Mat 18;15-20 15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the church. Cheap grace is the preaching of salvation without repentance from sins, offering forgiveness without personal confession, a Christian life without discipleship, and church membership without church discipline. This is cheap grace, and it is causing great harm to the church.
Such people see Christianity just as a sentimental thing. Our relationship with God is emotional: “I and my Jesus” and “it is all about how I feel.” They call it simple faith, not worried about principles in the Word of God, not living life as Jesus teaches in his word. No, even our practical life is all based on our emotions. You pray and read God’s word and live holy only when you feel like doing it. We come to church because we want to feel good, sing nice songs, hear a nice message, feel godly/religious, have a nice time with everyone in the church, loving, and kind. But that is not what God wants for us—just feel good, enjoy the sermon, and then go back and live as we want, leave it at that.
Jesus Christ wants us to live a disciple’s life, which means a disciplined life according to the principles of the Word of God. When we don’t live like that and sin, he wants to implement church discipline. We are studying CD from Matthew 18 and understanding the topic under four headings: Necessity, Goal, Process, and Authority.
We have seen the need: Christ solemnly commands it, and the Church very much needs it. If we have to prevent Christ’s direct judgment on us by leaving us as a dead church, and as a church body, CD is like immunization. Just like children need discipline, we need CD to survive and progress; we cannot do without church discipline. The goal of CD is to gain a sinning brother and maintain church purity. The whole atmosphere of CD is not done in arrogance [or] self-righteousness, but with the full love of the Shepherd’s heart, seeking one lost sheep, and ready to forgive the brother and love him.
The implied command in this passage is that Christ expects each of us to live a disciplined life as disciples. There is no point in talking about church discipline if we are not living a disciplined life in church responsibilities—prayer, reading God’s word, and living a holy life. The reason we are not serious on CD is because we don’t live discipline personally. When we live like that, God’s zeal for his house will burn in us, and that zeal will give us the determination to do church discipline. This is an indirect call for us to live a disciplined life personally to an extent where we can practice CD as a church. May God help all of us to realize this.
After understanding the great need of CD and its goal, we move to look at how to do CD—what is the process we should follow. Now Verses 15 to 17 clearly explains four steps of church discipline. We will look at the process this week and Verses 18-20 probably next-to-next week to look at by what authority we should do that discipline.
Verses 15 onwards teaches us the process. Christ, who knows the nature of sin, how it will affect us, in his infinite wisdom, teaches us the proper way to deal with that in the church. Neglecting this results in a cursed state of the church.
There are four steps. It is like four health checks for a sinning brother.
Step 1: Go Alone and Show Him His Sin
Verse 15: “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother.“
When to Initiate Church Discipline
When to go, when to initiate the first step of church discipline? Verse 15: “If your brother sins against you, GO.” Notice this is not someone in the street, a neighbor, or a worldly man. It is your brother, someone with whom you are united in Christ as a fellow member of His body and His family; he is a member of the church.
“If thy brother shall sin” ($hamartanō$), the basic New Testament word for sin. The word from which we get our theological word “hamartiology,” which is the study of sin. It means “to miss the mark.” It is to violate or transgress His law. So you notice your brother is breaking God’s law and sinning.
What Sins Require Corrective Discipline?
Now should we do CD for every sin? The question is what constitutes a sin that needs discipline? In a way, if you ask, “Which are sins God wants us to avoid? What’s the answer? What sins in church need to be corrected? Which ones?” All of them. Christ wants his church to be holy, spotless. There are no small or big sins. Sin is sin, and it is the antithesis of the utter holiness of God. And the sin, any sin, puts a stain on the fellowship. Even small leaven can affect all of us. In a way, though every sin ought to be somehow corrected. If any member of the church sins in violating God’s law in any way, there needs to be discipline. That’s God’s desire; he wants the church spotless.
But every sin doesn’t need corrective discipline. Our constitution talks about two kinds of CD: Formative Discipline (FD) and Corrective Discipline (CD). Formative discipline is primarily done through preaching, teaching, and means of the church, the influence of the church—all that is done to help us live holy, right? Our preaching and convicting applications pointing sins in our life is part of the FD. Our weekly meetings separately for men, women, and youth, making you study and grow in truth, is a form of formative discipline. Formative discipline, with its many aspects, will result in the sanctification of each member individually and of the whole body of the church collectively. The Constitution says “Every disciple (follower) of Christ must be under His FD (primarily preaching) and CD discipline of the church. FD discipline goes on as everyone is given time to grow in the truth.”
Then there is a second discipline called corrective discipline. This is what the Matthew 18 passage talks about CD. Which sins require corrective discipline? In a way, we all regularly sin in small ways. James says “we stumble at many things.” If we did CD for every little sin, I’ll be doing nothing else all day for the rest of our life!
