Church Discipline Matters

If you have a Bible, go and grab it and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians. The book of 1 Corinthians. If you don't have a Bible, you can use the pew Bible in front of you. If you don't own a Bible, we would love for you to keep that Bible as a gift from us to you. I would love for you to have a copy of God's Word.

We are continuing our topical series through the church. Right? So we've talked about Scripture, how Scripture should be the rule by which we determine what we do as a church. We talked about how the substance of the gospel is the heartbeat by which our church lives. We talked about how church membership helps create the boundaries with which we live together in the garden of God's Word as His new creation. And now this Sunday, we get to look at the converse side of church membership. If membership defines who's inside the church body, that also means that we need in this broken world to be able to make the difficult decision of addressing those who deliberately choose to live an unrepentant life.

So what we'll do is we'll use 1 Corinthians 5 as kind of our base as we walk through the subject this morning, and we'll look at some other passages to see what Scripture says about our responsibility for the souls that the Lord has placed under our care. For now, let me read to us from verse 9 to 13 in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you. — 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (CSB)

Let's pray. We do ask that as we turn towards your Word to think about this difficult topic, that you give us sober-minded hearts, that you would help us to be deliberate about sin. Help us also to be eager to restore and exemplify the gentleness and clarity of Christ as we seek to care for those that you have placed in this church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Paradox of Church Discipline

C. S. Lewis once wrote, "The devil always sends errors into the world in pairs, pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is worse." You see why, of course. He relies on your extra dislike of one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. It's hard to think of a topic that this applies to more than church discipline: the act of addressing and even removing someone from your church because of unrepentant sin.

For some, the real danger, the real error that Christians fall into, is the infective gangrene of sin. That for the sake of Christ's reputation, they will steamroll, burden broken sinners, eager to cast them out for the sake of their appearance of holiness. On the other hand, there are those who argue that church discipline is only restorative, that discipline only exists for the purpose of rehabilitation to help the believer, to point out the context and the need to be patient and compassionate. They will often look at the circumstances of the sinner, the cultural context. They will complexify the situation that this person is in, in such a way to almost imply that the church shouldn't really do anything at all.

It's no wonder that we could think of horrendous examples that fall into both slots. Churches that misuse discipline like a machete instead of a scalpel. Churches that don't confront sin and then wonder why their churches don't seem to be that holy or that zealous in seeking to obey the Lord. What we see in the Bible is that right church discipline holds both retribution and restoration, punishment and purification, shame and salvation. And we have a responsibility as a church to be able to do that kind of discipline responsibly.

If you live the Christian life, there will be sin. If you walk with this church for very long, you will see examples of sin that will crush your heart. And what you and I choose to do with that sin matters. We need to be a church that handles unrepentant sin properly. So, during this sermon, we'll go over two reasons why we need to practice church discipline. First, we need to discipline for Christ's reputation, for Jesus's reputation. And second, we also need to discipline for the sinner's restoration. For the sinner's restoration, for Christ's reputation, for the sinner's restoration.

Essential Caveats for Righteous Discipline

I just want to give a couple caveats before we dive into these two points. First, we should not do corrective discipline if we don't do the first step, which is formative discipline. Here's the difference: Formative discipline is exactly what it sounds like, it forms. It's the positive version of teaching. It's your ability to be able to invest in people's lives, be able to share with their soul, be able to teach them what's correct and what's good. Corrective discipline is the negative aspect of that, right? It's not just teaching what's true, it's correcting what's false. And a church that only focuses on corrective discipline while never doing formative discipline is a one-winged plane. It doesn't work. You can't effectively correct people of what's wrong if you never emphasize what's true. That's part of the reason why we emphasize a culture of discipling here, right? There are natural antibodies that the Lord has given us beyond just rebuking what's wrong, which is called caring about what's true, caring for people's souls, demonstrating love for them. And we want to make sure that we do both well.

