be willing to enter into the difficulties of church discipline because we love the Lord, His Word, His church, and His people.