So for very small things, we shouldn’t be trying to apply corrective discipline. 1 Peter 4:8 also tells us that “love will cover a multitude of sins”: “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins.’“
There are some sins and weakness our brother or sister may commit occasionally that we should cover in love and bear with them and give them time to grow in grace and truth. Some sins that are the result of lack of growth. We in love cover those sins and help them to grow in truth. See how we can help to overcome even those sins through FD. For a time being, we should cover those sins and overlook petty issues or mere disagreements, misunderstanding, sudden short temper [that] said something bad, insulted me, some occasional situation, temptation fierce attack; this is not regular continual sin. Someone brings that to me, “Pastor, you should take action, inform the whole church.” I tell them “understand their situation, they are still growing, this is not regular blatant… let them grow, give them some time to mature, we will deal with that. This is not a big thing.” We have to deal with these sins through formative discipline of preaching and admonishing. But there comes a time when one’s failure to respond to this formative discipline many times makes the application of corrective discipline necessary.
But there are other sins that it would be wrong to throw ‘a cover of love’ over. In fact, there are some sins that to ignore would not be loving at all. In spite of regular preaching from God’s word, they don’t change. It is not a one-off, but a continual habit in their life. When someone is engaged openly in a practice that is in clear disobedience to God’s word, or when it is a matter that clearly causes harm to the Body of Christ or to the testimony of His gospel, then it is something that must be dealt with CD as Jesus commands. So do not start off for every small thing with CD.
The Sins that Require Action
So which are the sins that needs CD? Look at the verse: it talks about “when a brother sins against you.” Some say “against you” is not in the original manuscript, but if you look at the context and parallel verse in Luke, it is applicable. When a brother sins against you. There are two ways a brother sins against me. Christ wants us to go for both these sins. One, personally directly, and secondly, indirectly sinning against the church which affects me as a member of the church. Both those require church discipline. Let us look one by one.
Personally (Direct Sins): The direct way that you might be sinned against would be if somebody insulted me, hurt me, deceived me, lied to me, abused me, slandered me, spoke all wrongly against me, stole from me, or even slapped me because they were mad at me. Like these sins directly against you.
What do you do when someone sins against you in the church? Don’t tell me nobody did? What we do… But our tendency is when somebody does something we don’t like, somebody touches us in our life some way and wounds us, or sins against us, or commits an act of disobedience to God which affects us directly, we put them on our grudge list, don’t we? “Ah, how he/she did that…” And we let bitterness cultivate in our hearts, and resentment, and anger. “Let me get an opportunity… watch and see…” We just harbor a bitterness that you know how terribly grows and spoils the entire church. To satisfy your wound, you avoid talking to them, seeing them, slander about them, do something to avenge. All that will further make your wound worse.
So you see you are hurt by the brother, wounded. So don’t deal with that wound in a fleshly way to somehow avenge, but healing for the wound comes by handling it as Christ says. Okay, he has sinned against you directly. You are wounded. And the text says if such a person sins a sin against you, “go and tell him privately and show him his fault.”
Why? In order to gain your brother. It isn’t that you go and say, “You useless brother, I want to tell you what you did to me. What an insult to me! I cannot forget this!” No. This is a marvelous thought. When you get sinned against, deceived against, lied against, slandered, abused, whatever the sin is—and this is a brother, we’re talking about in the family now, a Christian does this—you go and tell him the sin, and the verse says “show him his fault,” and so you may gain him back as a brother or gain them back as a sister in Jesus Christ.
Meaning you are showing the most magnanimous heart attitude that says, “You have sinned against me, but that is not the issue. I am also living in remaining sin. I am hurt by that. I felt very bad. I want to share that wound and show you this is not right. You have sinned against me, but that is not the issue. The issue is I’ve lost you as my brother in my heart, and I’ve lost you as my sister because of my wound. There is a gap in my heart between us now, and my heart longs to restore you to that.” “I don’t want to live like this. See the fault you have done. I love you as a brother. That is why I am hurt by what you did.” What do you think this will do to him? When you humbly show him this, oh, he realizes his mistake: “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize it hurt you like this. Sorry, brother.” So instead of harboring anger, you are humbly coming and sharing. Then you gain your brother. I mean, instead of that sin separating one another, it brings them in the closest union, right?
