Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them; but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
It is commonly reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we continue to gather in Thy presence, our hearts are deeply touched by Thy everlasting love towards us. How we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast forgiven us all our sins, and that Thou hast even forgotten them.
We praise and thank Thee that Thy love towards us never changes. It is because of that love that we are here this morning. We come to Thee and ask Thee to open Thy Word to our hearts, that we may really understand Thy heart and learn to submit ourselves to Thee in a way that will be pleasing to Thee.
We commit this time into Thy hands. We trust Thy Holy Spirit to do the work, to the praise of Thy glory. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
You may be wondering, what are we going to share this morning? The Lord seems to have put upon my heart a burden to share with you, dear brothers and sisters, concerning this matter of discipline.
Now, when you hear the word discipline, probably you will react against it. We do not like to be disciplined. We have a kind of bad feeling about discipline, as if it is something horrible, terrible, something from which we would shrink.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if we really understand what discipline is, I hope it will change our attitude.
Strangely, when you read the Bible, you find that, according to the Hebrew and Greek, the word we now know as discipline occurs only once in the whole Bible. That is in Job 36:10.
He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.
That is the only place in the whole Bible where the word discipline occurs in the original Hebrew and Greek. Even there, the original Hebrew word means chastisement and instruction. That is why, in some translations, the word is rendered instruction, because this is what the word originally means.
The word we often find in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, is chastisement, chastening, or to chastise. If you read the context, you will find that this word means to convict, to reprove, to instruct, and to train.
In other words, whether it is the Hebrew word discipline or the word chastening, they actually mean the same thing. Basically, discipline is to train. It is a kind of training—child training—with a definite purpose of achieving a special character and pattern of behaviour that will bring moral and mental improvement.
Discipline, or chastening, is to instruct, to educate, and to train, leading to growth and progress towards something that is in view.
Even our English word discipline comes from the word disciple. It also means instruction, knowledge, or a pupil. A disciple is one who is being instructed.
So, wherever you go, you will find that this is what the word discipline really means. Discipline is not a terrible word. It is actually a good word, because it is by discipline that we are trained, that we mature, and that we arrive at something pleasing to God.
When you read the Word of God, you find that discipline is necessary for us. Even when God created man and put him in the Garden of Eden, He placed man under discipline.
God provided everything for man. God told man that he could eat the fruit of all the trees, except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why was it that God provided all these things for man and yet put man under one limitation? He put him under discipline because He wanted to train that man, that he might grow up into maturity.
When man was created, physically he was fully mature. Yet, so far as the meaning of manhood was concerned, he still needed to grow up. The only way to grow up is to be placed under discipline.
If man obeyed God and submitted himself to the authority of God, then he would grow up and become what God had purposed man to be. But unfortunately, he rebelled against God. He rebelled against the discipline that God had placed him under, and because of that man fell into sin.
When man fell into sin, God’s disciplinary hand came upon him. We may think that man was simply being punished because he disobeyed God. The wages of sin is death, and death immediately came upon Adam. His spirit was dead towards God, and death began to work in his life until, after many years, he died physically.
He was under God’s disciplinary hand. To us, it may seem like punishment, but, brothers and sisters, even God’s disciplinary hand is for the purpose of restoration and recovery.
With the disciplinary measure, God gave man a promise:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.
In other words, man’s salvation would come through the seed of the woman. If man submitted himself under the mighty hand of God, waited for the seed of the woman to come, and trusted in the seed of the woman, he would be saved.
Not only would his sins be forgiven, but he would even receive the life from the tree of life that he had missed at the beginning. He would be fully recovered into the purpose of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, you can see that discipline is a good thing, because it is through discipline that we grow and are brought into the full purpose of God.
Thank God that, after we believe in the Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven, we are given eternal life, and we become children of God. Then, as God’s children, we need discipline, because it is only through discipline that we grow into maturity in our spiritual life.
I hope that our concept of discipline and our reaction towards discipline will be changed. Instead of being fearful of discipline, if we are good children of God, we should welcome His discipline, because we know that only through discipline are we able to grow into full maturity.