Number two. There are some that may say that we shouldn't be doing any kind of discipline at all, that after all, we just sang a bunch of hymns that all talked about the grace of Jesus Christ, about how He welcomes sinners into our presence. In fact, they may even quote Scripture, in examples like Matthew 7, that says, "Judge not, lest you be judged. Don't take the speck out in someone else's eye when there's a log in yours." And if someone brings that up, I'd say, actually, that's absolutely true. Matthew 7 says that.

“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye. — Matthew 7:1-5 (CSB)

But if you keep reading that same passage in Matthew 7, Jesus doesn't say that in order to prevent discipline, but actually so that you have the right heart when you discipline. This is Jesus's point: for you to hate someone else's sin while not hating your own sin, that's just hypocrisy. Don't do that. But what we're called to do is not just to hate someone else's sin, but to hate your own sin. Take the beam out of your own eye, and then humbly hate the other person's sin, to address it, to help them grow in holiness. To hate other people's sin more than your own sin is hypocrisy. But to hate your own sin and someone else's sin is called holiness.

And number three. I'd imagine that for a room of this size, there are those who either have been subject to or have experienced or witnessed examples of misapplied discipline, of church discipline gone awry. Whether it's a pastor who operates more like a pope, or examples where you see people get crushed under the weight of abusive authority. And if that applies to you, I just want to say, I am so sorry. Just because we believe in the biblical basis of discipline doesn't mean that it can't happen the wrong way. And I actually think that the right administration of that kind of authority means that we have to acknowledge when those applications go wrong.

I also want to say that while we can definitely utilize authority and try to address sin improperly, the real solution to those kinds of improper administrations isn't having no authority. Abusive parents don't mean that we should get rid of the institution of the family. Bad bosses don't mean that we should never have oversight. And in the same way, bad applications of discipline don't mean that we should get rid of all discipline, but that we actually need to care about discipline even more. It means we need to pay extra attention to the manner in which we apply discipline so that we do it appropriately, so that we do it responsibly, which brings me to reason number one why you should discipline.

Discipline Protects Christ's Reputation

Discipline for Christ's reputation. Look at the situation that Paul is writing to in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 1.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. — 1 Corinthians 5:1 (CSB)

Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and there's a problem, right? You can see it there. You don't need to know the Greek to understand what's going on. A man is sleeping with his dad's wife. At best, this is sexual immorality with his stepmom. And this sin meets all the requirements for corrective church discipline. Jonathan Leeman, in his book on church discipline, gives three criteria that sin needs to meet in order to reach this level where the church needs to take public action. First, this sin is outward. It is tangible. It's a real sin that can actually be verified outside of one's perception. It would be wrong for me to look at any of you, look deeply into your eyes, and say, "I see pride in you." As one pastor once told me, it's actually a particular evil to believe that you can read the intentions of someone else's heart. That's not what we want to do. It needs to be outward. It needs to be tangible. It needs to be something that you can verify.

Number two, it's serious. This isn't letting a word slip when you stub your toe. This is a kind of sin directly opposes everything that the Lord would stand for. Paul, in this first verse, is writing that even the non-Christians, the Greek pagans in this society, would hear about what's happening in this church and they would think that it is vile. Number three, it's unrepentant. It is not just that this man has committed sin, but that he is continuing to sin. If the standard to be a member of this church was that you never sin, this whole room would be empty.

And yet, we recognize that there is a difference between committing sin that breaks your heart as you seek to be faithful to the Lord versus sin that continues to go on because whether it's with continued action or with continued unrepentance, this man's heart is hardened towards his sin. He's not doing anything about it. He's more concerned for his own simple desires, for his own self-preservation, than he is for the Lord's reputation or for His glory. I mean, this sin has been going on for a while. If you just think about it practically, this sin has been going on long enough that people in the church were able to catch on to what was happening. Someone wrote a letter. That letter traveled all the way to Paul. Paul heard about it. He writes his letter and then that letter makes it all the way back to that church. This is a continuous, unrepentant, tangible, serious sin. And the church is not doing anything about it.

