You can sense the love and admiration Paul had for these young Christians in this last chapter. Like a spiritual father that is concerned for his children, he has one more important thing he needs to bring to their attention before he closes his letter. In this text we see...
II. HIS DISCIPLINE
It is possible he saved this for the last for at least two reasons.
(1) It could have been because it was one of the more sensitive things he had to deal with so he put it off as long as he could, but now he can put it off no longer.
(2) It could have been because it was so important that he wanted to close with it so it would be fresh in their minds.
The last thing Paul talked to them about was the DISCIPLINARY ACTION they should take toward those who were walking disorderly.
We can learn from this for we have the same problem in churches today. Especially in liberal churches. The liberal churches are like liberal families, they do not exercise discipline.
This means that in some churches a professing child of God may live as evil a life as he pleases and no disciplinary action will be taken against him.
Again, these churches are like liberal parents in the way they raise their children.
Illus: That is, little Johnny can be as disobedient and rotten as he wants to be and all he will ever hear is, “Johnny, I wish you would not do that.”
Many folks have never thought about the importance of DISCIPLINE, but it should be ranked at the top of the list of important matters wherever there are people.
Illus: When a young soldier enters the service, the first things he has to learn is THE IMPORTANCE OF DISCIPLINE. There could be no successful MILITARY, BUSINESS, or MARRIAGE without discipline. And beloved, THERE CAN BE NO SUCCESSFUL CHURCH WITHOUT DISCIPLINE.
Discipline, in this context, is:
a. “Training that develops self-control, character, or orderliness and efficiency.
b. “Treatment that corrects or punishes.”
We must understand that discipline is essential.
Most people understand this. For example, most folks realize that the public schools across this nation can not accomplish what they are set up to accomplish because of a LACK OF DISCIPLINE on the parts of parents, children, and school administrators. Continuing the spending of tax-payer’s money on schools will never solve the problem.
• We have allowed government agencies to dictate that parents are no longer to punish children for their misbehavior and disobedience.
• We have allowed people to be placed on school boards who do not believe in discipline.
• We have teachers who do not believe in discipline, and if they did believe in administering it they would get into trouble if they punished a child.
As a result we have:
• Disrespect for teachers.
• Fights.
• Cursing.
• All kinds of promiscuity.
• Smoking.
• Drugs.
• And all other kinds of rebellion.
The only hope for our children is to restore discipline to our country.
There are a few folks who recognize this. Some school districts have begun to recognize discipline must be restored. These are to be commended. In some cases...
• If a child gets into trouble, he is disciplined.
• If that child gets into trouble again, he is disciplined.
• If he gets into trouble a third time, he is out of school and can not come back to that school.
Liberals think this is terrible. Maybe we should give all those rebellious children to those liberals to raise. That attitude is the reason for the problems we face today that have come from the lack of discipline. Sure, one child will suffer because he is thrown out of school. But we have seen that when that child is allowed to continue to disrupt and cause trouble, the whole school suffers. It is better that the rebellious students pay the price for their rebellion than to cause others to pay for it.
Did you know that most of you probably agree with what I just said, but you may not agree with what I am about to say...
That is, THE THING THAT APPLIES TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ALSO APPLIES TO GOD’S CHURCH.
A church can not function as a unit unless there is discipline. God has told us what to do. When we do not obey, then the whole church suffers. No one should enjoy having to discipline, but listen, it is far better for one, or a few, to be disciplined (or even leave) than to allow them to stay and disrupt the plans of God for the whole church.
Illus: Every now and then a person will enter a church with this attitude:
• “I can say whatever I want to say.”
• “I can lay out of church as much as I want to lay out and still teach a Sunday school class.”
• “I can go to the local bar on Saturday night and sing in the choir on Sunday morning.”
• “I can spend God’s tithe money on whatever I want to buy for myself and still be a deacon.”
• “I can hurt whoever I want to hurt and no one can do a thing about it.”
• “I can gossip about whoever I want to gossip about and no one can stop me!”
Every church has to deal with people like this. If a church does not deal with those who are rebellious, then they will tear the church to pieces and make it a disgrace to the community.
Paul knew the church in Thessalonica had to be taught how to deal with the ungodly. “Ungodly” means “Not God like.”
A church should be filled with people who are GOD-LIKE. And, we thank the Lord for the many who are GOD LIKE, but we should not let down our guard and let the ungodly spread their poison.
