Church Discipline

Berean Baptist on February 24, 2020

            In our study of the Laodicean church, I have used a word that sounds scary to some. It conjures up thoughts of church councils, trials, judgment, and torture. The word is discipline.We speak of discipling our children and most of the time we mean we have given them some sort of punishment to modify their behavior. This is not the way the Bible uses the term.

            Discipline is related to disciple which in its verb form means to teach. In the noun form, it is a person who is taught. The purpose of discipline is to instruct and to correct through instruction. It does not need to be considered a form of punishment.

            As it concerns the Laodicean church, the counsel the Lord gave them was not punishment but an appeal for them to change their ways and to receive Him back into the church. This is always the goal of discipline. It is to restore to fellowship and to bring us back into harmony with the Lord and our fellow church members. Thus, discipline is not considered punitive but formative.

            We become confused about discipline when it must be stepped up to the next level. Sometimes we must protect the church by removing members that are involved in serious sins. We always remember that each of us is sinful, but there are some sins that are categorized as too harmful to the testimony of the body to let them go unanswered. These offenders must have their membership rescinded until they repent of their sin. There is no greater temporal judgment we can pass than to remove someone from fellowship.

            We learn this biblical and effective method from Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 5. A man in the church was guilty of a sexual sin and had to be removed. Paul was concerned about the reproach on the name of Christ and how it would harm the church’s testimony. Later in 2 Corinthians, we learn the discipline worked. The man repented and was restored to fellowship. This is the expected result when a believer is confronted with his sin. If he does not repent as a response to this serious action, we are to assume he is an unbeliever. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to draw His people to Him. If this does not happen, what are we to assume but that they do not belong to Christ?

            Removing members for sexual sins should not be a point of contention between us. The scriptures are clear what needs to be done. However, some offenses may not seem as serious, but they too warrant excisive discipline. We remove members for non-attendance which is often seen as an inconsequential action. It is merely procedural and does not carry the same weight as removal for other reasons. Is this true? I do not believe so.

The reason for removal does not change the eternal weight of the Lord’s most important institution. Non-attendance shows contempt for the Lord’s work. This contempt is also a sign of unbelief. We cannot love Christ if we do not love His church. The church is not helped by members that do not attend. Often, they are involved in a deep sin that we are not aware.

Our duty is to protect our church. The Lord expects the purity of the body. Therefore, we will follow the instructions in the Bible. When we obey, we reflect the proper understanding of discipline. Christ wants only dedicated people in His church, and so do we.

                                                                        Pastor V. Mark Smith

Closed Communion

Berean Baptist on May 21, 2018

In thinking of the Lord’s Supper, I am prompted to regard the great privilege we have of being a part of the Lord’s church. The Supper is one of two ordinances Christ gave the church and both are observed only by those who are born again believers. The first ordinance is baptism which is a response of the believer’s obedience to show publicly he has committed his life to Christ. Baptism is an outward expression of an inward change. It occurs before church membership but is closely connected to it as it is the door of admittance into church relationship. As such, it is prerequisite to both membership and participation in the Supper. Most Christians have no problems with this order since it is clearly shown to be apostolic in Acts chapter 2.

However, when it comes to the privilege of taking the Supper, many churches stray from the biblical precedent by allowing unconverted, unbaptized people to partake of the precious symbolic elements of Christ’s body and blood. This is a more modern practice among evangelicals that is one of the most egregious violations of church order that is observed today. Although it is becoming more common, there are still good churches that are careful to avoid this as best they can.

We believe the Bible provides a better solution to the problem and one that is more doctrinally correct. The scriptures teach a more restricted communion than to limit it to baptized believers. The scriptural precedent is to drill down further to restrict the communion to members of the local body. In addition to salvation, baptism, and church membership, the further requirement is for the participant to be a member of the particular New Testament church body that is observing the Supper. Due to space and time, let me only briefly explain why this is true using only one argument.

The argument comes from Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church regarding church discipline. The apostle enjoined the church that no one should take the Supper unworthily, meaning the church should do its best to ensure there were no open sins and as much as possible no hidden sins that would hinder fellowship with the Lord. In the case of the Corinthian church, there was open sin described in 1 Corinthians 5, a sin bad enough that Paul said even heathen idolaters knew better. Paul commanded the church to withdraw fellowship from the man who sinned until he was brought to repentance. Specifically, the church was commanded not to permit him or others that were guilty of offenses to come to the Supper (1 Cor. 5:11).

The withdrawal of fellowship in church discipline indicates that all who are permitted to partake of the Supper must be under the jurisdiction of the church. If a person is not a member of the church, there is no enforcement mechanism against him for his sin. We cannot withdraw fellowship from someone who is not in the body and neither are we apprised of their particular lifestyle and qualifications as we are those who are regular participants in our fellowship and activities (1 Cor. 5:12-13). The purpose of church discipline is first of all formative rather than punitive to help a person realize the need of repentance.

The practice of restricted communion, also known as closed communion, is not a judgment of the spiritual condition of any person who is not a member of this church. We have many friends that are good Christians from other churches and some who are denominationally different. We do not doubt their salvation. We simply believe in New Testament church order. The Supper is the Lord’s table not ours, so we only invite those in the same intimate fellowship that Christ and the apostles practiced. We have no more right to change the scriptural precedent in the Supper than we do to change the ordinance of baptism.

