DISCIPLINE
Forgotten or Ignored?
by: Ivie Powell
Why is it that 50% of marriages end in divorce after the first two years? Why does one abandon their mate and children for someone else? Why are we seeing a sky rocketing drug problem in this country? Why do we see so many young people excel in sports, but fail in their school work? why are we seeing an increase in rape, pedophiles, and incest as never before in society? The answer is a lack of discipline! Life evolves around discipline. Whether it is losing weight, training for the Olympics, growth of a business, training animals, the home, or running the government, all have a common denominator and that is discipline! Without the proper kind of discipline, individually and collectively, we will be destroyed!!!
The same is true when it comes to the Christian growing spiritually. Living for the Lord requires constant vigilance, lest we depart from the Lord. "Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:12-13).
In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul list the "works of the flesh" (5:1), and concludes, "...of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (5:21). In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul told them, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?..." (1 Corinthians 6:9) and proceeds to list specific sins. To the Colossians he wrote, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth..." (Colossians 3:5), and as he did in the Galatian and Corinthian epistles, list several specific sins and reminds them, "For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience" Colossians 3:6). He then tells them what to "put off" and what to "put on" (Colossians 3:8-14). Now all of this requires discipline on the part of the child of God. If he does not discipline himself, he will return to the way of life he once lived and unless he repents and returns to the Lord, he will lose his immortal soul!
Some questions for your careful and prayerful consideration are in order.
One would have to be completely ignorant or dishonest to deny that the Scriptures teach preventive and corrective discipline! Scholars are unanimous in agreeing that discipline is a prominent teaching of the New Testament church. The late Thomas B. Warren said, "Churches which fail in this point will fail in their mission of saving souls by 'holding forth the word of life...' Failure to purge out sins leads to a toleration of sin. Toleration of sin leads to a love of sin. Love of sin leads to a practice of sin. This Christ will not tolerate."
Another prominent Gospel preacher of the past, Guy N. Woods, wrote, "Notwithstanding the laxity that presently obtains in local congregations, the exercise of the discipline of heretics and every other kind of sinful conduct is no obscure teaching but clearly and pointedly enjoined in the Scriptures..."
Still another voice from the past, G. C. Brewer said,
"The Lord desires that his church be a pure church - without spot, wrinkle, blemish, or any such thing...It is unthinkable that Christ will own his bride if she become unchaste, plays the harlot after the world, and has her affections taken away from Christ and set on things of the earth...If a congregation permits impure individuals to remain unchastened within its fellowship, it thereby becomes a partaker of their sin and will soon so far drift out of the favor of the Lord that the candlestick will be removed." ("Withdraw Yourselves" A Study of Church Discipline, James Meadows, pp. 11-12).
Why do parents discipline children? Isn't it because they truly love them? In fact, a failure on the part of the parents to properly discipline their children indicates hate, not love! "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24). The Hebrew writer informs us that the Lord chastens us because He loves us. "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Hebrews 12:5-6). The writer goes on to say that the Lord's chastening is, "...for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness" (Hebrews 12:10).
Whenever a brother or sister in Christ, after much patience and pleading, will not repent of their sinful walk of life, the elders out of deep love for their soul, as well as the congregation, will lead the congregation in withdrawing fellowship from them in hope that they will repent and return to the Lord. Notice what Paul said to the Corinthians, "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Corinthians 5:4-5).
One must remember that the purpose of withdrawing fellowship is:
While it is certainly not pleasant to practice church discipline, it is necessary to please the Lord and to keep the saved, saved! While there will always be opposition from weak, ignorant, unconverted, and worldly members, we must have a greater love and fear for God than man (Acts 5:29)!!! Our submission or lack thereof to the elders (Hebrews 13:7, 17) in leading the congregation in this Scriptural practice indicates to the Lord how much we truly love Him, the one or ones in sin, and the church!!!