Think about if we had followed this regularly in church and even family life. Between husbands and wives, how much of fights and misunderstandings we could have avoided. All conflicts in church and marital conflicts come from a failure to deal like this. What happens when someone hurts us? Instead of going and showing them: “See, I love you so much and see you as a brother and pray for [you] always, but now this hurt me very badly. I am praying for God’s grace to overcome, but want [to] tell you this is wrong.” That is when healing takes place. Instead, we develop bitterness and indirectly in our heart we become far from them, avoid seeing their face, talking to them as brother/sister, and then that hurt without healing makes you slander about that brother, or when someone talks good of them, you don’t appreciate. This bitterness grows, isn’t it? Over the years it becomes a mountain.
How many people can you think of in your mind that you’ve got a grudge against that you just won’t speak to? You have nothing to do with. Every time they come up in conversation your mouth curls a funny way. Do you have anger toward them, bitterness? Because they’ve done something to you. This is what secretly destroys church love and unity. Listen, Ephesians 4:32: “Forgive one another as God, for Christ’s sake, forgave you.” Who do you think you are to hold a grudge when God’s forgiven you so much? The next parable also will remind you how much you are forgiven. So you go, and you confront, and seek to gain your brother.
Hebrews 12:15: “Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.”
That bitterness can hinder you from receiving grace from God. What happens if the supply of grace stops? You are dead. That is why Christ says if you remember Matthew 5:23-24: “Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”
Indirect Sins (Against the Church and Testimony): So that is how you deal with a brother who is directly, personally sinning against you. Now they can sin indirectly against you. This is a very important point. They can sin against me and the church, sin against the testimony of the gospel. Anything that spoils the peace of the church, the holiness of the church—open and continuing sins, living a disobedient life.
Our constitution talks about Corrective discipline becomes necessary when heretical doctrine is believed, when one is disorderly in life, immoral, or when scandalous conduct appears in a member of the church. Romans 16:17-18 calls for disciplining “those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned.” So these disrupt the unity of the church, perhaps pitting one member or group against another, all in an attempt to create factions in the church. They do it under the guise of false spirituality, perhaps even offering contrary teaching to undergird their destructive aims.
Living in such sin can cause hindrance to the church’s testimony to the gospel. Let us say we invite someone to our church, and that person says, “Oh, I know a man who keeps cheating people/he is a drunkard/adulterer or their family [is] horrible“—it affects the entire church name, right? All of us were affected by that. Christ’s Body was stained, it touches all of us. We have to deal with such sins as immorality, divorce, dishonesty, lack of submission, divisiveness, gossip, blasphemy, and profanity. All those sins affect the church and church testimony.
So if you know about it, we should start CD. When we know any brother/sister has such sins in his or her life, what should we do? Sadly, what people often do at this point is say, “Well, it’s really not any of my business. And besides, I’m not sure it would do any good to say anything anyway. To each his own.” Once we go and tell, they may tell us “you are perfect.” So why trouble? To do that would be to disobey the Lord, tolerate sin, and you also sin, because the very first command that He gives is “Go!” We are not to ignore the matter. We are not to just simply say, “It’s none of my business.” No, “this is truly my own business” which the Lord has given me.
The Manner of the First Step
First, Go. “Go,” present imperative. Get in motion. Pursue. The idea of the present imperative is the idea that you continue to go. Pursue this thing. Don’t allow any other thoughts to distract.
Go alone. Notice that Jesus is telling us that we are to go to them privately. This is where the fellow believer sees that his responsibility is not to embarrass the erring brother, but to “show him his fault in private.” No one else is to be involved. It is to be a conversation between ourselves and that sinning brother. You go alone. You know what our tendency is? As soon as you hear about somebody’s sin, tell everybody. “Did you hear about?” “Oh, it’s so sad. We’re praying [for] brother so-and-so.” You just start talking about it. You will create a situation which may make it impossible to ever have a meaningful relationship with that person.
Go alone and “show” that brother “his fault.” This assumes the best about our sinning brother, because on the one hand, our sinning brother may not even be aware that his fault is a sin at all. The verb, elenchō, means “to expose to the light.” Sin could have deceived and blinded him. Don’t go and just beat around the bush, speak generally. Specifically show him, hang in there until he really sees it. Show it to him so there’s no escaping it. You don’t just go and say, “Hey, you know, I haven’t seen you at church and I was just wondering are you drifting around?” No, just go, and confront, and make it clear, and open up the sin, and help them to see that sin. Expose it. Take the time and the effort that is needed.
“Show him his fault in private.” How is this accomplished? The best way is through the Scriptures. We are not to simply offer our personal preference for behavior, what we think is godly, and call upon another to practice it. We are bound to the Word of God. That is the basis for our exposing a fault. Of course, we might express how sin affects that particular individual and how it affects the entire church. The concerned brother must seek to lay out a biblical reason for correction.
It’s a difficult task. It’s a delicate task. It’s difficult with the people you know, because they know you, and when you go and start talking about their sin, they may have something to say to you. But this is a command. This isn’t a command for “pastors only.” This is a command from the Lord for every believer in His church to “Go.” This is the first step.
