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iblical church discipline can be implemented, we all must
first commit ourselves to an understanding of church commitment
that is responsible, accountable and meaningful.
Church membership matters. This is the presupposition of
biblical church discipline.
The biblical basis for church discipline
To be sure, there is not enough space here to do a full treatment
of the Bible’s teaching on church discipline, but the practice
can be found in several key texts such as Matt 18:15-20; 1
Cor 5:1-13; 2 Cor 6-11; Heb 12:4-14; Gal 6:1; 2 Thess 3:6-15; 1
Tim 1:20, 5:19-20; and Titus 3:9-11. Matthew 18:15-20 is perhaps
the chief of these, as it sets forth the paradigm for how church
discipline should be carried out, step by step. Matthew records
Jesus’ words:
If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private;
if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does
not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the
mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he
refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile
and a tax collector (Matt 18:15-18).
As we read of the earliest churches (particularly in Paul’s letters)
we see that the early church followed the pattern outlined
by Christ. Paul’s Corinthian correspondence
contains perhaps
the most well-known example of
early church discipline in 1 Cor
5:1-13. In this passage, a member
of the church was having a sexual
relationship with his father’s
wife. Paul admonishes the Corinthians
for their failure to maintain
the purity of the church and
calls for church discipline. Sin that is not confronted will ruin a
church’s witness because it is no longer pure. This is Paul’s concern
when he compares sin to leaven. This man’s sin was not
merely confined to himself; when the church in Corinth failed
to follow the rule of Christ on this matter it called into question
the purity of the entire Corinthian church. They should
have grieved over this man’s sin, yet instead they boasted (v.
6). Out of a love for Christ and deep concern for the purity of
the church, they should have confronted the man with an eye
to repentance and restoration, and been prepared to put him
out of the church, if he refused to turn from his sin.
The divinely-authorized punishment called for is to be
inflicted by the church (Matt 18:17). Paul writes, “Sufficient
for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the
majority” (2 Cor 5:6). As Jesus said, if a brother refuses to listen
to the church and repent, he is to be put out of the church
and treated as an unbeliever. We see that something along this
line occurred in Corinth.
But we should also note that church discipline is not always
negative, that is, a confrontation of sinful behavior. Even
though there is positive church discipline that is preventative,
“the remedial side of discipline, like the proverbial squeaky
wheel, gets all the grease.” 6 We have a tendency to focus on
the sensational acts in which grievous sin is committed and
excommunication may occur. Yet we should more closely focus
Faithful preaching of the
Scriptures is one kind of
preventative discipline.
on preventative church discipline. Faithful preaching of the
Scriptures is one kind of preventative discipline.
Jay Adams, in his helpful book Handbook of Church Discipline,
rightly states that the best thing that can be done in
a church is for both leaders and laity to “promote good order
and true belief.” 7 This is both the formal and informal responsibility
of a church and its members. The teaching of truth
promotes godliness and purity. The emphasis for all local
churches, therefore, ought not be on “rooting out troublemakers,”
but on preventative discipline that takes the form of biblical
preaching, godly order and true belief. As stated above, all
of this is to occur within a church whose membership soberly
assesses the eternal investments each make in one another’s
lives out of love for Christ and one another. As Dever rightly
warns, if we can’t, as a church, “say how a Christian should not
live, how can we say how a Christian should live?” 8
Conclusion
At least five valuable effects arise from the faithful exercise
of church discipline. First, church discipline (in the corrective
sense) is for the good of the one being disciplined. Second, it
is good for other Christians to see the dangers of sin. Third, it
promotes the health of the church as a whole. Fourth, it shows
concern for the corporate witness of the church, which can
either make or break a church’s evangelistic purpose. Fifth, it
shows a love for the glory of God since the church’s purity and
holiness should reflect God’s own
holiness.
Church discipline should not be
an afterthought in the life of a local
church. Would that all of us would
think rightly about what it means to
be in fellowship with other believers
in a local church, since being
woven into the fabric of a local
church matters. Would that God
help us all understand the biblical basis for church discipline in
both its corrective and preventative forms. If all believers were
committed to local church membership and biblical church
discipline, the church would be closer to possessing the unity
and purity God commands.
Endnotes
1
Gregory A. Wills, Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline
in the Baptist South 1785-1900 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 8.
2
Ibid., 9.
3
Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 94.
4
Ibid., 95.
5
Ibid., 96.
6
Jay Adams, Handbook of Church Discipline (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 22.
7
Ibid., 25.
8
Mark Dever, 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, 170.
Barry Joslin is assistant professor of Christian
theology at Boyce College.
Southern Seminary Magazine | Fall 2007 page 15