In the Word of God, so far as I can see, there are three levels, or directions, of discipline.
Let us first consider God’s discipline—the discipline that comes from our heavenly Father.
When you reach Hebrews 12, you find that, as God’s children, we are in a racecourse. We are running, but we are running against the current of the world.
We are running upward. We are running heavenward. We are running towards God, towards our Lord Jesus. We are to gain Him and all His fullness.
As we are running as pilgrims upon this earth, we must remember that we are running against the current of the world. Therefore, we cannot escape all kinds of contradictions, tribulations, sufferings, pains, opposition, and hostility—things that seem to be against us.
The world is trying to pull us down, deep down into the earth, to conform us to the fashion of this world. Yet the life within us urges us to press on towards the goal, the heavenly goal.
As we are daily in these circumstances, it is easy to faint. It is easy to become weary and to give up. The writer of Hebrews exhorts us not to faint or become weary when we are under this kind of struggle and battle.
Think of our Lord Jesus. Look away from everything and look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Think of our Lord Jesus, how He battled against sin, even unto death, even unto blood. We have not yet come to that point.
By this we are encouraged. Never allow what has happened to us in this life to pull us down. In the middle of the battle, look up unto Jesus, and you will find that His grace is sufficient for us.
This is what is apparent and what can be seen. This is what we find ourselves in. But, brothers and sisters, behind the scene there is our heavenly Father.
Because He loves us so much, He loves us as His sons; therefore, He chastens us. He uses all kinds of opposing forces to train us, that we may grow in our spiritual life.
We need to see this. Oftentimes, when our eyes are only upon our circumstances, we will faint and become weary. But we know that behind everything there is our heavenly Father. He knows everything. He knows what is going on.
In a sense, everything is arranged by our heavenly Father. Sometimes we call this the discipline of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit arranges and orders our circumstances.
There is nothing that happens to us without the knowledge of our heavenly Father. Our Lord Jesus tells us repeatedly that even the hairs of our head are numbered.
Our heavenly Father loves us so much. I think there is no one—not even our earthly parents—who loves us in this way. Our parents may love us very much, but they have not numbered the hairs of our heads, and they cannot number them. It is beyond them.
But think of our heavenly Father. His love is so delicate and so deep. He knows how many hairs we have on our heads. Not only does He know how many, but He numbers every one of them.
Every morning, when I comb my hair, I remember that one or two hairs have fallen, and the Father knows which numbers they are. He loves us so much.
As children of God, there is nothing that comes by chance: the family you are in, the brothers and sisters you are with, the co-workers in your office, and the fellow students and classmates in your classes.
All our circumstances are ordered by the Spirit of God, with love. It is the love of the heavenly Father that orders everything. He trains us. He instructs us. He is bringing us up so that we may be fully grown.
Therefore, the exhortation is this: when you are under the discipline of the Father, do not despise His discipline.
What does it mean not to despise the discipline and chastening of the heavenly Father? It means that, when your Father is chastening you and training you, you must not neglect it or reject it. Take it to heart. Bring it to Him. Have dealings with your heavenly Father as your heavenly Father is dealing with you.
Our heavenly Father is training us every day—every moment of the day. There is not a day that goes by without His discipline.
Are you afraid of discipline? You cannot escape His discipline, because you are His child and He loves you. Therefore, every moment of your day His discipline is upon you.
Unfortunately, we despise it. We do not see His hand. We only see the problems, the trouble, the people, and the events that happen to us. We do not see our Father’s hand, and because of this we do not learn the lesson.
We murmur, we rebel, and we become angry. Our focus is on the outward circumstances and events, and as we do that, we despise the chastening of our heavenly Father.
If we do not learn, He loves us so much that He will arrange similar circumstances to put us under the same lesson all over again. If we still do not learn, we have to go through it again.
Brothers and sisters, do you wonder why these things happen to you so often? It is because you despise the chastening of your heavenly Father.