Now, that first step is the most important—and I would dare to say, the most neglected—of them all. But let’s assume that, in obedience, you have approached a brother or sister who is engaged in some sinful practice. Let’s suppose that you have come to them lovingly and clearly about the matter, have determined that you were correct—that there truly is a matter of sin in their life, and that you have shown them their fault.
And let’s further suppose that they “heard” you. They realized that they had sinned and they took immediate steps to make things right. If that happens, then praise God! It worked! Jesus says, “If he hears you, you have gained your brother” (v. 15).
That, after all, is the goal of this whole process—to win back a wandering brother! It was done in private; and so there’s no need to tell anyone else. You certainly don’t need to blab it to others and say, “Hey, praise God with me! I confronted ‘So and so’ about his sin; and he repented!” No one but you, that brother, and God, ever needs to know anything further about it. Most of the sins among a good, healthy church should be dealt with at this level and not go up. Repentance occurred, and the matter is over and done with!
This is a command from our Lord. The first step is “go alone and show him his sin.” So instead of bearing a grudge and becoming far in heart with that brother, you know what happens when you do this? There’s a marvelous union of two souls knit together, if you go in the right attitude. What kind of mindset should we go with? Here’s the right attitude:
Galatians 6:1: “If a man be overtaken in [a] fault, you who are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;” The first thing is meekness. You go in humility, realizing that it could be you, that you could have been tempted. You go privately with a genuine love, and show them their sin in a selfless manner, in love and humility. And if that person repents, you will have a bond of intimacy that nothing would ever be able to break. You go in meekness, and then it says you go bearing his burden and fulfilling the law of Christ. And what is the law of Christ? It’s the royal law, the law of liberty, the law of love. It’s the law of love. You don’t go in spiritual arrogance. You don’t go in a pious way. You don’t go in a self-righteous way. You don’t go for spite or vengeance. You go out of loving, humble care to bring him back, to restore him.
That’s how the intimacy in the body is protected. That’s how the secrecy in the body is protected. In gentleness, we are all same saved sinners. When we help another sinner to realize sin and repent, you have built in that one-to-one relationship a deep bond of commitment to one another.
You see an example in the NT when Paul confronted Peter in Galatians 2 because he was sinning by cutting himself off from the assembly of God’s people to identify with some legalizers when he was in Antioch. Galatians 2:11: “Peter was come to Antioch,” Paul says. “I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.” What was the result? Did Peter always hold a grudge against Paul? In 2 Peter, listen to what he says. 2 Peter 3:15: “Even as our beloved brother Paul.” Not meaninglessly, but real beloved. How did they get such a love bond? Probably because Paul was willing to confront him with his sin, cared enough, loved him enough, and there was born between those two men a wonderful bond of intimacy. You confront a person on a one-to-one and your hearts will knit together. So the first step is to stop all excuses. When you see a brother sinning continually, your responsibility is to go alone and show him his fault as the first step.
Step 2: Take Two or Three Witnesses
“So if he does not listen to you.” What if they say, “Mind your own business. I’m not doing anything to hurt you. I don’t really believe it’s a sin anyway.” If there’s a definite refusal to be convicted, if sin has hardened him more. It would be tempting in such a case to drop it. “I told him but he doesn’t listen, so may the Lord teach him the lesson, we will pray for him.” No, then we will be disobeying the Lord and sinning. We have to go to Step Two.
Verse 16: “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed.”
Generally, a saved man is not a perfect man without sin, but he is a repenting man. When someone shows him the sin, and he doesn’t listen to him, something is wrong. Maybe the sin has hardened him to an extent or he may not be a saved man.
Take two believers with you. This adds to the gravity of the situation, and the accountability called for to the erring brother. Now why have one or two more? Well, I think it intensifies the approach. It multiplies the caring concern, the love.
Bringing one or two other believers into the matter is important for two practical reasons. First, it may be that I myself—as the one bringing up the issue—am out of line. I may be making a serious “sin” out of something that is best simply covered with love; and I need the objectivity that another one or two believers may provide. It may be that, after hearing my concern, and then after hearing the response of the one I’m approaching, they can tell me that I’m in error and need to drop the matter.
If they also agree to come with me, in this way the one that has sinned realizes that it is not just the whim or narrowness or legalism of the first brother, as his pride might be accusing. There are others, just as concerned, just as broken and humbled over the sin, calling for repentance. Following the Old Testament pattern of “two or three witnesses,” there’s more certainty concerning the offense and the call to repent. The admonition of another one or two Christians may be what God uses to bring that sinning brother to repentance.
