“For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him” (I Corinthians 2:6-8).
The reformers and Puritans believed that there were three marks, or tests, of a true church: sound doctrine, right administration of the sacraments, and the right administration of church discipline.
One of the purposes of church discipline is to humble a wayward brother or sister so that they might repent and be restored.
We do our church members a great injustice by ignoring sin. Christ uses His church to edify and sanctify. In the eyes of an offender, and an observer, the church is condoning any public sin that they don’t rebuke or condemn. If not condoning the sin, the church at least shows that they don’t care.
Just for an example, consider the statistic that two-thirds of Southern Baptist church members do not show up for church on Sunday morning. In some cases, I won’t try to imagine how many, that statistic is due to faulty evangelism and the adding of unregenerate folk to the church roll. In other cases believers have grown cold.
Now, what shows more love to one who hasn’t been to church in six months—ignoring them while keeping them on the roster, or making the difficult decision to exclude them (from membership and communion)?
A sound pastor told me a story that illustrates why he believes in church discipline. There was a member of the church who hadn’t attended in several months, and she ignored the attempts made by the church to reach her. After several tries, the church voted to remove her from the membership.
This action caused the sister to realize that church membership is a privilege. And it was a privilege that, now that it was lost, she wanted back. She began to faithfully attend church. After a time of repentance, she reapplied for membership and was restored. Over the next many years she grew into a strong believer and church member and remained that way until she died.
Most churches today would choose to leave her alone. Are they saying that the number on their roll is more important than the spiritual life reflected by that number? How sad when churches don’t care enough about their members to confront their sin and error.
See also:
Southern Baptists, an Unregenerate Denomination (written by a Southern Baptist)