No one like’s to be told they made a mistake! No one really enjoys the prospect of being held accountable for something they did, but don’t think it’s all that big a deal. It’s human nature to resist discipline.
Trials, mistakes and yes that infernal three-letter word... sin, are a fact of life in a fallen world. How we respond to what comes from being caught in sin is our choice. A personal choice. A person when confronted with sin, responds with anger, resentment and pride.
Nothing breaks my heart more than to hear someone who is caught in a sin, usually a serious sin, say they won’t be coming to church anymore because they feel as if the churches discipline is unfair and unwarranted. Like... "what's the big deal?"
Unfortunately, many Christians have allowed their perception of discipline to turn them away from God. How a person responds is critical. Turning away from God because you made a mistake doesn’t make God nonexistent. Leaving the fellowship of a church family that loves you and wants to restore your relationship with God does not solve your problem. God has and always will be the final and absolute authority on all matters of human life. Whether you like his program for human life or not, it is wise not to rebel against it.
How you respond to God, the people of His Church and pastoral counsel to help you overcome sinful conduct largely depends on how you see yourself in a family environment. The word “submit” grates on many souls. Secular psychologists say that those who grew up in dysfunctional homes have a problem with authority figures and don’t easily “submit” to anyone.
Psychologists will urge submission averse people to respond to an authority figure by being disagreeable, so as to assert their own individuality and personal authority. In the Church, discipline for serious sin is administered by Holy Spirit appointed older men, elders or pastors, who try their very best not to hurt or shame anyone. That said, sin does have consequences and they are simply following God’s biblically prescribed ways for restoring a sinner to God’s grace.
For spiritual shepherds protecting the Church is paramount as they deal with sin. Everything they do must bring glory to God and enhance the testimony of the flock. They must seek to restore, heal, and build up sinning believers, doing so according to God’s ways. (Matt. 18:15; 2 Thess. 3:14-15; Heb. 12:10-13; Gal. 6:1-2; Jam. 5:20; 2 Tim. 2:24-26). They desire to produce a healthy faith, one sound in doctrine for all members of the flock. (Titus 1:13; 1 Tim. 1:19-20). (2 Tim. 2:24-26). While never pleasant, corrective discipline of sinners silences false teachers and their influence in the church (Titus 1:10-11). Shepherds must set an example for the rest of the body and promote godly fear by their actions with a sinner (1 Tim. 5:20).
Discipline for sin sounds more harsh than it really is. God’s loves us like a father and is only trying to help us grow in holiness. Listen to what Hebrews says... And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12: 5–11)
I suppose it would be much easier if God himself came down to earth and administered spiritual discipline every time we needed it, but that’s not the way He works. Listen to the writers of Hebrews and Proverbs on how God expects discipline to be lovingly administered...
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Hebrews 13:17 (ESV)
My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. Proverbs 3:11-12 (NIV)
God uses discipline as a last resort. If all God needed to justify mankind to himself was a bigger cattle-prod, then Christ died for nothing! No, God's plan for the earth is love first, discipline when needed.
To get us to listen and repent of sin, God will use deep conviction, the rebuke of friends, coincidental sermons, the quickening of Scripture, and every other means before disciplining us. But if we resist God's mercy, we are promised the rod of correction. Never forget... it’s His discipline not man’s. When God disciplines, the punishment fits the crime. Time and again, we realize that we cannot get away with unrepentant sin. God is sculpting us into holy vessels, and the process can at times... be painful. "Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal." Job 5:17-18 (NIV)
Though church discipline is a very difficult area of doctrine and one hard to practice, it nevertheless rests upon the divine authority of Scripture and is vital to the purity, power, progress, purpose and holiness of the church. The responsibility and necessity for discipline is not an option for the church if it obeys the Word of God, but a church must be equally concerned that Scripture is carefully followed in the practice of church discipline. Again, older men – spiritual shepherds, are administering God’s discipline, not their own.
Sin in the life of the church grieves the person of the Holy Spirit and extinguishes His power. If sin remains unchecked by the loving application of church discipline in a body of believers, the Holy Spirit will abandon such a church to its own carnal resources. The unavoidable result will be the loss of the Lord’s blessing until the sin is dealt with.
When we know certain sinful things exist but ignore them or simply look the other way because it is difficult to deal with or because it involves one of our friends and we do not want to risk causing problems in the relationship... we are mocking the Holy God.
When we know certain sinful things exist but ignore them or simply look the other way because it is difficult to deal with or because it involves one of our friends and we do not want to risk causing problems in the relationship... we are mocking the Holy God.
As His ambassadors to a lost and dying world, God has called the church to be a holy people, a people who, standing out as distinct from the world, proclaim the excellencies of the works of God in Christ (1 Pet. 1:14-16; 2:9-15). If this is to occur, we must be different from the world and church discipline helps us to both remember and maintain that purpose.
One of the recurring criticisms against the church today as evidenced in various polls taken across the country, is the fact there is little or no difference between the church and the secular world when it comes to attitudes, values, morals, and lifestyle.
A church that is reluctant to practice church discipline will see its ministry and purpose decline. The church may want to grow and reach out and it may try all kinds of stop gap measures, promotional campaigns, and programs in an attempt to turn things around, but if there is sin in the camp, it will all be to no avail. Revelation 2:5 and 3:16 offer illustrations of this principle.
Church discipline is vital to the purity of the local body and its protection from moral decay and impure doctrinal influences. Why? Because a little leaven leavens the entire lump (1 Corinthians 5:6-7).
Remember the church at Corinth. They showed a serious lack of concern for purity. They neglected the responsibility to discipline and suffered as a result. Their insensitivity to one moral issue may have led to their compromise on other issues. The Corinthians engaged in lawsuits, misused their liberty, profaned the Lord’s Supper, neglected the primacy of love, failed to regulate the use of their gifts, and questioned the resurrection. Failure in church discipline in Corinth could be compared to a lump of unattended leaven that caused numerous problems for the flock.
Facing up to one’s personal sin and how it will affect other Christians is not easy. Compound that by facing God’s discipline in the presence of your church family... well, that just might be one of the toughest challenges anyone will ever face.
Take heart and remember this... God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His Holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time its necessary. It can’t be anything but painful and humiliating. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who allow themselves to be trained by it. So it is written for our edification...
"...My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." Hebrews 12:5-6 (NIV)
