by Imagine you are a Bible study leader. Terry, one of your members, has become sluggish in her Bible reading. She intermittently participates in the community Bible studies. In her words, she can’t seem to bring herself to read the Bible consistently. When she does read, her lassitude is seen in her AI-generated answers in the group.
Terry has stopped meditating on the word. Her apathetic torpor in contrast to her earlier zeal for the Lord stands out like a yellowing boil on her nose and it is troubling. Helpless to press the pus out, you request her to help you understand why she feels lethargic to a spiritual discipline she once loved. It turns out over the past couple of months, Terry has met a charismatic well-chiseled young man who is not a believer but who has promised not to break her heart. What began as a thread of back and forth short messages of how their day was, evolved to spontaneous video calls through the day, moved to random coffee dates, and climaxed with podcast and chill nights; an entanglement she now feels she can’t get out of and one that is making her not focus in her spiritual disciplines.
If you are in a sick church, her story is fuel for gossip and sermon examples of what not to do. You offer not solutions but change aisles in supermarket when you see her. You block her on your social media circle. You don’t invite her to your hang outs. Yo pray for her from a distance.
On the other hand, if you fellowship in a healthy church, her disclosure makes you want to engage in church discipline. However, if church discipline implemented at this point, we can expect church hurt. Terry will feel betrayed. She opened up to you about her struggle and would feel blindsided into the naughty corner at the back of the pew for doing so. We can expect accusations and counter accusations of backstabbing. The situation would morph from the need to get back to the habit of regularly reading God’s word in community to why church communities stink of struvite judgment.
Jonathan Leeman in his book Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus, highlights five purposes of church discipline. He says discipline aims to expose sin, to give a compassionate warning, to save a believer by challenging them to repent, to protect other believers and to present a good witness for Jesus. Each of these purposes can be achieved in Terry’s case. How?
A starting point would be having conversation about deception. Nobody wants to live a lie. A casual study of the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) reveals how God feels when we are deceived, his attitude towards those who deceive others and how we are to live truthfully. For example, the OT condemns deceitful speech. Since God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19) he sees deception as a covenant breach (Exodus 20:16). Israel’s desire to cling to false ideas rather than God’s word is a deception God condemns (Jeremiah 8:5, 11:14).
In the NT, Christians are warned not to be misled (Galatians 6:7), meaning it is possible for followers of God to be led astray (James 5:19). We are misled when we hold on to vain philosophies. One such deception is friendship with the world. James 4:4 says friendship with the world is enmity with God. We act like Saul when he went to the witch at Endor to consult instead of seeking God’s guidance.
Because of his steadfast love, God leads his redeemed people, guiding them by his strength (Exodus 15:13) and his counsel (Psalm 73:24). But we have to commit to be students of truth. Truth is what sets people free. As disciples of Jesus who want to follow Jesus, we seek his teachings. All who are lost by whichever deception (self-righteousness, immorality, hostilities, selfish ambition, dissension, drunkenness, quarreling, outbursts of anger and all other desires of our sinful nature) can be found by Jesus because Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost. Jesus promised to be with us in this discipleship relationship to the end of age.
As truth is discovered, repentance follows. Repentance involves remorse for going against God’s way and a change in direction of one’s life. This new path rejects evil and turns to follow God. The cordial of discipline at this point can now be administered. The thief should stop stealing. The philander should stop flirting. The lazy should start working. The disciple will feel strengthened to stand for Christ even if the discipline tonic is bitter, for it can be trusted.
Bring back the strays
Church discipline is about instruction in truth so that the strays are brought back, the injured are bound up and the weak are strengthened (Ezekiel 34:16). To be taught in this way may sometimes involve removing one from a group in which they serve. This doesn’t mean they should stop going to church but there is need to protect other believers from the direct ungodly influence. Church discipline is meant to keep the sheep safe from ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing and from those who lead others astray. It is also about setting up clear boundaries around the church. Here is what Paul said: ‘I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship. Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man ‘ (1 Corinthians 5:1-3).
When we discover sin in another we shouldn’t be gleefully rubbing our hands together to expose the sin. That is being malicious and God’s word says those who engage in slander, malice and gossip will not inherit his kingdom. Correction or pointing out an offense gives opportunity for confession because everyone who lives by the truth comes into the light so that their lives are plain in the sight of God (John 3:21). Also, no one who loves God continues willingly sinning. (1 John 3:6). Therefore, we ought to help those who love God to continuously reject sin. Inversely, those who make a habit of living in a continuous, unrepentant state of rebellion prove that they have not known Christ, neither is He in them (1 John 3:8-10).
Consider the words of Jesus: “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector” (Matthew 18:15-17).
The idea here in Matthew 18 is to correct in love so that relationship is with God and others is restored, and not to shame the other person. Richard Foster in his his work Celebration of Discipline beautifully defines confession as “sharing our deepest weaknesses and failures with God and trusted others, so that we may enter into God’s grace and mercy and experience his ready forgiveness and healing.”
After Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in Egypt, he told them to go and bring their father Jacob to live in Egypt. When the brothers got back home in Canaan they had to confess what they did to their brother Joseph. They explained their failures to one whom they trusted — their father. Leviticus 5:5 encourages us to confess the sin we have committed whenever we realize our guilt in any area. There is no reward for living with unconfessed sin. Instead, unrepented sin is like a poisonous root that poisons the fruit, a chain around our feet that entangles and slows us down, or a filthy garment that sours our service.
If we need to restitute for our wrong doing Numbers 5:7 says we should. Proverbs 28:13 says, “no one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” This is trust, whether one is a leader in church or a congregant. Sin weighs everyone down. Daniel confessed his sin before God (Daniel 9:20). Daniel, Nehemiah and Ezra also owned the sin of their people and identified with it, which led them to repent in brokenness as if those sins were their own (Nehemiah 1,9; Ezra 9:5-7; Daniel 9:1-19). We should, therefore, not be ashamed to confess our sins to trusted others and to God and when we find out about sin in the body of Christ, we can be challenged by these giants of faith to lead corporate repentance.
Jesus in Luke 12:1-5 said, “Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.” Let it be known on judgment day that you walked in the light.
