Discipline in the Local Church

2003-02-18

This document was originally designed to read like a local church’s policy on church discipline. It has been modified and abridged to be more general to focus more on what the Word has to say about church discipline.

Purpose of Church Discipline

Church discipline is imperative to be followed by the local church, because it is a command that Jesus Christ gave us (Matthew 18:15-20). The reasons are as follows:

Church discipline is to restore an individual who has sinned to the congregation and to God. It is to benefit the person who is not turning from his or her sin, and it is a form of counseling. People that need church discipline are in need of confrontation, but in the context of love (Ephesians 4:15, Galatians 6:1ff). They need to be willing to rethink the condition of their heart and repent so they can move toward reconciliation with our Lord and restore any other relationships that might have been disrupted. This is not necessarily for everyone who is struggling with sin. This is for those who defiantly insist in living in a lifestyle that separate themselves from God, tarnish the purity of the church, and cause and encourage sin in the local church.

Church discipline is for the sake of the purity of the local church. The world is filled with ungodliness, and the local church needs to be the place where there is striving for perfection in Jesus Christ. If there is toleration of sin found within the church, then how is the church different from the world? Sin also, as noted in 1 Corinthians 5:6-7, affects all people that are involved with the church. For the sake of the whole, it is necessary to purge the church of impurity. First Thessalonians 5:22 calls for an avoidance of the appearance of evil. The local church is to strive for perfection and to be a community of love that edifies the saints and wins hearts for Jesus Christ unto salvation (John 13:34-35).

The purpose of church discipline is also to show the church community the consequences of sin so that they may not sin (1 Timothy 5:20). In Romans 6:23, Paul writes that the wages of sin is death. One sin brought the whole human race, along with the world, into decay, death, and destruction (Genesis 3); therefore sin should be confronted in one’s own life. If a person cannot confront his or her own sin, and it becomes known so that it affects the community, then the person needs to be confronted before gossip arises and lawlessness is encouraged.

Procedure of Church Discipline

The procedure is taken directly from the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18. Elders alone carry out the first two steps of church discipline.

The parishioner would be approached by one elder to explain the fault of the parishioner. If the parishioner would receive the elder’s counsel, then the parishioner would be restored (Matthew 18:15).

If the parishioner rejects the elder’s counsel, then the elder would bring along one or two more elders, as Jesus commanded according to Mosaic Law, and confront the individual (Matthew 18:16).

If this method still fails, the parishioner would be brought before all of the members of the church in a special meeting (Matthew 18:17a). There should be no mention of these things outside such meetings to avoid gossip.

If this confrontation fails, then the parishioner would be removed from the congregation (Matthew 18:17b). If they later repent, then they can be restored.

Application to Today’s Local Church

Verses 18-20 testify of the great authority that the church has in deciding these cases. Therefore, there can be no compromise in these matters. All members of the local church must agree to this entire policy. People must understand that all church discipline issues decided in the local church are final. The church discipline policy outlined above must be followed in every case, unless there is a case where the individual is a threat to someone’s life. This policy is for the protection of the body of the church as a whole.

A local church’s discipline policy (namely, the appropriate portions of Matthew 18) ought to be read at a general meeting annually. The policy should be compiled with other church policies into a manual that would be given to all members, and also available to be taken by any visitors. The policies will be available for everyone so that everyone can be aware of the church’s stance on church discipline.

All church-wide meetings on church discipline should never be done in malice, or to denigrate any individual. The purpose of church discipline is to help the person be restored to the church, and the context of discipline always should be love for the person and the love for the community at large.

Fairness is also imperative, and that no two people would be treated differently in the same situation. The church would follow this policy for all cases of church discipline, for all people who are living lives in outright rebellion to all of God’s authority.