Whatever became of sin? Sin is no longer the knowingly,
willful rejection of God’s law. Under today’s standards for
evaluating the man living with his father’s wife, we look
for some sort of abuse to excuse his violation of Old
Testament law, New Testament law and Roman law. Others would
argue that his conduct is the result of some genetic
disposition. Others would argue his conduct is normal, and
that the problem in the church is with narrow-minded church
members. The cure for this man’s immoral behavior is
intensive and expensive therapy. Others claim the man’s
problem is “poor self-esteem.” The cure is for him to “feel
better about himself.” This would certainly mean church
discipline is harmful, rather than helpful. For Paul, the
diagnosis is simple, and so is the prescription. The problem
is the sin of immorality, and the prescription is to remove
him from the church. When the Bible is the standard for
conduct, and used for defining sin and righteousness, the
diagnosis of this man’s problem is not that difficult.
Whatever happened to discipline in the modern world we live
in? The exercising of discipline is an acknowledgement that
we have done all that we can, and have failed. In our
arrogance, we sometimes convince ourselves that, given
enough time, we can rectify all the problems in the world
and the church. The altar has given way to the counseling
couch. There is a place for counsel, but we often give our
system of counseling too much credit. In our arrogance, we
refuse to take that final step of “removing the wicked
person from ourselves.” Just a little more time, we suppose,
and we can correct this person’s thinking. Church discipline
is based upon the recognition that we have done what we can
in the context of the church, and that God can turn that
wayward person to repentance apart from us and apart from
our ministry.
Unconsciously we think of the church as a “support group.”
While the church does function as a support group, the
support group mentality is a very dangerous one. Support
groups can cause individuals to put their trust in the group
rather than in God. Support groups often pride themselves
for being there, no matter what the wayward one has done, or
will do while the church requires a turn from willful sin,
something men and women reject. The term “unconditional
acceptance” or “unconditional love” assumes we must love one
another unconditionally. There is a sense in which this is
true, however, we are not to love others unconditionally in
terms of the way they wish to define acceptance and love. To
exercise discipline on a wayward saint is to love that
person and to seek their highest good.
There is only one “unconditional love” in the world, God’s
love. Regarding “unconditional acceptance” God has set
conditions for acceptance into the kingdom of God, the first
is repentance. Jesus said, “unless one is born of water and
the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John
3:5).
Whatever happened to church discipline? We see very little
of it today. Even when such discipline is taken, all too
often many church members are tempted to second-guess the
church and to privately continue to fellowship with the one
under discipline. This is a serious matter, for if I
understand the Scriptures correctly, to do so is to become a
partner with that person in his or her sin.
Church discipline is one of those very clear duties of the
church and of the individual Christian. Why, then, is it not
practiced more often, fear afraid to take a stand against
sin because we are afraid of rejection. We may be afraid of
appearing to be narrow and unloving. We may be unwilling to
lose the friendship and the fellowship of those we love.
Some church leaders are afraid of being sued for taking
disciplinary action against a church member. It can and does
happen. I suspect that it will happen more and more in the
coming days.
Finally, the popular teachings and practices of the “church
growth movement” whether consciously or unconsciously
discourage church discipline. The church growth experts tend
to measure the success of a church in terms of numerical
growth. This movement seeks to attract unbelievers to the
church by being “seeker-friendly,” by making unbelievers
feel comfortable with the church and with the Christian
message. How can this possibly be in the light of Paul’s
teaching in chapters 1 and 2? The message of the cross is
foolish. Divine truth concerning God is incomprehensible to
the lost.
Men and women are not saved by getting comfortable with God,
but by becoming uncomfortable by the convictions of the Holy
Spirit that they are sinners, that God is righteous and that
judgment awaits the sinner (John 16:7-11). When God struck
Ananias and Sapphira dead for their deception, the
unbelieving world was not comfortable; in fact, it caused
them to stay away from the church. Nevertheless, many were
being saved (Acts 5:11-16). Sinful men and women should not
and cannot be comfortable in the presence of a holy God,
except through the cleansing of their sins by the shed blood
of Jesus Christ. No man or woman can come before a holy God
without becoming uncomfortable about his or her sins and
God’s judgment. That is what being saved is all about, being
saved from the wrath of God upon sinners.
The church’s duty to discipline provides a strong incentive
for preventative action. Before entering the Promised Land
Moses told the Israelites, “And these words, which I am
commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall
teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them
when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and
when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind
them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on
your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of
your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).
We know this command comes from the Lord, and that we, as
parents, should keep it. The following command is further
motivation to obey the command to teach our children the way
of the Lord, “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son
who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they
chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his
father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the
elders of his city at the gateway of his home town. And they
shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is
stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a
glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall
stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your
midst, and all Israel shall hear of it and fear”
(Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
If we lived in Old Testament times, and knew that we must
stone our own child for being disobedient and rebellious, it
would give us good reason to be diligent in performing those
duties aimed at preventing such rebellion and disobedience
in our children. Parents today, Christian parents, are
forbidden to discipline or spank their children. Many of
them are proud of this fact, as though such discipline is
brutal and primitive. It does not matter that the Scriptures
teach us that spanking our children is one means of dealing
with sin. Spanking provides a lesson that informs our
children that sin has very real, very painful consequences.
Hell, my Christian friend, is not going to be a “time out.”
There may be occasions when a “time out” is appropriate, but
there are also times when painful physical consequences are
experienced. No, I do not advocate beating a child. No, I do
not defend those who abuse their children. Yes, there is a
time to spank, and most of us have forgotten when it is.
Here is the root of all the problems, it existed in Corinth,
and it exists in churches today and in the home. Why would
we discipline a disobedient child or a disobedient church
member when we will not discipline ourselves, why would we
expect strong family relationships and a strong church if we
would discipline others and not ourselves? This discipline
is not that which comes only from within us, but which comes
from the Spirit of God.
God takes sin seriously. That is why the cross of Calvary
was necessary. God took our sin so seriously that He sent
His Son to die in our place, to suffer the punishment for
our sins. The good news of the gospel is that while God
takes our sin seriously, and while our sin must be judged,
He has judged our sins in Christ. To enter into this
forgiveness, all we need do is to receive the gift of
salvation that God offers to us by faith in His Son. When we
see how seriously God has taken our sins, we see how serious
we must be about sin as well.