Secondly, it’s important for the practical reason that, if that sinning brother will not hear the combined admonition of myself and the two I bring with me, then those other two serve as a witness to every word that is said. This is in keeping with the Scripture, because our Lord quotes the Old Testament command from Deuteronomy 19:15: “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.”
This was for protection, so that no one was passing on slanderous information about anybody which was unconfirmed. There had to be the affirmation of two or three witnesses. These are not one or two people who saw the sin or who knew about the sin. They are witnesses of the confrontation who can come back and confirm the words that were spoken there. In other words, it is really as much a protection for the one being approached as it is the one approaching.
So that when a report goes to the next stage to the church, not perception, or rumors go, but actual facts. A brother who may been sinned against should not be a biased person who doesn’t say, “Well, I tried to confront him, but his [heart is] impenitent and his heart is hard. He never listens…” So to protect against that, you take one or two others who can witness the second confrontation. The man who refused to repent doesn’t come and say, “I repented with tears, but they unnecessarily told the church.” You have the witnesses to verify it beyond just the one individual. God is concerned with this. He doesn’t want wrong reports given of His people.
Hopefully when the two or three came and again the sin was exposed in the pleading to repent and turn from it and come back, hopefully he would respond. That’s the desire. If he didn’t, they would report, and he could never argue because there were two or three witnesses who can affirm it.
Now it may be that, over the passage of a few days, the sinning brother begins to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, begins to see the error of his ways, and then tells me and the others I brought with me, “You know what? You’re right. I have sinned; and I repent before the Lord. Would you all pray for me and help me to know what the Lord would have me do to make things right?“
And again, if that happens, praise God! It worked! You have won your brother; and there’s no need for it to go any further than that. No one else needs to know. (Can you see, by the way, how this would utterly defeat “gossip” in the church?)
You take a couple of people and the same objective in mind. You want to gain your brother. So you’re pursuing again. You’re going again. And the idea is to show him his sin, so that he really understands it.
In 2 Corinthians 13:1, it says, “This is the third time I am coming to you.” Paul is writing to the Corinthians. “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” Now he throws in that Deuteronomy 19:15 principle, and we know we’re in a discipline situation. “I told you before, and tell you beforehand, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them who heretofore have sinned, and to all others, that, if I come again, I will not spare.”
Now, what is he saying? “You that are sinning in the Corinthian assembly, I’ve told you once. I’ve told you twice. It has been confirmed—verse 1 says—in the mouth of two or three witnesses. And if I come and you still have not repented, I won’t spare the discipline.” There is an illustration where Paul calls the Corinthians to respond to the second approach to their sin, those that are sinning.
This is the second attack in the battle for this drifting brother or sister. So that next step is to take with you one or two witnesses.
Step 3: Tell It to the Church
Verse 17: “And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church;”
But let’s suppose that the sinning brother first refused to hear the one who approached him, and then refuses to hear the one or two others that were also brought into the matter. Once again, it would be tempting to drop the matter. But the Lord will not allow us to do so. Each time the matter moves up to the next stage, it becomes more serious. And so, Jesus next commands, “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church” (v. 17).
Here we realize that the final authority for disciplinary issues resides in the assembled church. What does it mean “tell it to [the] church”? Just get up on Sunday and announce it? The first step in telling it to the church is telling the leaders of the church. Because the Bible teaches that the Lord has established leaders to watch over and protect His church (Ephesians 4:11-12), the matter must first be brought to those leaders of the church. They need to speak to the one who is not hearing the admonition of these few individuals; and the leaders need to officially endorse that admonition, and lovingly and prayerfully add their own admonition to it. This would be a necessary first step in ‘telling it to the church,’ because it honors the role of the properly appointed church leaders.
And again, it may be that the sinning brother will hear the admonition of the leaders of the church and repent. And if that’s the case, praise God! It worked; and the restoration of a wandering brother can begin. But if he will not hear the leaders of the church, it’s the duty of the leaders to inform the church family at large.
Now this reveals a major problem with this person. This is an impenitent person, a stubborn sinning brother. We must tell the church. Tell it to the whole assembly. Now this may mean a public proclamation to everybody. It had been kept private up to that point; but now, it must be made public. Leaders announce it to the church. We may tell them in a members’ meeting or even a communion service, say “we are not giving communion to him.” Tell it to the church for what purpose? What is always the purpose of discipline? Restoration.
So what do you tell the church? “Church, go after them.” An individual went, no response. Two or three went, no response. Now we all go. That’s right and we just—we drown them. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Every detail doesn’t need to be shared. Only those things need to be shared that are necessary to accurately explain the nature of the sin, to show that private admonitions have not to this point been “heard” by the sinning brother, and that the church family at large must now call this individual to repentance.