Whenever something happens, take it to heart. Bring it to the Lord. Pray about it. Seek the Lord. Ask, “Why is this? Is there any lesson that my heavenly Father is trying to teach me?”
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. It is only in this way that we grow in our spiritual life. There is no other way.
Real spiritual growth is not merely an increase of head knowledge. It is an increase of heart knowledge. That is to say, you have to learn it by heart.
Despise not the chastening of your heavenly Father, nor faint under His disciplinary hand. Sometimes we think, “It is too much. We cannot stand it anymore.”
We fail because we only see the pressure. We do not see that the pressure should enlarge us. We do not see that, when we come to the end of our strength, His strength begins.
His grace is sufficient for us. If we only look to Him, there is nothing too hard and nothing too heavy.
It is not your heavenly Father’s will that you should be pressed and crushed. It is His will that you should be enlarged and expanded.
When you really see this, I hope your whole attitude towards discipline will be changed. Instead of murmuring, rebelling, and asking why, you will submit yourself humbly under His mighty hand, that you may learn the lessons He wants you to learn.
First of all, when you think of discipline, think of the discipline of your heavenly Father.
Our earthly parents love us and discipline us according to what they think will be helpful to us. They discipline us only for a time. But our heavenly Father, when He disciplines us, does so with eternity in view, according to His knowledge and wisdom. He can never be wrong.
When we are under His discipline, it is not a matter of joy at the time. It would be false to say that we rejoice and are happy when we are under His discipline. At the time, it is not a matter of joy, but of grief. We feel pain.
But afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it. We need to be exercised. If we despise the chastening of the Lord or faint under it, we are not exercised by it, and we will not bear fruit.
That is the first level of discipline. Thank God, no child of God will escape it. If you are able to escape it, you are not a son. But I believe we are sons. Thank God for that.
In conjunction with God’s discipline, there is self-discipline.
In Galatians 5:23, the last aspect of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned is self-control. If it is self-control, how can it be the fruit of the Spirit?
This shows the relationship between self-control and Spirit-control. As a matter of fact, self-control is our cooperation with the Spirit in His control. He is controlling us, and when He tries to control us, we respond and cooperate with Him. That is called self-control.
In 1 Timothy 4, the Apostle Paul says that physical exercise is profitable for a time, but that we should exercise ourselves unto godliness.
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Spiritual exercise is profitable not only in this age, but also in the age to come.
We need physical exercise. Physical exercise helps us to grow. We do not grow merely by eating, drinking, and sleeping. If we do not exercise, we cannot grow.
That is why children are so lively: they are growing. If you were to bind a child and give him food continually but no exercise, he would die. He needs exercise.
As you grow older, you realise the need for exercise. If I do not exercise for one or two days, somehow my legs become weak. I have to exercise. It is good, but it is temporary.
Spiritual exercise—exercise unto godliness—is profitable not only for this age, but even for the age to come.
What do we mean by spiritual exercise? Do we exercise spiritually every day? Does our spirit cooperate with the Holy Spirit in such exercise and unto godliness?
When the Holy Spirit touches the conscience of our heart, how do we respond? Is our spirit so exercised that it responds to the voice of the Spirit in our conscience?
Do we listen? Do we obey?
Our conscience either excuses or accuses us. Sometimes our conscience accuses us because we are guilty of something we have done. Very rarely, our conscience excuses us and says, “You are right.”
As you grow in the Lord, your conscience will excuse you more than it accuses you. That is a sign of growth.
When the Holy Spirit touches our conscience, and when our conscience is working, it either accuses or excuses. While it does so, do you exercise yourself to listen to the voice of the Spirit?
If you exercise yourself in this way, you walk in the way of righteousness. This is the only way we can walk righteously in our daily life.
How do we know whether something is right or wrong? Not by human standards, not by custom, but by the Holy Spirit, Who touches our conscience.
When we follow the voice of our conscience, we walk in the way of righteousness. In other words, we are right before God, and our conscience is at peace rather than accusing us.
How we need the blood of our Lord Jesus every day and every moment.
