This is an exposition of 2 Corinthians 2:5-11. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, March 25, 2018.
Intro:
In 1984 a Collinsville, Church of Christ followed what they understood to be a biblical mandate. A member of their church was engaged in conduct forbidden by the Scripture and demanded church actions.
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That action led to a law suite that eventually made its way to the United State’s Supreme Court. Without getting into the details, this very complicated case led to a verdict in favor of the plaintiff (the excommunicated member) and awarded her $390,000 in damages. The amount awarded was six times the annual budget of the church! I’m not interested this evening is discussing the merit of that case or how that church handled that particular case - my interest is the topic itself. Church discipline, once a staple in Baptist life, is all but extinct in our day. If you were to read the minutes of Baptist church meetings and Baptist Associational meetings in the 19th century, more than half the meeting time was taken up with church disciplinary issues. There is no doubt that there has been abuse of disciplinary powers within churches. I’ve known of cases where church discipline was an excuse for raw power. Discipline was used to extract a pound of flesh rather than a loving act of restoration. Such an act is nothing short of the abuse of Scripture but the abuse of Scripture is no justification for ignoring a Scriptural command. The Bible is clear, the church is a covenant community. The local church is a body of believers who have joined together in a covenant relationship and are therefore responsible to and for one another. As members of the church we have committed to walk together in living out our faith. We are covenanted to hold each other accountable to a biblical lifestyle. As members of the body of Christ we are called to a higher standard. We are called to live holy lives. Lives that are above reproach, lives that demonstrate a higher standard of morality and ethics than the culture around us. We live in this world be we are not of this world. That distinction will become more and more apparent as our culture becomes increasingly secular. It is not that we are “better” than the people around us but that we choose to live according to different standards. Because we are no better than the people around us, in that we too are sinners in desperate need of grace, we should recognize, all the more, our need for loving discipline within the church. Repentance is not just something we do when we “get saved.” Our lives are to be lives of continual repentance as we learn to walk in holiness. Repentance, grace and forgiveness are on-going necessities within the church if we are to understand biblical church discipline and how it is to be applied. Our text this evening is found in the 2nd chapter of 2 Corinthians.
Text: 2 Corinthians 2:5-11
Paul loves this congregation. He established the church on his second missionary journey (Acts 18). Yet there have been struggles. It was a troubled church. There was immorality and divisions (see 1 Corinthians). Paul wrote them a total of 4 letters (2 of which have been lost) and several visits including a “painful” visit dealing with critical matters. There are those in the church questioning Paul’s integrity and his doctrine. This issues have led to disciplinary action. Last time we talked about responding to criticism and said Paul could not ignore the accusations because the gospel was at stake. He could not lash out with a “scortched earth” mentality because he did not want to harm the church. Yet matters had to be dealt with. Those responsible must be held accountable.
Our text makes it clear that action has been taken.
As we walk through the passage we learn somethings about discipline within the church.
Contrary to popular opinion, church discipline is not about kicking people out of the church, it is about keeping people in the church who are determined, by their actions, to be taken out of the church! More about that as we make our way through the text.
From this text we discover that…
Thesis: The covenant nature of the church demands the practice of church discipline as a means of strengthening the fellowship of the church and as a safeguard against the schemes of the Enemy.
This issue of church discipline is not keeping people in line. It isn’t about making sure everyone “toes the mark” or being the Holy Spirit for your church. It is about loving each other enough to encourage godly living and holding each other accountable to Scriptural standards.
There are three things I want to point out in our text. Three things that are essential to having a biblical understanding of discipline within the church.
- Church discipline is made necessary because we are in a covenant relationship and because we are in a covenant relationship, church discipline is painful for all involved. (2:5-6)
- The goal of church discipline is pardon and not probation! (2:7-9)
- The purpose of church discipline is to restore and strengthen fellowship while guarding against Satan’s scheme to weaken the church. (2:10-11)
Conclusion:
Church life can get messy. The church is made up of people like you and me. So, there will always be problems. The covenant nature of the church demands the practice of church discipline as a means of strengthening the fellowship of the church and as a safeguard against the schemes of the Enemy.
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