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Church Discipline

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a society where citizens could flaunt the rules and absolutely no consequences would follow – no fines, no imprisonment, and no reprimand of any kind? Can you conceive of a home environment where children are allowed to do whatever they please with utterly no discipline imposed? Total chaos would reign in either of these instances.

Yet, there are countless churches of Christ across our land where little, if any discipline of the wayward is ever practiced. Is it any wonder that our brotherhood is weaker today than it has been in several decades?

Exactly what is church discipline? In its broadest sense, it involves everything from the most basic instruction that a babe in Christ receives – to the radical “surgery” sometimes required in the withholding of fellowship from the impenitent. In this article we will be concerned with the terminal act – the church’s obligation to withdraw fellowship from those who refused to reached through reason and teaching.

Serious Bible students know ample biblical evidence exists for the practice of church discipline. For example, read Matthew 18:15-17. In these verses Jesus speaks of one who has wronged a brother and will not repent even though compelled to do so by the wronged individual, by witnesses, and by the church. This impenitent soul is to be counted as a “heathen man and a publican” – which means to have no social contact with him.

Paul declared, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16:17). Clearly, those who cause division in the church are to be marked and avoided. Furthermore, the entire 5th chapter of 1 Corinthians deals with the matter of discipline. A fornicating church member had persisted in his immoral lifestyle, and Paul rebukes the Corinthian congregation for not having withdrawn fellowship from the man. Paul says he should be “taken away from among you” (v. 2), “delivered unto Satan” (v.5), and “put away” (v. 13).

Paul also said, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat” (1 Corinthians 5:9-11).

“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6). Beloved, this is a command! Those who walk disorderly are to be withdrawn from. Paul further writes, “A man that is an heretick [or, divisive] after the first and second admonition reject” (Tit. 3:10). We are to have no association with a divisive person.

What is the purpose in withdrawing fellowship from the disorderly? It certainly is not an act of revenge toward those who have fallen from the faith, and it must never be exercised in a haughty or spiteful manner. The scriptures do teach, though, that church discipline is both corrective and protective in function. Church discipline is to be practiced “that the spirit might be saved” (1 Corinthians 5:5), to “gain” the wayward (Matthew 18:15), to make him “ashamed” of his sin (2 Thess. 3:14), and that he might be restored (Gal. 6:1).

Church discipline is also for the protection of the church. Paul warned, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”(1 Corinthians 5:6). “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17-18). Paul withdrew his fellowship from Hymenaeus and Alexander for the welfare of the brethren(1 Tim. 1:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:16-18).

Church discipline is also important in preserving the integrity of the church before the eyes of the world. Society has enough bias against us without having the legitimate complaint that we harbor evil within our fellowship. We should never give occasion to the adversary for reviling (1 Tim. 5:14). It is imperative that the conduct of the church be such that “the name of God and the doctrine be not blasphemed” (1 Tim. 6:1), and that they way of truth be not “evil spoken of” (2 Peter 2:2).

What type of conduct is deserving of church discipline? A brother who has sinned against another, but refuses to repent of his transgression, should be withdrawn from (Matthew 18:15-17). Those who cause occasions of stumbling, and who initiate division, are proper subjects for church discipline (Romans 16:17; Tit. 3:10). Those who are practitioners of such sins as fornication, covetousness, extortion, idolatry, drunkenness, etc. certainly must be withdrawn from (1 Corinthians 5:9ff). Advocates of soul-threatening doctrines must not be allowed to continue in open fellowship with the church (1 Tim. 1:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:16-18). Those who walk disorderly are to be refused association by the faithful (2 Thessalonians 3:6). In being a member of the Lord’s church we are expected to live right, or discipline must be carried out

How should the final act of church discipline be administered? In every congregation where qualified men are serving as elders, it naturally would be the case that the eldership would lead the church in the withdrawal of fellowship from the unfaithful. Withdrawal of fellowship from an impenitent sinner is not an “elder act” merely done behind closed doors. It is an activity on the part of the entire church, and the formalization of the procedure must be enacted in the public assembly (1 Corinthians 5:4).

Loving discipline was as much a trait of the New Testament church as any other doctrine. Can a church that utterly refuses to practice church discipline be a true New Testament church? The answer, of course, is no.