You can imagine all the different reasons why this church may have decided not to discipline this man. I mean, who are we to judge? If we do this, they might just leave and go somewhere else. I had a conversation with someone addressing their sin. They never showed up at church again. Is that really what we're trying to do here? Shame means that they won't be willing to show face. Maybe you even doubt yourself, "Who am I to be willing to go and address this kind of sin?"

This is where Paul places the blame in verse 2.

And you are arrogant! Shouldn’t you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this? — 1 Corinthians 5:2 (CSB)

Paul doesn't root their inaction in their humility. He roots it in their pride. And the reason is because it is arrogant to take something that God clearly identifies as sin and to not act on it. This isn't to deny the existence of complexity and nuance. I think that's absolutely true and absolutely exists. It is to qualify and to weigh those legitimate complexities in light of biblical clarity. See, context can help explain a situation. It never excuses sin. It's not godly to be so sensitive to people's feelings or the context to ignore sin. We should be grieved at the presence of sin in anyone's life, whether it's our own or in the life of others. Don't let your sympathy for someone's suffering make you blind to the reality of someone's sin.

And so he tells them what to do in verse 3.

Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. — 1 Corinthians 5:3-5 (CSB)

He tells them, "When you are assembled together, when you're gathered together as a church, you are to take this unrepentant sinner and hand him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." In other words, their action is to move them from the church, to get rid of them, to hand them to the world, to the realm of Satan. And this action is an act of authoritative judgment. Notice all the times that Paul mentions Jesus's authority here. He says, "When you're assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, hand them over to Satan with the power of the Lord Jesus." And the reason is because this action of discipline is directly connected to Jesus's authority. This is something that Jesus himself sanctions as Lord of the universe, as King of this church. He is telling this church in Corinth to make authoritative action.

And the reason why it's connected to Jesus's authority is because it's connected directly to Jesus's saving work. You can see that in verse 6.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. — 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (CSB)

The analogy is like one of yeast in dough. In other words, the way that we quantify whether or not to do discipline is not one of ratios. It's not us saying that there's more dough than there is yeast, so we're okay. The presence of yeast at all means that the whole dough is going to ferment. And so the presence of unrepentant sin anywhere is reason enough for this congregation to work to remove that sin from their congregation. But the reason that Paul gives isn't just based on the severity of the sin that's being committed, but based on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the language that he uses to refer to Jesus here. He says it's because Jesus, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed that they need to conduct this act of discipline.

In other words, he's saying, "You need to kick people out of your church when they commit unrepentant sin because of the gospel, not despite it." It is not that the gospel numbs us to the seriousness of sin, but that the blood of our Passover lamb makes us take sin all the more seriously. Because our sin has been paid for, but it was paid with a cost, by the blood of our precious Savior. And anytime that you allow unrepentant sin to continue on in your church, what you are doing is you are distorting the gospel message that we proclaim. We talked about how church membership exists because of the gospel, that baptism exists because of the gospel, that the Lord's Supper exists because of the gospel. Church discipline also exists because of the gospel.

When you allow unrepentant sin to continue on in your church without ever addressing it, what you do is you either minimize the cost of Jesus's sacrifice by making sin not that big of a deal, or you minimize the power of Jesus's sacrifice by saying that the gospel isn't enough to transform lives, to urge people to walk in true repentance. That's precisely why Paul gives the qualification that we are to discipline those who claim to be a brother or sister and continue to act in unrepentant sin. You can see that in verse 9.