HOW CAN THE PROBLEM BE SOLVED? Very easily. If all churches would practice Bible DISCIPLINE, then the ungodly would be exposed and either get right, or leave.
However, there is a problem because not all churches practice Bible DISCIPLINE.
WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM? Because when a church takes disciplinary action, generally two things occur.
(1) PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH WHO PROFESS TO BE SAVED JOIN SIDES WITH THE WICKED. That is, there are pastors who love God and when the need arises they discipline those who rebel against what the Bible teaches. It would be expected that he would have the backing of a godly congregation, but often this is not the case. Often, instead of standing with God’s man as he carries out God’s mandate of discipline, they prove they love the wicked more than they love God’s Word.
Illus: In one church there was a song leader who had personality plus, except that he was obviously unfriendly to certain people. That is, he was a racist. He despised black people. One day a black man came, enjoyed the services, and later joined the church. The song leader thought if he was rude enough to this man he would leave the church. It was nearing time for the church to elect new officers for the coming year. The pastor courageously told the nominating committee that he would only approve the re-election of the song leader if he let God change his attitude toward blacks. The committee members all agreed the song leader’s attitude was wrong and that something should be done. They sent two of the mature Christians to tell the song leader of the nominating committee’s decision.
Instead of getting right with the Lord, the song leader got angry. When the next service began the song leader refused to come to the platform. He sat in his pew, arms crossed, blown up like a bull frog. The pastor waited for him to come up to lead singing, but finally it was obvious he was not going to come up. So, the pastor stepped to the platform, announced his text, and preached for the next hour. That was all the pastor could do to avoid causing a scene in the morning worship service.
But, after the service the pastor put his foot down. He told the man he would not be leading singing any more. He had completely destroyed his credibility with the people and that man knew it. Instead of seeking the Lord for forgiveness, and apologizing to the church, he went home and began to call people and told them he had been fired, that was why he would not lead the singing. Did you know that many of the people who were there, who SAW WHAT TOOK PLACE when the pastor disciplined him, sided up with the song leader.
Yes, people in our churches often love the wicked and rebellious, no matter what they do to hurt God’s work, more than they love God. Some will stand with the wicked every time! Of course, this makes us wonder about those who would do that!
This is one of the things that happens when you practice church discipline. Also,
(2) CHURCHES WILL PROVE THEY LOVE NUMBERS MORE THAN THEY LOVE WHAT GOD’S WORD TEACHES. Did you know a man can become so wicked he will completely destroy a church.
That is, he may never have brought anyone to church, but when something comes up and he can not have things his way, he will take all he can take with him when he leaves after being disciplined.
Illus: I have seen the ungodly never go on church visitation or soul winning, but once they are disciplined they are able to drive all over town to member’s houses to tell them lies about why they were disciplined. They will get on the telephone and spend hours distorting the truth. They will go to the barber shop and grocery store and give their false version of what took place to anyone who will listen.
Then, when they have destroyed the reputation of the church, they will go down and walk into another church, that knows what he has done, and be received with open arms--all because that church is working on building up its numbers.
Illus: The churches like that remind me of a dad who disciplined his rebellious son. A man, who was jealous of that dad, heard about the problem he had with his son. He caught the son away from home and told him, “Listen, I have a house I will let you move in to, without a down payment. If you want to buy the house I will finance it.” That was just what that rebellious son was waiting to hear. He was of age, so he packed his belongings and moved in that house. Soon he was involved in all kinds of sin. Why? Because that wicked man was jealous of that boy’s dad and made it possible for the son to escape DISCIPLINE and be able to do whatever he wanted to do.
If all of God’s churches practiced church DISCIPLINE the rebellious person would have no place to run. The church the rebellious person might try to join would say, “Sorry, we can not take you in as a member of our church. You need to go back and make things right with all those churches you have tried to destroy. Then, when you do, after a period of time, if you convince us you want to please the Lord with your life, then we might consider taking you in as a member of our church. But, until then you can come to our services, but you may not become a member.”
Paul knew the church in Thessalonica was a great church. He had already said many nice things about them. But, if it was going to remain a GREAT CHURCH they could not allow wicked people to come in and destroy it. They had to practice church discipline.
Look at verse 6. We read, “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.” Paul did not say,
• “If you think it is a good idea.”