The Constitution talks about three steps: Public reproof, suspension, and finally excommunication.
Elders may use, firstly, Public reproof consists of a pastoral effort, before the gathered church, to call an impenitent church member to repentance for sin too blatant to be dealt with in an exclusively private manner; or to deal with serious sin even where there may have been repentance. The elders may administer public censure whenever in their judgment either public misconduct (Galatians 2:11-14; 1 Timothy 5:20), patterns of sin (Titus 1:12-13), or serious doctrinal error (Titus 1:10-13) pose a significant threat to the godliness, unity, or testimony of the congregation. Those who humbly receive the word of public reproof, own and confess their sin, and manifest a transformed life (Proverbs 28:13) will afterward be publicly commended for their godly repentance (2 Corinthians 7:7-11). If the reproof is not heeded, further discipline may be imposed.
Again, it may be that the Holy Spirit would use the loving but resolute admonition of the church family at large to move the sinning brother to clear, public repentance. And again, if that happens, praise God! A brother has been won! A wandering sheep has been restored to the fold. The matter can then be considered over; and the healing process can begin. Telling the church broadens the scope of influence and loving pressure to bear upon the sinning brother. If he responds, then the whole church rejoices, forgives, and restores the brother to fellowship with the church.
This is what happened in the Corinthian church. First letter, listening to Paul’s rebuke in 1 Corinthians, the whole church disciplines a sinning brother in adultery. In 2 Corinthians 2:5, we see him repenting, and Paul telling the church “you should forgive him—now he has repented of his sin.” And then he says in Verse 8, “confirm your love to him.”
Now here’s the case where the whole church knew, and the whole church went and disciplined, and apparently the guy responded, and he says, “Now that he’s responded, don’t let him stay out there. Don’t hold him far because of what he did. You embrace him again, and you forgive him, and you love him.“
So Step One is to go privately and show him, Step Two is to take two or three witnesses, then Step Three is to tell it to the church.
Step 4: Treat Him as a Heathen and a Tax Collector
It’s after Step One, it’s after Step Two, and it’s after Step Three. If he doesn’t hear the whole church. But what if they don’t respond? If, as sadly sometimes happens, the sinning person refuses to hear even the church, then there is one more step that must be taken. It ceases at that point to be a matter of calling a sinning brother to repentance, and now becomes a matter of protecting the spiritual health and moral purity of the church body. Jesus says, “And if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (v. 17).
The word translated “heathen” is the same as the word for “Gentile.” To the Jewish disciples to whom Jesus spoke, this would speak of someone who was ‘outside’ of the relationship that God has with His covenant people. This would mean that this person would have to be considered, at that point, to be “unsaved” and outside of Jesus’ saving grace.
But then, Jesus goes on to say that this person is to be considered as “a tax collector.” In the Jewish mind, this would mean more than just a common sinner. In the Jewish mind, a tax collector would be someone who was a very hardened, notorious sinner—worse than a Gentile, a traitor to his own people who sold himself to Rome and collected taxes from his own people to give to the Roman government. He was not only an outcast by birth, he was an outcast by choice. He had defected to the enemy. This suggests that, when someone makes the profession to be a follower of Jesus, but who refuses to turn away from sin even when the church calls them to, then they have placed themselves in a category of sinfulness that is very sinful and very dangerous to the body. Matthew must have shed tears for the grace of God, realizing how worst a sinner like him God saved.
It’s a horrible thing to officially declare someone to be “outside of the body,” outside the covenant. But when it is necessary for the protection of the body, it is something that the church must do. This is why this command from the Lord is like the “immune system” of the body. It identifies and deals with that which would, otherwise, cause untold harm to the church.
Refusal to heed the voice of the church as it exercises its corporate priesthood calls for the extreme censure of treating one that had been known as a brother as an unbeliever. He is refused the privileges of church membership. His baptism is not recognized, nor is he admitted to the Lord’s Table. The aim of such strong censures is quite clear: to bring grief upon the erring brother so that he might repent of his sin and be restored to the Body of Christ. Or, if he has never been saved, he might turn to Christ.
Our constitution has two steps here. If he doesn’t respond to public censure, then he is temporarily suspended from church privileges—communion, fellowship. Sins it lists are: 1) A Stubborn Private Offender, 2) Divisive Teaching or Behavior, 3) Disorderly Behavior (2 Thessalonians 3:6-15) which is a disregard for the order appointed by God for all mankind in the creation ordinances, namely, work, Sabbath, and marriage. 4) A Scandalous Sin (no first step, second step required; the church may directly suspend). 5) Contempt of Church Discipline (If a person is accused or suspected of a sin requiring corrective discipline, yet absents himself from the meetings of the church, or refuses to meet with the elders so that the matter may be investigated, such a person may be suspended).