I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you. — 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (CSB)

Paul's very clear. He is not saying that you are to not associate with the immoral of this world. And the reason is because immoral people acting immorally makes total sense. A non-Christian acting like a non-Christian, we would call that a consistent life. There's no lie there. But when someone claims to be a brother or sister in Jesus and then commits unrepentant sin, they are desecrating the gospel message. Hebrews 10 says that if you deliberately go on sinning after receiving knowledge of the truth, "there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. But a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries" (Hebrews 10:26-27). This is how the author of Hebrews describes a Christian committing unrepentant sin: "You are trampling on the Son of God. You are regarding as profane the blood of the covenant, and you are insulting the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29). So he says that it is terrifying to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).

It is no wonder that Paul in 2 Corinthians 2 refers to this kind of action as "a punishment by the majority" (2 Corinthians 2:6). Because it is our job to judge those who are inside, to be able to clearly declare as a church altogether, "You cannot claim to follow Jesus and sleep with your dad's wife at the same time." You just cannot do that. You can't claim to follow Jesus and embezzle money. You cannot claim to follow Jesus and verbally abuse others or be a drunk. You may claim to follow Jesus, but your character reflects a false gospel. No matter how accurate your words may be, your actions will proclaim a false, heretical gospel every day that you continue on in unrepentant sin. And it is the duty of the church as a representative of Jesus on this earth to be able to stand up and protect the church in Christ's reputation from false witness.

Friends, the church's holiness and Jesus's reputation have always been intertwined. Think about all the evil that's been uncovered in the last 10 years regarding abuse in churches. My heart just breaks at all the sin that's been left unaddressed because of people's pride. Instead of doing the harder, better thing of acknowledging sin and distinguishing abhorrent behavior from Christ's grace, so many churches have chosen to try to hide their sin. Instead, what they've done is they have spoiled the unleavened dough with the sin of secrecy. Friends, discipline is a necessary tool that you and I have to call sin what it is and to pursue righteousness. Is Jesus's reputation worth your discomfort? Is Jesus's reputation worth you doing a difficult thing in calling out sin? Is Jesus's reputation worth us doing the hard, heart-anguishing action of taking someone and saying, "You cannot be here if you're going to continue walking in a way that's going to lead you to hell."

Church discipline protects Christ's reputation, but it also does more than that.

Discipline for the Sinner's Restoration

It's also the best means we have to pursue a sinner's restoration. This is point number two. Discipline for the sinner's restoration. Look again at chapter 5, verse 5. You see the way that Paul talks about discipline here. He tells them to hand the sinner over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that they may be saved in the day of the Lord. Why does Paul tell the church in Corinth to discipline this man? It is so that the hope of this action is that this person may be saved. In other words, the basis of this authoritative, punishing, punitive action is love. The reason why you do this isn't because you hate that person that's in unrepentant sin. The reason why you actually do the uncomfortable thing in addressing that sin is because you love them. It is an earnest desire to see a sinner restored by the grace of God.

And all discipline should function like this. A parent should never discipline their child out of anger or hatred or ultimately to control them and to bend them to their will, but so that that child can learn the joys of obedience and righteousness. And in the same way, we discipline because we sincerely believe that a life of sin and unrighteousness is a miserable life to live. Think about David's words in Psalm 32 when he describes himself hiding in sin.

When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat.Selah Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.Selah — Psalm 32:3-5 (CSB)

If you're hiding in sin this morning, I wonder if you feel like that. Aching bones. Exhaustion from having to live a double life. Carrying the weight of the guilt of your sin, dying in a drought that you placed yourself in. The good news of the gospel is not that you have to keep the act up, but that there is grace available for you in Christ. That you could turn from your sin and trust in Jesus, that Jesus already knows about the ugliness of your sin and is willing to forgive, not because you've demonstrated a track record of being better or that you're on the up and up, but because Jesus is a gracious Savior who loves to forgive repentant sinners. And that's exactly why discipline is a good thing for us to do. Not because we want to drive people away, but because we want people to realize their despair and to bring them into the fountain of grace.

This is how Paul understands the gospel to work. I mean, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9. See how Paul looks at the good news of the gospel.

Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. — 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (CSB)

See how honest and clear Paul is about the devastation of sin. It's precisely because sin is that evil that the good news of the grace that you receive is that glorious. We are washed by the blood. We are sanctified by the blood. We are justified by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. That is the heart of discipline. A genuine, earnest desire to see sinners embracing this kind of grace as found in Christ. A grace that does more than just saying that you're having a good week or pretending that things are okay or suffering in solitude.

A grace that's like the Samaritan woman in John 4 that is so ashamed that she has to go to the well in broad daylight just so that she could avoid people, then turning around and boldly proclaiming in the city in front of everyone that she's embarrassed with and saying, "This man knew everything I ever did." Being able to say, "This is exactly what was so ugly about my pornography addiction or the way that I have mistreated my spouse, or my dishonesty at work, and that Jesus is a Savior worth following." And to have the church to be able to go around you and publicly say, "Christ forgives you. He loves you, and that he's going to walk with you in helping you demonstrate righteousness in your life."

What a church does when they discipline and someone repents is you are able to lead thirsty sinners to the living water. That's only available through true faith and repentance. Which means that the heart of discipline is never vengeance. It is not motivated by vindication of ourselves or a desire to get back or inflict pain on others. It comes from a desire to forgive, to demonstrate the gracious forgiveness of Christ. I mean, you could see this even in the instruction of discipline all throughout Scripture. Turn your Bible to Matthew 18.

Matthew 18. This is the other major text where we see Jesus instructing on discipline. We'll read 15 through 20 in a second, but notice that right after verses 15 to 20 on this passage regarding church discipline and how to address sin, do you notice what Jesus talks about immediately afterwards in verse 21? He talks about the parable of a debtor who owed many debts. The one who owed a million gajillion dollars to the King, that's a technical term, right? And then upon forgiveness, walks down the street and sees a man who owed him $20,000. Chokes him, won't forgive him, throws him in prison, and the king rebukes him and throws him in prison. What's Jesus's point with that parable? That the one who's been forgiven much needs to love much. You need to forgive. And even that heart of forgiveness doesn't come from your own power, but from recognizing how much you've been forgiven. There is no space for bitterness in the Christian life if you've understood just how much you've been forgiven. God is not asking you to forgive out of the abundance of your own goodwill or whatever you have in your own moral wallet. You repay that debt. You forgive that debt with the amount that you've been given from Christ himself, with the abundance of grace given to you by Christ. A bitter heart is unable to discipline properly. Don't fall into the trap of the prodigal son's older brother. When his brother returns, instead of rejoicing with his dad, he's embittered towards his father at his younger brother's repentance. We want to rejoice. We want to pray for these people. We want to love in such a way that we seek their ultimate good. You see how these two things are always paired together? You can't understand grace unless you hate sin. You can't hate sin unless you understand the goodness of God's grace. We discipline because we want to display both Christ's forgiveness and His holiness.

Practicing Church Discipline Biblically

So if that's what we want to do, how do you and I discipline well together as a church? There are three steps that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 18, verse 15 through 20. Step one, you go to the person one-on-one. Look at verse 15 there.

“If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. — Matthew 18:15 (CSB)

Discipline begins by going to the person one-on-one. And notice all the caveats that Jesus gives to that command. You go to the person one-on-one, between you and him alone. Notice what he says, "You go to the person." That means not talking to someone around that person. That means not spreading rumors or spreading angst with other persons, but going directly to that person. There are so many conflicts in the church that would be avoided if we just exercised enough humility to be willing to go directly and speak to somebody. I remember growing up in youth group, there was so much drama, and there would often be, you know, angsty teenagers, one sitting in one room and another person sitting in the other room, not willing to talk to each other. I'd just walk back and forth having to play telephone until eventually after several hours or several weeks of angst, they finally sit down and reconcile. You know, you grow up and you start pastoring adults and you realize they're just as petty. There really is no difference. And so much anguish and pain in the church would be avoided if we just exercised enough humility and hope and belief in people to be willing to go directly and speak to them.