Our position is not meant to be offensive to anyone and does not make us better than any others. We are all sinners saved by God’s grace. We desire to honor Him in the best ways we know how.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Legalism vs. Discipline

Berean Baptist on November 13, 2017

Recently I read an article that was helpful for those who misunderstand the dichotomy of legalism and discipline for Christians. As you know, I decided long ago as the pastor of Berean not to adhere to a lengthy list of rules that are enforced by the “holier than thou committee.” Many churches use rules to sit in judgment of others’ Christianity. Legalism is a theological issue in these churches and often they do not understand they are legalists.

Strictly speaking, legalism is the belief that salvation is obtained by keeping commandments (rules), or in other words that we are justified by works rather than by faith. This strict definition causes many legalists to say they are not legalists because they would never teach that salvation is by any other means than grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

However, a broader definition is needed because legalism also concerns an inordinate preoccupation with the Law. Legalism may be defined as “excessive adherence to law or formula.” This is where many churches fall into legalism. Their issue is not usually justification but sanctification. Unfortunately, these two doctrines are often blended until unbiblically, sanctification becomes justification. These churches become excessive and insistent about rules for the membership to follow. This definition of legalism must be resisted as much as the other.

We have our own problems to deal with in this area, and my purpose is not to throw stones at those we disagree with. Our problem is not legalism—it is lack of discipline. In our efforts to combat legalism, many have fallen away from good Christian discipline. Discipline may be defined as “activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training.” As the author of this article said, “The danger of confusing the two [legalism and discipline] is that we can lose the important spiritual disciplines which are crucial to our growth, sanctification, protection, and intimacy with Christ.”

This author did not address personal appearance issues but went on to describe other spiritual disciplines that are not optional if a person wants to grow in his walk with the Lord. These are extremely important, and we discussed those things in our Living for Jesus series. I want to turn our attention instead to the issue of how we appear to others.

How we dress is also a spiritual discipline. The teaching of our testimony before the world in all its facets forms an integral part of New Testament instructions for Christian living. How we appear can cause instant formation of opinions, and whether it is right or wrong to form an opinion of someone merely by the way they dress is immaterial to its being a fact of life we must live with. We have few opportunities to sit down with people to explain what we believe. The limited amount of information someone knows about you—who you are and what you are in their minds—is communicated instantly through your appearance. An unkempt appearance, sloppiness, even the wrong swagger evokes its assessments. A clean-cut conservative appearance does the same. We tend to form good opinions of the latter and poor opinions of the former.

Likewise, assessments of moral values are made by appearance. Provocative clothing does not speak a character of godliness. It characterizes the wearer as conforming to the purpose of modern fashion, which is to entice, exude sexiness, and invite the onlooker’s inspection. We can make all the excuses we want, but we can never escape that exposing the body invites examination of things which should never be seen.

What is my point? Disciplining ourselves in appearance is godly and expected. We cannot justify our resistance to legalism by developing habits that kill our influence for Christ. Think about the testimony of your appearance wherever you are. From what I see inside in our church services, more personal discipline is needed, which no doubt means it is needed much more outside among those who do not know us personally.

Personal appearance is not all there is to godliness, but surely it has its important part to play.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Church Discipline

Berean Baptist on March 16, 2015

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. [2] Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)

 

The subject of church discipline is so foreign to many Christians that they do not recognize the terminology and have no understanding of what we mean by it. The reason for this is the utter neglect of churches to practice one of the beginning principles Jesus taught the early church. I find it remarkable that in Matthew’s Gospel there are only three direct references to the church. Two of these are in Matthew 18:17 which deal with the subject of church discipline. I do not think we can escape the conclusion of the importance of the topic.

If you do not know what is meant by church discipline, the easiest definition I can give relates to the holiness of the Lord’s church. The church of Christ is a group of baptized believers that are bound by the commandments of Christ and have covenanted together to do God’s work. Primarily, this work is to uphold the truth of God’s word and to evangelize the world for Christ. Included in this commitment to do the Lord’s work, is the agreement for each member to be held accountable to the standard of righteousness set by the Lord Himself. Anything that has God’s sanction must reflect the character of our holy and righteous God. Therefore, God expects His people to live lives of purity and holiness.

Scripture refers to the church as the body of Christ. The metaphor of a human body is used to show how closely connected we are to each other in that every action we perform has an effect on the entire body. Once we become members of the body, we are not free to act independently of each other. The sin of any member of the church is a reflection on all the other members and is a reproach upon the name of Christ. In order to protect the reputation of the church and the name of Christ, we are commanded to carefully watch the activities of each member to be sure they promote rather than retard God’s work. While church discipline is good for the entire body, we must also understand it is best for the individual. The goal is that every member would enjoy the blessings of obedience. We never discipline to harm but to enhance the fellowship each member can have with the body and with Christ. In short, discipline preserves the purity of the body.

Despite the obvious critical mandate for discipline, the numbers of churches that practice any kind of discipline are very few and far between. It is supposed that church members will not tolerate the intrusion of scrutiny in their lives. I find this to be a completely bogus claim, for if a person is yielded to the Holy Spirit, he desires intimacy with the Lord that can only be achieved by obedience. Nothing could be desired more than to have fellow believers in Christ faithfully warn when they see them going astray. The Holy Spirit led person wants all gracious influences to be employed to keep them in the fellowship of the Spirit. If this is not the desire of the church member, do we or Christ desire them to be a part of the body? The Matthew passage clearly says those that walk disorderly and refuse the correction of the church are to be treated as unbelievers. This is critical because only truly regenerated believers are eligible for church membership.

There is much to be said on this subject and it is not something we can choose to ignore. To do so is to defile the body of Christ with sin. Please carefully consider the responsibility placed on every member. We are to guard against sin in our lives and to lovingly guard against it in the lives of others (Gal 6:1-2).

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith