Today I want to talk about church discipline. The church has not been given the same kind of authority as the governments of this world. The government have been given the sword the power of temporal punishment, but Christ has entrusted the leadership of the church the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. We read about this sword in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
And 2 Corinthians 10:3,4 makes clear we do not fight with physical weapons, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” As it is in the preaching, so it is in discipline. The authority behind discipline is the authority of Jesus Christ entrusted through the office-bearers based on the word of God.
Today I want to look at church discipline through the lens of 1 Corinthians 5. First of all, we will be looking at the reasons for church discipline, and secondly, we are going to try to answer the question that so many of you have asked. Why does it seem that Church discipline does not seem to work in the way that it is intended to work?
Church Discipline.
- Why we do it
- Why it doesn’t work
Why do we do Church Discipline.
The first question we can ask ourselves is why do we do church discipline? And I think our text today gives three reasons which can be summed with the words “Be holy as I am holy. The three reasons are. 1) to be a witness for outsiders, 2) to restore the sinner, 3) to stop the spread of sin inside the church.
Let's look at each briefly. First of all, it is a witness to the outside world. Paul says in verse 1, “It is actually being reported that there is sexuality immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among the pagans.” He compares the church with pagans! And he says they are worse than the pagans! But it is supposed to be completely otherwise! The Church is indwelt with the Spirit of the living God. It is the body of Christ, and she is holy. There should be a weeping over sin and hate of sin. The point is not that there will be no sin. But that sin is dealt with, and not swept under the rug, for the integrity of the name of Our God! If there is sin in the church of God then outside world does not see the power of Go. And then as Paul says in Romans “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Second church discipline is practiced for the restoration of the sinner. The deepest desire of a Christian is that to know God and be known by him. That we should grow closer to Christ. To come to know him. And we should all welcome anything that lends itself to that end. Church discipline has as its goal the salvation of the sinner. As we read in 1 Corinthians 5:5, “you are to deliver this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Jesus is present in our midst. As verse 4 makes clear, “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus…” When someone is living under the dominion of unrepentant sin, they cannot have fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
And please note what the whole congregation must do. Because he is taking with the whole church. The whole church “must hand him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” Obviously, Paul is not talking about physical flesh here, but the sinful nature. The Old man. This is not just a few leaders, but the church is involved in church discipline. Why? So that the person may feel that the fellowship with Jesus is broken. This is so that they feel the loss of the presence of Jesus which they once experienced in the assembly. And they can also fgeel what the difference is between being a slave of Jesus and a slave of Satan. This is alone enough to make them want the lordship of Christ back. Sometimes you think your master is not good until you get an evil master, and suddenly your perspective changes.
The third reason we have church discipline is for the protection of the church and her members. This is the point that Paul makes in verse 6 and 7. “Do you know now that that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.” The old leaven is in the old man. The old sinful nature. The new lump is the bread of life in Christ.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Dear church a LITTLE leaven. It does not always have to be a big sin. But many little sins that never get addressed can also leaven the whole lump. There are so many little respectable sins. Only a little sin left undealt with or swept under the rug can affect so many people. A church does not fall apart in a day. It’s the little sins that keep coming up that Satan so often uses to make room for the big ones. Before a divorce came thousands of smaller sins that were never dealt with. Before someone commits adultery, murder or steals there was thousands of things that happened beforehand that were unaddressed. In this church we want to address all sin. Why? Because we love each other a lot. And more importantly we love Jesus and are filled with his love.
This is why we do Church discipline, as the Article says, “they must at all times watch that they do not deviate from what Christ, our only master, has commanded.” Dear brothers and sister for the sake of this body of Christ we must continually be working on sin. Just like a marriage, or a healthy spiritual friendship takes continual work, so it is in the church. We must throw out the old leaven, so it does not have a chance to infect the whole loaf.
These three reasons can be summed up in the words “Be holy as I am holy.” The church should be holy or set apart from the world. We are a contrast people. A holy nation. A royal priesthood. The family of God. Body of Christ. Temple of the Holy Spirit. This is why he writes the last part of the chapter. “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.” What is he saying?
He is saying we as a whole community do not associate ourselves as brothers and sisters of these people. Don’t climb into bed with these people so that the body of Christ is associated with sin. Just like we do not have sister church relationships with the Mormons, or with the local gang, because that would make us guilty by association. So, we must not say that an unrepentant sinner is one of us. V. 11 makes it clear, “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name brother if he is guilty…”
It has to be clear the church stands solidly against sin. Why? Because Christ died for it, and was raised unto newness of life, so that we might rise with him. Our job is not to judge the world – which we so often do. Our job is to share the gospel to the world. Our job in the church is to show the holy love of Christ by addressing anything and everything that can take away from that.
Dear brothers and sister church discipline is there for our protection. It is there to witness to the outside world, for the restoration of the sinner, for the protection of the church, and for the holiness of the church. It is biblical. Necessary. And loving. Without it the church cannot be church. So, if it is all these why does it not seem to work all the time?
Why church discipline does not always work.
In one Corinthians 5 Paul is addressing a church that throughout the letter seems to be struggling with pride. There is sin in the church, and not only is the church not dealing with it. They are also boasting about it! The sin that is happening is especially terrible. A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. Paul says, there is a boasting or arrogance when it comes to sin. Possibly it was that they thought they were the covenant people, so they did not need to deal with sin.
Let's always make sure we don’t have different standards for membership then the Bible. When you become a member here you place yourself under discipline. Now you may say… “I am not under discipline.” Yes, you are.
A church that practices healthy church discipline, understands that they are all under discipline. We are all called to watch over each other, to encourage, and rebuke each other whenever and wherever you see sin. When is the last time you have addressed your best friend and told him not sin? Whether it is the sin of gossip, slander, drunkenness? Pride or pornography? Could there a boasting here that we are the covenant people without dealing straight with sin? I think this may be one reason church discipline does not work – because we wait for sin to become public and wait till the last steps of church discipline to really implement it. When that happens, the person does not feel loved but rather condemned because no one walked the long road with them.
I know many of you have sought out spiritual friendship filled with accountability and prayer. I encourage all of you to do so. If you have not you are in danger. For none can stand alone. Church discipline means we need the church. Sin is a breakdown of relationship with Christ and each other, the opposite of that is a true relationship with God in Christ and with each other. True relationships hold each other to a high standard of holiness. Sin is the spiritual cancer of the church. May we deal with it as immediately and thoroughly as we would cancer.
Which is tied to another reason church discipline may not work. The church cannot take sin seriously enough. We gloss over before it is too late. But a realization of sin should awaken the people to a heartfelt desire for action. Just read 2 Corinthians “For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!” Some scholars even think he is here talking about the sinner in our chapter that later came to repentance. Sin must be taken seriously, but when that happens that sinner must also be fully restored. Sometimes after sinner is restored, we treat him as a half member about whom everyone knows he did that or that. This must not be! Paul makes that point in 2 Corinthians 7.
Another reason discipline may not work is because we self-deceive ourselves. Often people are disciplined for sins that they themselves do not acknowledge to be sin. As Jeremiah says, “the heart is deceitful above all knowledge who can understand it?” We can be sin justifiers. May there always be a humility among us as sinners to be willing to rebuked and then have the patience to search our hearts before the Lord.
It is a glorious thing to grow closer to Jesus through this. It is a heartbreakingly beautiful thing to have sin revealed. You see the opposite of walking in evil and malice is to “walk in sincerity and truth (v. 8)”. May the truth of our Lord Jesus life in our hearts, and uncover the web of our heart’s deceitfulness, so that we are open to being rebuked. Afterall David thought he was ok until Nathan came to rebuke him. Job through he was better than he was until the Lord rebuked him.
Two other reasons it may not work is because the church has used it politically or coercively, and not to draw a person closer to Christ. As we read in the confession, “therefore we reject all human inventions and laws introduced in the worship of God which bind and compel the consciences in any way. We accept only what is proper to preserve and promote harmony and unity and to keep all in obedience to God. “If it is not out of love and obedience for God, church discipline fails. This is not just elimination process from the club that takes place, but a process of love in Christ This is not about the church first of all, but about Jesus and his Body – his honor and glory.
If we correctly do church discipline we are honoring, and living in, and may be assured of enjoying the celebration of the victory that we have in Christ. This is what we celebrate in the Lords Supper. The supper is holy celebration of the forgiveness of sins, and of victory over sin.
It is the Passover that was the meal that signified the victory over sins power to enslave. It was the Passover lamb that allowed the people to walk in freedom toward a better country! We can celebrate! As Paul tells the church in verse 7b-8, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the bread of the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Dear church, lets celebrate! In Christ and the victory that he has one in dying as the Passover lamb, we have the victory over not slavery to Pharoah, but slavery to sin! We have been set free! Let’s live in that freedom, not to return to slavery, but to fight for freedom. To guard that freedom by doing battle against sin wherever we can find it and root it out. Let all the vestiges of slavery to sin to be sought out in this church as we look to Christ and celebrate with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. There is something beautiful about a church that lives from sincerity and truth. In a church that has nothing to hide. There is a freedom in that.
So confess your sins. Don’t be afraid to be confronted and confront those you love in love! We want the same thing! We all want to be closer to Christ! We all want to grow as the body of Christ! Let’s submit then also to his yoke as administers through Church discipline!
It is in the end the hand of Christ that is disciplining us to holiness through his word. The Word is carried out through pulpit, catechism, homes. The word Comforts, instructs, admonishes, and corrects. And it under the word that we as elder practice official church discipline. For the love of Jesus, and for the love of his church.
Amen.