When it comes to judging, many believers are very divided. In some cases it’s due to lack of wisdom and understanding in other cases it is because it is difficult for various reasons. Written below is a passage from a book I read which describes in detail, using Scripture, how to properly judge those who are sinning within the church. Judging is really for those who are in a local church setting, but in my opinion, and please correct me if I’m wrong, may be applied in some case involving personal relationships with our brethren. “But if already at this stage church discipline breaks down, i.e. at the daily exercise of the pastoral office, everything else is called in question. For the second state is that of brotherly admonition from the other members of the Church. “Teach and admonish one another” (Col. 3:16, 1Thess 5:11,14). Such admonition must also include encouragement of the faint-hearted, support of the weak and long-suffering towards all men (1Thess. 5:14). This is the only form of protection against our daily trials and temptations, and against apostasy within the congregation. Where this spirit of brotherhood and service is absent, the third stage will hardly be reached. For if a brother falls into open sin in word or deed, the Church must have sufficient authority to bring formal disciplinary action against him. This also is a lengthy process. The Church must first of all overcome its reluctance to withdraw from communion with the sinner. “Have no company with him” (2Thess. 3:14). “Turn away from them” (Rom. 16:17). “With such an one, no, not to eat” (the Holy Communion?-1Cor. 5:11). “From these also turn away” (2Tim. 3:5, 1Tim. 6:4). Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition they received of us” (2Thess. 3:6). The purpose of this is to make the sinner “ashamed” (2Thess. 3:14), and so win him back again. But although the sinner is temporarily excluded from the activities of the Church, it does not mean the end of all intercourse with him. The Church must go on admonishing him. “Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (2Thess. 3:15). It is just because he is still a brother that he is punished and admonished by the community. It is brotherly tenderness which impels the Church to discipline him. When punishment is meted out to the stubborn and refractory, it must be administered in a spirit of meekness and patience. “if peradventure God may give them the spirit of repentance and knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by the Lord’s servant unto the will of God” (2Tim. 2:26). The method of applying this discipline will vary with each individual case, but the aim is constant, namely, to bring the sinner to repentance and reconciliation. If the sin is of such a kind that it can remain a secret between you and the sinner, it is not for you to divulge it, but punish him in private and summon him to repentance, and then “though hast gained thy brother.” But if he will not listen to you, and remains obdurate, you must not go and make his sin public, but choose one or two witnesses (Matt. 18:15f). These witnesses are necessary for two reasons. First, they are needed to establish the fact of the sin-that is to say, if the accusation cannot be proved and is denied by the member of the congregation, leave the matter in God’s hand; the brethren are meant to be witnesses, not inquisitors! But secondly they are needed to prove the offender’s refusal to repent. The secrecy of the disciplinary action is meant to help the sinner towards repentance. But if he still refuses to listen or if his sin is already public property amongst the whole congregation, then the entire congregation must call the sinner to repentance and admonish him (Matt. 18:17; cf. 2Thess. 3:14). If the sinner has a special office in the Church, he must be charged only on evidence of two or three witnesses. “Them that sin reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear” (1Tim. 5:20). It is now time for the congregation to join its officers in administering the keys. If the verdict is public, both congregation and ministry must be publicly carried out. “I charge thee in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without prejudice” (1Tim. 5:21). Now the judgment of God Himself is about to be pronounced upon the sinner. If he shows genuine repentance, and publicly acknowledges his sin, he then receives forgiveness in God’s Name. But if he is still unrepentant, the Church must retain his sin in that Name. In other words, the sinner must be excommunicated. “Let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican” (Matt. 18:17). “Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:18ff). But excommunication is really nothing more than the recognition of a state of affairs which already exists, for the unrepentant sinner has condemned himself already (Titus 3:10), and before the community had to exclude him. St Paul calls excommunication “delivering over to Satan” (1Cor. 5:5, 1Tim. 1:20). The sinner is handed back to the world, where Satan rules and deals death. (This sentence is not be taken as equivalent to capital punishment like that delivered in Acts 5, as may be proved by comparing 1Tim 1:20 and 2Tim. 2:17; 2Tim. 4:15.) The sinner is ejected from the fellowship of the Body of Christ because he has already separated himself from it. He has no further claim on the community. Yet even this extreme measure has one sole aim, the salvation of the sinner: “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1Cor. 5:5), “that they might be taught not to blaspheme” (1Tim.1:20). Readmission to the community or salvation is the purpose of church discipline in all its stages: it is throughout a “pedagogic” procedure. It is absolutely certain that the Church’s verdict has an eternal validity where the sinner refuses to repent. “ “The Cost of Discipleship” Bonhoeffer
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 01:14:02 +0000
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