When God’s Spirit, as the anointing, dwells in our spirit and teaches us in all things, we find in 1 John 2 that whatever He teaches is right and true, and is not false.
The Word says that we should listen to and obey the teaching of the anointing. Then we abide in Christ.
How do we walk in the way of holiness, in a way of separation? It is by the intuition of the spirit. We intuitively know what the will of God is because He teaches us in our spirit.
It is not merely teaching collected from outside information. It is direct teaching from the Holy Spirit within us. When He teaches us, it is true. When we obey the anointing, we walk in the way of holiness.
That is the exercise of self-discipline.
The glory of God is manifested to us. His presence is with us. As we commune with Him, His glory is reflected in our lives. We are changed from glory to glory and conformed to the image of Christ.
This is the way we grow into His character.
If we neglect our conscience and what our conscience is speaking to us, we will continue in sin and darkness. If we do not listen to the anointing and its teaching, we will be conformed to the world instead of being sanctified.
If we neglect to keep communing with our God, we will not be transformed from glory to glory. Therefore, we need to exercise ourselves.
Dear brothers and sisters, is our spirit lying dormant? Is our spirit inactive in communion with God? Do we see His glory day by day? Do we hear His voice and His teaching?
This kind of discipline and exercise has to take place within our spirit. As we exercise our spirit, the Holy Spirit strengthens our inner man, and Christ comes and dwells in our hearts.
According to Ephesians 3, we become rooted and grounded in love. It is only when our spirit is in practical union with God’s Spirit that self-discipline continues in our soul.
Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow the Lord.
If our spirit is not exercised, we do not know how to deny ourselves. We will not even be able to recognise what the self is. But when we are living in communion with God, in cooperation with the Spirit of God, our soul will be dealt with in our daily life.
Our affections will be dealt with. Our minds will be dealt with. Our volition, our will, and our opinions will be dealt with.
Denying ourselves, taking up the cross, and following the Lord will deliver us from sin, from the world, from death, from ourselves, from our flesh, and from our enemy.
We need to exercise. When we do that, it will even affect our bodies.
Paul says:
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.
The word buffet is a strong word. It means, “I beat my body.” Why? Because our physical bodies, with their lusts and passions, try to control us. They try to hinder us from following the Lord and doing the will of God.
Paul said, “I put it under me. I will not allow my body to be my master. The body is my slave, not my master.”
Have we such self-discipline? In the morning, when do you get up? Do you rise early so that you can commune with God, or do you love your bed and your body more than the Lord?
We need discipline when we come to the meeting. If the meeting starts at ten o’clock, do not come at half past ten. We need to be punctual. That is part of self-discipline.
Unfortunately, we do not know self-discipline. The Christian life is a disciplined life. If we do not discipline ourselves under the Holy Spirit, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, we are not walking as Christians.
Paul disciplined himself. How do we neglect self-discipline? Discipline is very important. The Christian life cannot be an easygoing life, because the world will not allow it.
We are under the discipline of God, and we discipline ourselves in response to our God and Father. Self-discipline is necessary for our spiritual growth.
Thirdly, there is discipline in the body.
We who believe in the Lord Jesus are not merely individuals. Our individuality never goes out. We will still have our individuality in eternity. Peter is still Peter, and John is still John. Even in the heavenly Jerusalem, the twelve foundations are twelve different precious stones.
Our individuality never goes out, but our individualism needs to be dealt with. After we are saved, we are placed in the body of Christ. We are members one of another.
You are not alone. You are not the whole body; you are only a member. You cannot stand alone. You have to be with the other members of the body.
Being in the body, there is a discipline going on. All the members of the body are under discipline. If any member becomes independent, sickness comes, and death will come.
Discipline is necessary for the body to grow. The law of the body is love. Because there is love, there is discipline.
Do not look at discipline merely in its outward appearance. Look beyond it and see the love behind it. Our heavenly Father disciplines us because He loves us so much.
As members of the body, we love one another. Because we love one another, we discipline one another. Discipline never comes from hatred; it comes from love.
