Not Practicing Church Discipline Is a Sin, Except When It's Not
By Thabiti asks some good questions about church discipline. Is it a sin not to practice church discipline? And how does that square with the patience that we often advise in such matters?
It seems to me that we ought to practice church discipline for a few reasons:
- Out of a desire to obey God's command.
- In order to make it clear to the wayward person that their sin is serious, maybe even calling their profession of faith into question.
- In order to preserve the holiness of the church.
- In order to preserve the witness of the church in front of the pagan world.
- In order to make it clear to the church that sin is a serious matter.
At the risk of over-simplifying, I think that a church may legitimately decide (in prudence) that patience in acting on church discipline is a prudent way to those ends. But if a church's reluctance to practice church discipline is rooted in ignorance, laziness, cowardice, or indifference, then I would say that they are in sin.
Michael McKinley's PostsTopics:
Discipline
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I commented on Thabiti's post because I was intrigued by his wording, that a church should "proceed slowly and with a lot of teaching before you begin to practice church discipline." This to me implies that if there is a disciplinary situation looming, you shouldn't even START to address it directly until there has been a lot of teaching.
Realistically, though, doesn't this mean that the opportunity to practice church discipline (from both a standpoint of protecting the body, and restoring the wayward member) could be LOST before the discipline begins, and after the damage is done both to the member and the body?
You also said that a church may legitimately decide to be patient. Is there Biblical grounds for this delay, or is that merely a matter of opinion, experience, etc.?
And finally, I'm puzzled that you would advocate patience even when the body KNOWS the mandate for church discipline, but yet still argue that it's sin if they DON'T know ("if a church's reluctance to practice church discipline is rooted in IGNORANCE..."). Can you elaborate?
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