The best way to do that is if you're already speaking to them about other things. That's why we talk about formative discipline, discipling others. Be involved in people's lives in such a way that difficult conversations or conversations oriented around growth aren't unusual. Christians don't back away when they experience difficulty. They lean in. If you haven't done that, I would encourage you, talk to them anyway. Just be honest about the log in your own eye. Just tell them, "Hey, I know that I probably should have talked to you sooner about this. I wish that I was more involved in a way that this could be more meaningful or I could understand better and walked with you longer. I'm sorry I haven't done that. But this is something I'm seeing, and I need to talk to you about it."

Also with that, be specific about the sin that's being committed. There's a difference between being hurt and being sinned against. Both are significant because we care about relationships with others. Both are worth having conversations about. But especially in the case of sin, be specific about the concern that you have for someone's soul, right? If it's tangible, be clear about the evidence of what is being done. And if it's something that you perceive that might be true, that doesn't have immediate, obvious, objective evidence, be very slow to assume that you know what's going on, but instead be thoughtful in your questions and conversation. I'm not saying don't address pride if you think someone's being arrogant. I'm just saying don't tell them they're being arrogant. Ask some questions and draw that out. See if it's there, right? Be thoughtful in your engagement. And be clear in pointing that person to Jesus and applying grace. Notice what he says there, he says, "If the man repents, you have won your brother."

In fact, I think 99% of discipline cases start and stop exactly right here. Step one. Christians talking to other people about their sin. People repenting about their sin, right? And I love that. I think that's exactly how it's supposed to work, right? There is so much grace that's readily available and a tempered intensity that comes when you see a Christian acting like a Christian. Right? When they realize that they're sinning, when they didn't see it before and they're eager to repent. I mean, what an example of humility and grace and desiring to follow the Lord. But if they don't, then you do step two. You bring two or three witnesses. That's verse 16.

But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. — Matthew 18:16 (CSB)

If they don't listen, you bring two or three witnesses. That language is old covenant, Israel court language. You're bringing two or three witnesses. And what it's doing is it is widening the scope so that there is a greater number to be able to affirm or deny the existence of sin. It is to call the person to repentance. This means that if someone admits that they're sinning, but they're asking you in an effort to hide for you to just leave them alone or to give them more time, you don't do that. You actually move towards greater accountability in light of unrepentance, right? And it also gives an opportunity for that word to give a tangible example to that person who's in sin, that it is not just you, it's also other people as well, right? You're widening the scope so that the person recognizes the intensity of their sin.

If they don't listen to that, that's when you go to the last step, number three. You tell it to the church. Verse 17.

If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” — Matthew 18:17-20 (CSB)

That last verse there isn't talking about a worship service that you have in your living room. Though I think it's true, it's fine to say it as a true statement. Jesus is referring to two or three gathered referring to a jury or an embassy or an example of His kingdom. He is saying that when the majority acts, He is there with them. He is with them. And the reason why He is with them is because you are telling the church. You're telling everyone about that sin. You are bringing it to the maximum level of publicity within the body of Christ. Here at this church, what that would typically look like, if we are continuing to be faithful, would be pulling pastors into that discipline process. Letting them walk with those Christians. And upon evidence of that unrepentance, bringing the unrepentant sinner to the church. That means a public announcement at a member's meeting calling them to repentance. We are informing the church about that person's sin. And we are asking them to go pursue that person and call them to repentance. That means giving ample time for people to be able to repent, right? Or to demonstrate that kind of repentance. And then if they don't repent, at another member's meeting, voting to remove them from our membership.