If you love, you can discipline. If you do not love, how dare you discipline?
Every member of the body should love the others and try to help and care for them. We should instruct one another, convict one another, train one another, and encourage one another. That is body discipline.
If you are in the body, you should expect discipline. It is for your good.
J. N. Darby classified body discipline into three areas or levels. I do not use his terminology, but I will use his classification:
He mentioned this in a small pamphlet concerning the character and object of discipline in the house of God.
In Matthew 18, which we shared last Lord’s Day, the Lord says:
Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
If your brother sins against you, what do you do? Do you hold a grudge against him? Naturally, you may feel that way. But you are members one of another. You forgive.
When you eat too quickly and your teeth bite your tongue, what happens to your tongue? It forgives. The tongue and the teeth continue working together. Love is behind it.
There is no sin that your brother can commit against you that is greater than the sin you have committed against God, and He has forgiven you everything. How can we not forgive our brother or sister?
We owe Him ten thousand talents—millions of dollars—and He forgives us. Our brother may owe us only a few dollars, a hundred denarii, and we do not forgive. If we do not forgive, our heavenly Father will not forgive us.
If a brother sins against you, you forgive. But is that all? No. Love goes a second mile. You love your brother so much that you realise he is in darkness. You are in the light, but he is in darkness, so you try to restore him.
You go to him. You convince him and reprove him. You show him that what he is doing is destructive, and you help him to see. In love, speak the truth of love—not in a revengeful spirit.
Hopefully, you gain your brother and restore him to fellowship. That is discipline. This discipline is unto restoration, not unto destruction.
If he does not listen to you, it is still your responsibility of love to take one or two whom he respects and go to him again. Plead with him.
This is brotherly discipline.
If we, as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, would really exercise this brotherly discipline towards one another, most of the problems in the church would be solved.
The reason we have so many problems in the church is that we fail in our responsibility of love. If you see a brother or sister in darkness, and if he has sinned against you, you must not only forgive him; you must try to restore him.
His responsibility is yours because you are in a position to help. He is not in a position to help himself; he is in darkness. You are in a position to help, and love urges you to do so.
The church today is not doing this. Because the church is not doing this, problems accumulate, animosity increases, and separation results. It is the responsibility of every brother and sister.
There is another level. Galatians 6:1 says:
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
This is called fatherly discipline.
According to 1 John, in the family of God there are children, young people, and fathers. There are those who are spiritually more mature, who know God in a deeper way.
Because you know God more deeply, you see things more clearly. You have received more dealings yourself. You have gone through many things and learned your lessons. Therefore, your eyes are open.
When you see a brother or sister falling into some fault, they may not know what is happening. But you have experienced it before. You have gone through that way and know what it is and how to get out of it.
It is your responsibility of love to restore that brother. You cannot simply stand by and let him fall. You have the responsibility to restore him, but you must do so in a spirit of meekness.
Do not go to him with an arrogant attitude, saying, “I know better. You are at fault. Repent,” as if you were the judge. No. You are no better than he is. It is the grace of God.
Go with a spirit of meekness. Humble yourself before your brother. Tell him that you have gone the same way and what the Lord has taught you. Try to restore him.
At the same time, be fearful that you may also fall into temptation. Sometimes, when you are dealing with another brother or sister, you fall into temptation yourself. You try to rescue him, but you fall into the trap.
You become angry or arrogant. You begin to despise your brother or sister. Then you fall too. So be careful.
That is fatherly discipline. How we need fathers and mothers in the house of God who are able to care for those who are weaker and younger in the Lord.
If brotherly discipline and fatherly discipline are exercised in the church, almost everything will be taken care of. Church discipline is the last resort. You do not enter into church discipline lightly.
Who are we? We are sinners, forgiven and saved by grace. Who are we to set ourselves up to judge our brothers and sisters? Never let that spirit enter into our minds. We are as sinful as anybody else.
When the church exercises discipline, it is not only exercised upon certain brothers or sisters. At the same time, the whole church is under discipline.
