WWUTT 557 Church Discipline?

Surveys reveal that less than 10 of churches in America actually practice church discipline. But it is something that must be instituted, as instructed by our Lord Christ when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.

Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Paul’s Instructions on Church Discipline in 2 Thessalonians 3

Thank you, Becky. We should be able to finish up our study of 2 Thessalonians between today and tomorrow. Let's turn to chapter 3. I'm going to begin reading in verse 6. The Apostle Paul writes,. Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.

For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.

It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you, in ourselves, an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command, If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

So, what we have here is a disciplinary matter in the church in Thessalonica that needs to be taken care of. And we even know specifically what the problem is. There are some brothers in this church who have gotten lazy.

They're not doing their work. They're loafing around. In fact, they're even mooching off of the charity of the wealthy, instead of getting a job and making their own living. There's no way that this has any application to our world today, does it?

I'm being very sarcastic there. Actually, what Paul is doing here is he's giving a practical application to instructions that Jesus gave regarding church discipline in Matthew 18. Let's go there and look at what Jesus said about correcting sin within the body.

Correcting Sin in the Church According to Matthew 18

Matthew 18, starting in verse 15. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. You're going, hey, hang on, I've heard that verse before.

Right. It's the verse that everybody uses at a prayer gathering to say that Jesus is in the midst of us because two or three are gathered here. That is not what that verse is talking about. It's not talking about some, you know, ordinary prayer gathering.

When you are praying by yourself, Jesus is there because the Holy Spirit is with you. Specifically, this reference to two or three gathered in my name, this goes back to the book of Deuteronomy, where the instructions to Israel were that every charge needed to be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Now, that was under a theocracy in Israel. The church is not a theocracy, but the instruction still applies in the sense when it comes to a brother who is walking in sin, if he's incorrectable, at least in terms of the one-on-one approach and he won't reason or he will continue to persist in that sin, then you need to bring two or three others along so that those two or three others are able to witness the sin that this brother or sister is caught up in.

And maybe the power of three there might be able to convince them to repent. Maybe they will be able to see by these witnesses that, yes, I'm doing something wrong and will hopefully repent of that sin.

But if they don't repent, then it needs to be taken before the whole church. And ultimately, the church will decide whether or not to remove that person from membership. And then you have the situation that Paul is stating in 2 Thessalonians 3, where that person needs to be removed from the brotherhood so that they would learn that their sin is separating them from the body of Christ.

This is their doing. They have no one to blame but themselves, and they're refusing to repent. So therefore, they get removed from the church. So Jesus gives a very general list of these instructions here in Matthew 18, and Paul gives it specific application with the Thessalonians specifically regarding these lazy brothers.

So looking again at these instructions that Jesus gave, Matthew 18, starting in verse 15, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. So again, Jesus doesn't list a specific sin, but the brother sins.

Now, when he says sin against you, that doesn't necessarily mean that he has to do you wrong. You know, like, well, I overheard my brother in the Lord lying, but he wasn't lying to me. Therefore, I don't need to go confront him.

When you're talking about the body of Christ, you don't sin as an island. A person who is sinning is affecting the entire body. Paul even talks about that in Ephesians chapter four, that when a person is chasing after false doctrine, it affects the entire body.

So when we are diligent to discipline one another and keep one another steadfast in the faith, the entire body grows together with a growth that is built up in love. So when a person is sinning, it affects the whole body.

In fact, the way Paul put this with Timothy is it's like gangrene. So it will spread to the entire body if that part of the body is not cut off. But first, we're going to give them an opportunity to be able to repent.

So if you see a brother in sin, when they are sinning, they're sinning against the whole body. First and foremost, they're sinning against God. David, in Psalm 51, Lord against you and you only have I sinned.

And you also have the story of Joseph when he was working in Potiphar's house. And then Potiphar's wife tried to come on to Joseph. Joseph's response to her was, I was not going I'm not going to sin against God in this way.

So Joseph even recognized that his sin is first against God before it is against anyone else. So ultimately, when they're sinning, they're sinning against the Lord. But that affects the entire body. So therefore, it is sin against you as well as as their brother or sister walking in the Lord with them in the church that you are a part of.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. And in these matters, you need to use discretion as to what needs to be confronted and what doesn't or if if something even needs to go before the church, we can handle this matter one on one.

Maybe I see in my brother that he has a he has trouble with his temper, doesn't need to be turned into a whole church discipline issue, but it's something that I know that I can help my brother with helping to keep his cool, keep his temper, show kindness to people, speak kind words.

You know that you can kind of make that a long term sanctification project with your brother or sister, but it it doesn't necessarily need to turn into a church discipline issue. It might, you know, like I said, got to use discretion.