Now, not allowing them to participate in the Lord's Supper. Being able to clearly articulate two things. First, that we're not able to vouch for that person's salvation, right? That they're walking in a manner that's inconsistent with the gospel in a way that we can no longer affirm that faith. Second, to also point out that that sin that they're committing is inconsistent with the profession of faith that follows Christ. That you cannot claim to be a Christian and sleep with your father's wife at the same time. There are all sorts of other unrepentant sin. It is a way of guarding the gospel message. That's what we're called to do. Those are the steps that we do.

Right? And I just want to say with those steps, that is undergirded with a lot of compassion and complexity combined with that clarity and conviction. You may look at that the steps are listed here and that may sound really clinical and procedural to you. I just want to say that often that looks far more complex than that. I was just talking this morning in church matters class about an example of discipline that I sat in where a husband was spiritually abusing his wife for 11 years before going forward for discipline. And it wasn't because it was never addressed, it was because the situation was that difficult and complex. We don't want to be people that are quick to swing a sword or to enact discipline. We actually want to make sure that we're being deliberate and caring and thoughtful. So that when we're ready to actually take those painful steps that we have to make, we know that we're doing it because it is the necessary course of action for the sake of that person's soul and for the witness of our church. That's the heart of discipline that we want to administer.

The Joy of Restoration and True Repentance

The hope of the discipline that we administer is that people will walk in a manner that loves Jesus. That's exactly what we see happen in the church in Corinth in Paul's second letter. Turn your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11.

If anyone has caused pain, he has caused pain not so much to me but to some degree—not to exaggerate—to all of you. This punishment by the majority is sufficient for that person. As a result, you should instead forgive and comfort him. Otherwise, he may be overwhelmed by excessive grief. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. I wrote for this purpose: to test your character to see if you are obedient in everything. Anyone you forgive, I do too. For what I have forgiven—if I have forgiven anything—it is for your benefit in the presence of Christ, so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes. — 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 (CSB)

Now, we don't know if Paul is writing this about the specific situation he was writing about in 1 Corinthians 5. But we do know that this situation was very similar to whatever was going on in 1 Corinthians 5. There's someone in unrepentant sin who got disciplined by the church. And this person repents. This is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 5. You see how beautiful that picture is? A sinner who was cast out to Satan for the sake of his sin, undergoing real conviction. Such conviction that he's wanting to come back to the church and beg for forgiveness. And Paul's tone completely changes. Because that repentance means that that person has now received the forgiveness of Christ in his life. And the church gets the joyous opportunity of being able to display that kind of grace in forgiving that person. That is why we discipline. Because we care about the person's soul. We want to see 2 Corinthians 2 happen with anyone who's caught in unrepentant sin at our church. And in order for that person to be truly healed, to be truly rehabilitated, that necessarily includes the punishment by the majority.

It requires that difficult action. That is the real difference between cancel culture and promiscuity of our day. Our society lives in walking paradoxes. On one hand, they will affirm sin and try to congratulate anyone who walks in an unrepentant life. At the same time, the moment that you do something that violates our society's unwritten laws, you are written off of the face of this planet, never to return. And the gospel pushes against both of those extremes. We are willing to call out sin for what it is, regardless of what our society thinks. And we are really clear that even the worst and most vile of sinners are able to turn from your sin and find true forgiveness in Christ. I would love for our church to be able to demonstrate that kind of scandal of grace. To be able to offend the world by our clarity on what sin is and is not. And also demonstrate the scandal of grace in the fact that we are willing to bring in the most despicable sinner that's willing to surrender their control and acknowledge that they have given up their unrepentant life for the sake of receiving the grace of Christ. You cannot have punishment without purpose. And you cannot have restoration without true repentance. And every time that we administer church discipline, every time that we acknowledge the true ugliness of sin while pointing to the true hope in Christ, we are helping one another be able to walk faithfully until the day that Jesus returns. Let's pray. We pray that you would help guard us against the errors of sinful passivity as well as legalistic abuse of authority. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to administer discipline in a way that makes Jesus look glorious and gracious. Pray, Lord, that you would help us to do that in Jesus' name. Amen.