• “If the convention votes on it and thinks it is a good idea.”
He said, “NOW WE COMMAND YOU, BRETHREN...” WHAT DID HE COMMAND?
Look at verse 6 again. We read, “...that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”
WHAT DOES THE WORD “WITHDRAW” MEAN? It is from the Greek word, “stellesthai,” which means: “To stay away from.”
THERE ARE SEVERAL REASONS WHY...
A. WE ARE TO WITHDRAW BECAUSE WE ARE JUDGED BY THE COMPANY WE KEEP.
If you want to know about people, watch who they associate with.
Illus: You can place the ungodly people into a crowd of ten thousand and every time they will seek out of that ten thousand people just like themselves. You can place a godly person into a crowd and he will seek out those who are like himself.
Illus: A minister’s son had been in Christian schools until his senior year. This young man was a strong Christian. He pleaded with his dad to let him go one year to a public school. The father told him to let him pray about it. Around a week later the father called the son aside and told him, “I have been praying about letting you go to the local public school. I have decided to let you go, but I must tell you that I am concerned because I know you will be around some very sinful young people.” The young man said, “I know dad, but when I graduate, and get a job, there will be ungodly people working around me.”
The day came for him to go and he was excited. For several weeks the dad watched very closely to see if his attitude changed, or if it affected him some way. Finally the dad said, “Son, you have been in public school for several weeks now. Have you made any new friends? How are things going?” The son said, “Dad, it is like this. It is as if there were two student bodies at school. One is wicked. The other is made up of Christians. I found the church-going crowd shortly after school began. We hang out together, and the ungodly have found each other and they hang out together.”
What that young man found to be true in high school has always been true.
One reason we should stay away from wicked people is because when people see us with them, they know we have chosen to be with them because we are like them.
B. WE ARE TO WITHDRAW BECAUSE WE ARE CONDONING THEIR WICKEDNESS WHEN WE ASSOCIATE WITH THEM.
Illus: I remember, a long time ago, when a child was mean in school, the teacher would call that child up and have him stand with his nose in the corner. The child would stand for hours--until he was almost cross-eyed. Listen, when he was there, being punished, no one walked up to stand with him. To do so would have been placing their stamp of approval on what he had done.
Likewise, when people come to church and rebel against God, and will not straighten up, Paul said we are to “withdraw” from them. If we do not, then we are endorsing their rebellion.
Illus: One of the best ways to destroy a small child is to laugh at him when he disobeys and does bad things. That will cause him to continue doing those bad things because he knows it gets people’s attention. Instead, it should be clear to him that no one approves of his bad actions.
This is what should be true for a child of God if he does wrong. If you show love, and embrace him, he will get the idea he needs to keep doing the wrong.
C. WE ARE TO WITHDRAW BECAUSE IF WE HANG OUT WITH THE WICKED, IF WE ARE NOT LIKE THEM ALREADY, WE MAY SOON BE.
The tendency is to become like those we spend time with.
Illus: A preacher was attending a fellowship where 30 or 40 ministers were together. They did this each month. The only problem was that many of these men seemed to have a mean streak. As he fellowshipped with them and sat under their preaching, he found himself beginning to feel mean. One day he told his wife that he was going to have to stop attending that fellowship because he was being influenced to become as un-Christ-like as some of them were.
Did you know a minister can be on fire for God, but after hanging out a long time with liberals, he can become as backslidden as they are? We become like those we spend time with.
Illus: One preacher was with another preacher who twitched his nose like a rabbit. Then there was another who kept shifting his shoulder in his suit. Guess what. One day that preacher realized he was beginning to twitch his nose and shift his shoulder in his suit.
We become like those we hang around. Paul’s advice to “withdraw” from the ungodly until they are willing to repent of their sins was advice we can not afford to ignore!
Conclusion/Summary:
Remember, the church at Thessalonica had a problem because people stopped working their jobs because they thought the Lord was going to come any minute. The fact that they were looking for Christ’s imminent return gave some who were lazy an excuse to quit their jobs and still appear to be spiritual. This caused another problem because they were “sponging” off of others.
Paul gave specific instructions on how to handle the problem. Look at verses 7-15. We read, “For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
(1 of 2)
I. HIS REQUEST
(2 of 2)
II. HIS DISCIPLINE
