Lessons On Discipline And Other Matters (Matthew 18:14-35)

The Bible is clear on matters regarding the existence, purpose, and conduct of the church. The church is the body of Christ operating according to His will and direction, the primary objective of which is to proclaim the Gospel to all the world in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8-11). The Bible says that its leaders (pastors, elders, and deacons) are authorized to establish it (Matthew 16:19, 18:18). Church discipline consists in maintaining sound doctrine (1Timothy 1:3; Titus 1:13), church-related business affairs (1 Corinthians 11:34; Titus 1:5), rebuking offenders (1 Timothy 5:20; 2 Timothy 4:2), and to remove obstinate offenders from fellowship (1Corinthians 5:3-5, 13; 1Timothy 1:20). Members are to submit to church leaders (Hebrews 13:17) so as to operate in a manner of edification, decency, and order (1Corinthians 14:34; 2 Corinthians 2:6-8, 13:10). The Bible also makes it clear that men are to be the pastors of churches. God has ordained them to be the leaders and teachers. This role and responsibility has been ridiculed, challenged, and shunned but the Scriptures override our opinion and society (1 Corinthians 14:34; 1 Timothy 2:12). If the Lord Jesus loved us enough to die for our sins in order to give us mercy, grace, and eternal life we do not deserve (Ephesians 2:8-9), I think that it would be in our best interest to do what He says for us to do in regards to His church and how He wants it to work.

Our tendency to think that we know how to run the affairs of the Lord better than He can has been evident in the past few years. We are in the midst of an epidemic of biblical ignorance and rank indifference, with self-affirming pep talks and coffee bars replacing sound doctrine and altars of repentance. We have ecclesiastical celebrities instead of qualified men of God called to shepherd the flock of Christ. We have sexual deviance paraded before children and youth disguised as “self-expression” and a deviant form of idolatry being used to mold minds away from God and towards deities of our own kind. We read and hear of pastors having to either resign or walk away from the church due to unbearable stress, unrealistic expectations, and struggles with members who refuse to yield to the Holy Scriptures and instead content with their own ideas of how “ their church” should operate. I am convinced that if the Lord Jesus Christ were to preach in most churches in the nation today, He would be treated as He was when He preached to the residents of Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). It is ironic that while people cry out for “truth”, they also reject it when presented. The last days church is more in line with the description of humanity listed in Romans 1:18-32 and 3:10-20 than it is with what we are meant to be in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

What do we do as a remnant body of believers as the days grow shorter and the Lord’s return is drawing near? I’m talking to those of you who want to see a genuine move of God in our lives and try to live as He says. What do we do to get the body of Christ back on track? It certainly cannot be done in our own power. We need to return to the Bible and read about what Jesus taught about the conduct of His church and reclaim the mission to which we are called. In Matthew 18, verses 15-20, He tells us to begin with settling small issues between one another. The prescription for biblical, effective church order and discipline begins with a private meeting between the offender and the offender, with the objective being reconciliation and the issue in question being settled there. If a conflict has been resolved privately, then it is to be closed.

However, if the offender will not show repentance or receive correction, the next step is to take two or three witnesses with you (Deuteronomy 19:15) and confront the offender with the goal of reconciliation and repentance. If everything can be settled in this way, then let it be so. If the offender still refuses to repent, the next step requires that the matter be reported to the church body (v.17) in order that all may lovingly (Galatians 6:1-5) pursue the sinning person’s reconciliation (Christ-centered intervention). But, failing that, then the final step is that the offender must be excommunicated, regarded by the church as “a heathen and a tax collector”, the worst type of person in the society of ancient Israel. This is not merely to punish the offending person, or shun them permanently, but to remove them as a detrimental influence from the church, and hence, to regard them as an evangelistic prospect rather than as one of the “brethren”. Ultimately, the sin for which someone is excommunicated is a hard- hearted impenitence (see Hebrews 6:4-6).