The whole church should be in repentance, sorrow, and a painful, contrite spirit, because when one member falls, the whole body suffers.
It is not that one brother is being disciplined while everyone else stands as though they were righteous. We are in the same position. We humble ourselves before the Lord and say, “This brother’s failure is my failure.”
The whole church must be in that spirit. Only in that spirit can discipline be exercised.
That is why Paul had to stir the conscience of the church concerning the brother who had sinned so grievously. Even the world does not have such things. The church cannot say that everything is all right, tolerate everything, and refuse to care.
The whole church needs to be under conviction, seeing that its carelessness is also sin. If one brother has sinned, we all have sinned. We all weep before the Lord.
It is in that spirit that the man who does not repent is excommunicated—cut off from the church. Even that is for restoration, that his spirit may be saved, that he may repent, and that, if he repents, he may be received back with love.
There are only a few cases in the New Testament that require church discipline.
In 1 Corinthians 5, a brother had committed a grievous and shameful sin. This was not merely a matter of one brother sinning against another, where forgiveness is required. It was a sin so terrible that it affected the whole assembly and the testimony of the assembly, while the brother remained unrepentant.
In such a case, the conscience of the whole church must be aroused, and discipline must be exercised to put him out. This is an extreme case, because otherwise he will leaven the whole lump.
The church is like a pure loaf to be offered as a meal offering unto God. If there is leaven in it, the whole lump will be leavened. It will affect the whole assembly. Therefore, it must be dealt with, so that we may celebrate the feast with unleavened bread, in purity and sincerity.
Another case is found in 2 John. Some people did not believe in the deity or humanity of Jesus. Such heresy strikes at the very root of our faith.
There may be people who have never known anything better and are caught in such teaching through ignorance. That is different. But there are others who should know and yet refuse to believe in the divinity and humanity of our Lord Jesus.
What do you do in such a case? You do not greet them or receive them into your house. In other words, you keep them out. These are two extreme cases.
Apart from these extreme cases, there are a few other situations. Romans 16 speaks of those who cause divisions and spread division among God’s people. We are to turn away from such people.
In 2 Thessalonians 3, if a brother walks disorderly—for example, refusing to work and becoming a busybody—then we are not to keep company with that person, while still loving him as a brother.
The Word of God says, “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” If such a person refuses to listen, we should not keep company with him, but we should still love him as a brother.
In Titus 3, if a heretical man is admonished once and twice and still holds to his strong opinion, then we should let him go. The word heretical there does not necessarily refer to grievous heresy, such as denying the deity or humanity of Christ. It may refer to someone who holds his own opinion so strongly that he refuses correction.
You admonish him once or twice, and then you let him hold his own opinion. These are the cases we find in the church—not a careless or casual use of excommunication.
In 1 Timothy 5, if an elder sins, what do you do? Paul says that he must be rebuked before all.
This is serious because the elder’s sin affects the whole church. He is a leader. If he is not repentant, two or three witnesses must come forth. The matter must not remain hidden; it must be brought into the open.
If the accusation is true, he must be rebuked openly. That is what Scripture says. It is very, very serious. It is not something with which we can play.
Church discipline is the last resort, and we must hesitate before exercising it. We have to be very careful and humble ourselves before the Lord. The whole church must be humbled before it can be done.
The life of the church is love.
May the Lord help us realise how much we need discipline.
We need our heavenly Father to discipline us. Otherwise, who will correct us? Would you ask Him to chastise you? How much we need self-discipline, which we often neglect, and because of that we miss growing up.
How much we need to tremble and be fearful when we come to this matter of church discipline—body discipline. If there is enough love, it can be done.
May the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Lord, we are touching something that is so needed, but something that is almost beyond us.
We humble ourselves before Thee and say, “Lord, show us what discipline really is, that we may put ourselves under Thy discipline.”
May we exercise ourselves unto discipline, and may we, through love, learn how to discipline one another.
O Lord, help us, we pray, in Thy precious name. Amen.