So if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Don't gossip about it. So like you go to somebody in your church and you're like, oh, man, you see what was on Frank's Facebook page?

Oh, I can't believe he posted a picture like that. How could a Christian post a picture like that on their Facebook page? See, now you're gossiping. So now you're sinning. You need to go to him and approach it one on one.

And I do this fairly regularly in my church with somebody coming to me about something that they saw someone do or heard someone do. Or maybe they've just recognized that someone hadn't been to church in a while.

And so they'll come to me and say, hey, is have you or the elders made any point to try to reach out to so and so? Sometimes we'll notice those things and sometimes, admittedly, they'll they'll slip by us.

And so what I will say to that individual is, have you tried to contact them first? It would mean as much coming from you as it might mean coming from them. If it comes from the pastor, they might feel like they've done something wrong.

Well, they are. They aren't attending church. There's there's that intimidation factor. It's not quite as buddy buddy between the pastor and a congregant sometimes, not always, but sometimes. And so maybe coming from you, it would be a little bit more gentle than if it were to come from me first.

And so we in the body of Christ need to look out for one another. Sometimes I got somebody will come to me and say, hey, did you confront Frank on that thing that he posted on his Facebook page? And I'll respond.

I don't even have a Facebook page, so I have no idea what Frank is posting on his Facebook page. Why don't you confront him about it and ask him about, you know, some of those things that he's doing that maybe he shouldn't do.

So every once in a while, I'll have somebody that comes to me with a certain matter that they think needs to be confronted. And I'll say, look, I'm not the one that that noticed that I didn't see them do that.

So I'm now going to go to them to confront them on a matter that I've only heard from you. If you saw that happen, you need to go confront them on that situation just between the two of you. That's Matthew 1815.

That's the instruction of our Lord Christ. I had a situation that came up. Oh, this was two or three years ago. And the reason why I use the Facebook page example is because that's exactly what happened.

There was a young man in our church was upset at somebody else in our church that had posted something on their Facebook page. And so I I confronted him about it. Well, he confronted me first, and then I said to him, why don't you go to that person and talk to them about what it was they were posting on the Internet?

He came to me the next day. I remember even being outside the church and he pulled up in his car and just pulled around, rolled the window down. He goes, hey, man, I was thinking about it and I don't really need to confront that person over that thing.

And I think I even said to him, I think you're just chickening out. I think once I put it on you to have to confront this person on something, you you decided that it really wasn't that big a deal. So now you need to do a little bit of soul searching to ask yourself whether or not it isn't a big deal or whether you're just chickening out because you don't want to actually put yourself in a position of confrontation.

So anyway, and make a long story short, what ended up happening was that young man got disgruntled by some other things that were going on in the church. And he brought that up as a charge against me.

He said, I told this person about I told Gabe about what this person was posting on Facebook and he said he was going to take care of it and he didn't take care of it. You know, that's that that's the way these things fester.

It's the way these wounds become infected and affect you as well as the entire body of Christ. So that's why when we witness sin that needs to be confronted, that we take care of it and we do it swiftly with discernment and with gentleness, certainly not coming at somebody with a with a holier than thou I know more than you sort of an attitude.

So if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. You have the the statement made in James, my brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

This is a loving thing to do for your brothers and sisters in the Lord to confront them in their sin and bring them back to the path of righteousness, the pursuit of holiness in the Lord. Verse 16, but if your brother or sister doesn't listen to you, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

We had another matter that happened in our church once in which a person was confronted about their sin. And then and I think this happened on a Sunday and then it was something like three or four days later, they got two or three witnesses together and confronted them again.

And I had to step into the situation at that point. And I had to say, well, hold on, guys, why? Why is this? This seems a little bit rapid because I know you just confronted this person on Sunday and suddenly you're gathering together two or three witnesses.

And their response to me was, well, we just didn't believe them when they said they were sorry. I had to say, guys, come on, you need to you need to wait to give that person an opportunity to show you a change in their pattern of behavior.

And you haven't allowed that. So this is very ungracious where you think that everything needs to be just absolutely immediate. And we need to we need to be able to notice an absolute transformation in this moment, within this timeline, it has to meet our schedule.

I just don't see grace in this matter. I see that you are a little bit overbearing and a little bit holier than thou. And you need to back off. So, again, be gracious. You confront somebody if they do seem to be genuinely apologetic.

They say, I'm sorry. Or even if they're kind of struggling with it, like my wife is great with me about this. She'll confront me about something. And it's usually something like, babe, didn't you just preach on Sunday about this?

And now you're doing this. And I'll always have an excuse. Well, yeah. Yeah. But when I said this, what I meant was this. And then what I'm doing now is not it's not the same thing. OK, you know, I'll try to I'll try to cover my tracks.

