DISCIPLINE – PART 2

CHURCH DISCIPLINE

The church is basically a large family, and each believer is a member. The nature of the church - a community intended to reflect YHVH’s Character in the faith, worship, and lives of its members-makes it different from all other social groups. At the same time, the church is called to be an open and concerned community, reaching out compassionately to needy, sinful human beings. Believer’s lifestyles must clearly differ from pagan lifestyles and that difference often creates a barrier between non-believers and believers. The church, therefore, has a responsibility not to place any obstacles between itself and unbelievers except when Scripture requires us to. All of this puts the church in a difficult position between YHVH and the world. Without a careful balance, a church can easily become overly strict or overly permissive. By imposing scriptural discipline on its members, the church can keep itself from going too far in either direction. The Scriptures provide the church with more than enough guidance on this matter -- see Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 6:9-11; Ephesians 4:25-32; 5:1-21; Colossians 3:5-11 -- but church members must always remember not to confuse Biblical rules with cultural rules. For instance, though drunkenness is forbidden in the New Testament, there is no scriptural Law against drinking wine. Unfortunately, some believers have assumed, because they grew up among people who oppose alcohol, that drinking is a sin - a position that the Bible does not support. They make a -bigger deal- out of drinking than is necessary. The New Testament, recognizing that conflict sometimes occurs between believer’s liberty and believer’s responsibility, gives guidelines for resolving these kinds of conflicts -- 1 Corinthians 8. Church discipline should be consistent. It should oppose the subtle, invisible sins of attitude and more obvious sins with the same severity. For example, the church should discipline gossip or materialism as well as sexual immorality or murder. The New Testament condemns immorality, murder, and drunkenness, but also envy, jealousy, anger, selfishness, complaining, and criticism. All sin keeps us from entering the Kingdom of YHVH -- Galatians 5:19-21. Unbelievers are often made to feel unwelcome in the church because of minor issues such as smoking or drinking, while church members are allowed to continue gossiping, complaining, and being selfish even though the Bible condemns these sins with much more energy than it does drunkenness. The New Testament describes the way church discipline should be done -- Matthew 18:15-18; 1 Corinthians 5:3-13; Galatians 6:1. Offenders should first be approached and admonished privately. If they refuse to repent or mend their ways, the case should be presented before the leadership of the church and then, if necessary, before the whole congregation. If offenders continue in their error, they should be excluded from the church, not out of cruelty but with the hope that this punishment will bring them to repentance and restoration -- 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15. YHVH’s Love, as the Bible describes it and as Yeshua exemplifies it, is intended to teach all people how to live. Those who ignore the Promises YHVH makes to the faithful will encounter YHVH’s Discipline, but believers who discipline themselves, their children, and each other in a loving way honour Moshiach and model His way of Life