Then, if there is no repentance after suspension, we remove him from church membership.
But I would add that, when it is found that this must be done, it should always be done with prayer for the one who is thus considered “outside of the body.” It may still be that God would work repentance in them. And if they sincerely repent and turn back to Jesus, they should be warmly forgiven and eagerly welcomed back into the fold.
So we have seen four steps. What happens when the whole process is unproductive? Put them out. Put them out of the fellowship. Put them out of the assembly. Don’t let them associate. Don’t let them have the blessings and the benefits of the gathered church. We will see what a terrible punishment this is.
The Bible calls it in 1 Corinthians 5:4: “delivering one unto Satan.” It is sometimes done during the Lord’s Supper. No longer can they fellowship here. No longer can they know the blessedness of God’s people, the sanctifying grace of the assembly of His chosen ones if they are to live in continued sin. You turned them out, “delivering them to Satan.” And putting them out, they may go even down deeper in sin and in the trap of Satan. And you have to do it. Verse 6 says, “because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven.”
In 1 Timothy 1:20, Paul says, “I took Hymenaeus and Alexander and turned them over to Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme.” That’s remedial training. They needed to learn. They needed to get fully into the consequence of their sin. What happens, you see, is when you put someone out, the sanctifying graces of God’s assembly are no longer there, and they’re left without that thing, and when they don’t have it at all and they can’t get near it at all, then they begin to think about how much it really meant to them. You understand that?
But if a person can have the people of God, and the blessings of the church of God, and be accepted and have his sin, too, they may continue longer in their sin. Putting them out: “It’s either the world and the Devil or the people of God and God, not both. Not both.”
2 Thessalonians 3:6 speaks to this same issue. “We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition in which he received of us.” The word “withdraw” means “to flinch” or “avoid.” You avoid them. You don’t let them in your fellowship. You don’t let them in your assembly. You don’t let them in your communion. You don’t let them have that sanctifying grace that comes from Christ to his gathered church. Leave him to his shame. Leave him to his sin.
When you put a person out, you put them out. You don’t have them over for a meal. You don’t treat them like a brother. You treat them like an outcast. You put them out. Why? Hoping he may repent and come back. 2 Thessalonians 3:15 says, “Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” And so there’s a sense in which you never really let him go. You put him out of the association, but you keep calling them back.
Now, when you get to this point in the text, you’re saying to yourself, “Boy, this is heavy stuff. I mean, this is heavy. Who am I to do this?” You want to know what your authority is? And this is absolutely shocking. We will see what is the absolute epitome of this whole passage as to why we should do this.
So we have seen how to do CD in four steps.
Applications: Authority and Accountability
The Importance of Church Membership
The first implied lesson: Do you see the importance of church membership?
Many people question the validity of constituted church membership since the word “membership” is not used in the New Testament. “Why should I be a member? I believe in Jesus and Jesus loves.” “All who come [are] members, all brothers. Why is church membership needed?” This whole passage is meaningless without constituted church membership. If you are a believer and not a member of a constituted church, you are living in disobedience to Christ, and that is sin. The entire NT is written, all the epistles are written to the church, and doesn’t apply to any believer who lives outside the church.
But this is a clear illustration of what we term “church membership.” It is a “brother,” which in this case is not simply a Jewish term. The context of the second use of the word “church” helps to define it as a fellow member of the church. If there is no constituted membership system like us, with membership privileges and discipline, what effect does it have to “tell it to the church” if a person does not belong to that body and have regular accountability in membership?
The Process of Discipline
Do we see the importance and process of church discipline?
Christ has not appointed any committee, bishop, or synod above us. He is the direct head of the church, and he wanted us to be a self-disciplining body, and the responsibility for that is on each one of us.
Every member is subject to the discipline of the body. We are in Formative Discipline (FD) and Corrective Discipline (CD). In FD, all of us are being regularly disciplined by the preaching and teaching of the Word, and by the exhortations that we receive from one another. That’s part of discipline in the church, and a much-needed practice for every one of us! We are doing that regularly.
But we are so disobedient in CD. When we see someone wrong, we need to follow these four steps. Be a church that practices CD. The whole church participates in discipline. Jesus Christ designed His church that way, so we must understand the place that each of us has in helping the church to be a self-disciplining body. “The continuity of the church depends as much on discipline as on truth,” wrote Don Carson.
So let us learn from this that each of us has a responsibility to help in maintaining the body’s purity in doctrine, relationship, and morals. May the Lord grant us much grace in being faithful members of the Body of Christ.
Church discipline in the ultimate form of removing someone is something that we hope we don’t have to apply. If we all respond to the gracious, humble discipline that individual members apply out of concern for patterns of sin in our lives, then the ultimate discipline is never needed.
Confessing Neglect
Let us recognize our guilt and confess our failure in not obeying this.
Some of the brothers you may know would have fallen in sin and terribly went away. Some of them I know have gone that way. Examining my heart, I asked “How many people that I know who drifted away into sin and I’ve lost them, because I didn’t follow up on Step One, or having gone to Step One and I said, “They’re not going to repent.” And maybe went to Step Two and then just tried to let it go.”
And you hear people say, “Oh well, they’re gone. They were never much help anyway,” or all kinds of things. The point being, if a brother drifts away into sin, you go. You just don’t let that happen. If you don’t see them or if you know something’s wrong in their life, you go and then you take somebody, and then we need to tell everybody to go. We just go with pursuing, meek love, calling them back from sin, calling them back to the fellowship.
If they come or maybe I meet them, it has been so many years, I would say, “I sinned against you. I failed you to love you. And I failed you because I didn’t pursue you. I let you go. I failed you, and I failed the Lord in that.“
Now this isn’t the task of one person. We don’t have one person who is in charge of this. It is everyone’s responsibility. You know why the Pastor’s name is mentioned? This kind of discipline also applies to pastors. 1 Timothy 5:19-20 says that elders are to be disciplined the same way. Any accusation against them should be confirmed in the mouth of “two or three witnesses,” says Paul to Timothy. And when they sin, they are to be rebuked before all that others may fear, so that others won’t follow the same sinning pattern because they’ll know of the public consequences.
Are we doing that as a church? Do you know of somebody that you need to go after? Maybe somebody’s gone after. The whole church ought to go. If you know about it, you ought to go. Maybe just send a WhatsApp message, a phone call. Maybe you see them, and you’re bold enough to confront them.
So, when they fall into sin, the pattern is set in motion. One goes, two or three go, then we all go. We all go pursuing them. We all go wanting to restore them.
What Church Discipline Tells the World
Finally, the world will hear our actions more than words. When we take CD seriously and implement it as the Bible commands, you know what we will be telling to the world?
1. We show the gospel truth in action that Jesus Christ came to save us from sins. We make it evident that only those who walk in visible holiness are saved by him and only those are allowed in our church. The church is a congregation of saints, set apart unto God, raised from the dead, indwelt by the HS, who have dominion over sin, born again, and sanctified. If that is the church, if there is a man or a woman who is deliberately, willfully, in spite of repeated admonitions, walking in the path of stubborn sinfulness, blatant disobedience, by letting that person remain in the church, what are we telling the world? We are saying the church is not only a group of holy and sanctified people, obedient, but also a proper place for the unholy, rebellious, proud, and deviant. The Church breaks the 9th commandment, “Thou shall not bear false witness,” when it allows continual sinning members and no visible holiness. He spreads a lie that one can be on his way to heaven without any holiness in life and obedience. Regeneration always results in holiness, 1 John keeps repeating that. It leads to obedience. When the church allows continually sinning members and visibly no holiness, in spite of admonishment, continuing to sin, we are overturning the gospel. The Gospel that calls men to repentance doesn’t bring repentance. Jesus Christ really doesn’t save people from sins and make them holy. God who elects those in eternity, doesn’t sanctify them in life. The Gospel has no power to make men holy, so we allow them. Oh, we will be cursed if that is what we are giving the world. May God give us boldness to practice righteous self-discipline in order to make it evidence and preach by actions that Jesus Christ really saves people from their sins and they live holy lives among us. Those who walk in holiness have grounds to call others to faith.
2. We make it clear only those who believe truth are children of God. When those who hold false teaching, we shouldn’t allow them to be part of our members. “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth, and [the] truth will set you free.” In order to be saved, we need to know the truth and live by the truth. Only truth can sanctify us. Error will take you to hell. We keep members who believe false teaching in membership. We are telling lies to the world. If there is no discipline on those who hold false teaching, it tells the world “You can believe lies and then go to heaven.”
3. The Church creates by CD a holy fear among members to keep them in the way of holiness. 1 Timothy says “rebuke those who sin [that] others may fear.” 2 Corinthians 7:11 shows CD what it produced in your church: “For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.” It produces holy fear.
4. It creates holy caution for those who are outside who may be thinking [of] joining the church. A church anyone can join is not worth joining. Acts says when God himself did CD and fear came on everyone, no one dared joined them, but next verse says the Lord added those who were being saved. One of the effects of CD, it creates holy caution. “Those people are committed to a life of holiness and truth. If I go astray, they will discipline me. Wait a minute, let me be careful not to join any other reason than I believe all my heart that I am a saved person, to commit myself to live according to the truth.”
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 