But then a little bit of time goes by and I realize my wife was right. And and so then I'll go back to her and apologize. And then if I've got somebody else I need to apologize as well, I'll be sure to make that right.

So she's really good with me, knowing knowing how I react to things to confront me in something to show me my error and then let me deny it and work it out in my mind. Yeah, she's right. You know, that's kind of my immediate reaction.

So maybe if you know the person that needs to be confronted, you're handling the situation like that. You know, maybe they will kind of reject it, but that doesn't mean, OK, let me go get two or three witnesses.

We're going to come back at this thing in three hours and make sure we get this figured out. So exercise a little bit of grace, confront somebody, convict their hearts and see how that conviction works out in their hearts over time.

See if if something starts to change and then if you don't see change, but the pattern of behavior is still in a trajectory of unrighteousness. That's that's when you might even consider a second one on one meeting, depending on how much time has passed.

And then if they still won't reason, take two or three others along so that everything may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Again, the instruction that's given in Deuteronomy and the way it applies even now in the church and these two or three witnesses.

It's not necessarily like an intervention sort of an atmosphere, although it might be. But they have witnessed and observed this sin in this individual. And then so coming to that person and saying, look, now you've got three people here that are telling you you are doing the sin that that this person confronted you about at first.

And so you need to repent. We're asking you to repent. And so hopefully by the testimony of that many witnesses, they'll realize this many people loves me, OK, to to call out my sin and bring me back to righteousness.

And so hopefully that'll that'll open their eyes where the one on one interaction wouldn't work. Maybe several would. But the other thing that the that the two or three witnesses helps to establish is a recognition that that sin is in that person's life.

So if they continue in unrighteousness, then when it comes to the next step, the two or three witnesses are able to get up and say, yeah, we we can testify. This person's been confronted. They have been told that they need to correct this sin.

They won't correct the sin. And so now we're bringing it before the body. So they have one last opportunity to repent. And if they still won't repent, then they're going to be removed from the church.

So that's what's next. Verse 17. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. In other words, he's he's a dishonest person.

He is an outcast. He has no place with you because he is not part of the body. He's more like the world. Paul put this another way with Titus when he says in Titus chapter three, verse nine, avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

As for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him. Knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self condemned. That would certainly be the the way that a false teacher would be confronted in the church as well.

Warning him once, then twice. If they continue to stir up division, then have nothing more to do with them. So so then you've got the statement. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Same thing that Jesus said to Peter in chapter 16, which the Catholic Church has taken to mean that Peter is the pope. He was the first pope. But you see that these instructions have been given to the entire church.

It's not something that is exclusive to Peter. But we all have a responsibility to look out for one another. And if we can testify that a person is walking in forgiveness, then they are bound in heaven.

But if we see that that person is not walking in forgiveness, then they are bound here on earth. And so we have the testimony that has been given to us so that we are able to using discernment, using wisdom, using the word of God as our guide and our supreme authority.

We are able to discern whether or not a person has the forgiveness of Christ and is walking in his righteousness or is following after the spirit of the devil. Verse 19. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven.

So this is two or more agreeing upon what the scripture says about righteousness and that this person is not walking in righteousness. Therefore, we are able to say and able to verify that this person needs to be disciplined.

They need to be removed for the church. And what Jesus is saying here is the guilt is not on you. The guilt is on them. Now, if you don't confront that person, the guilt is on the whole church. But if you have removed that person from the body, you have turned them over to Satan the way Paul puts it with Timothy and with the Corinthians.

First Corinthians, chapter five, purge the evil person from among you. And that was concerning a man who was walking in sexual immorality when you have had to remove a person from the body because of a church disciplinary matter.

It is not on you that that person has been removed from the safety of the body of Christ. It is on them because of their sin. So that's what's being said here. It will be done for them by my father in heaven for where two or three are gathered in my name.

There I am among them. God didn't walk out with the person who left the church. He's with the body of Christ that remain faithful to the scriptures and is pursuing righteousness. So we're going to continue with this tomorrow as we look a little bit more intently at the church disciplinary matter being exercised there in Thessalonica.

Prayer for Repentance, Holiness, and Restoration

Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for the instructions that have been given to us in your word that we may know your righteousness, that we may know the way of holiness, that we may imitate our God and be like our savior and even walk in the path of the apostles doing the things that were instructed for us to do by Christ Jesus.

And so convict us of our sin. Let us seek repentance for our sin. Let us confess our sins to our brothers and sisters in the Lord so that they would pray for us and build us up and that we might be forgiven and continue to walk in joy, in holiness, in worship to our great God.

As Paul instructed in Romans 12, 1, submitting our entire bodies unto the Lord as a living sacrifice. And this is our spiritual act of worship. Lead us in that way that we may devote our whole selves to you in Jesus name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.