Stephen emphasizes the importance of discipline in the Christian life, highlighting three levels: God's discipline, self-discipline, and body discipline. He explains that God's discipline, though often perceived as punishment, is actually motivated by love and aims to help us grow spiritually. He encourages us to humbly accept and learn from God's chastening, recognizing that it yields righteousness in the long run.
Stephen further stresses the need for self-discipline, which involves cooperating with the Holy Spirit's guidance and exercising control over our thoughts, emotions, and actions. This includes denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Jesus daily. He highlights the importance of being sensitive to our conscience, listening to the Holy Spirit's voice, and buffeting our bodies to submit to God's will.
Finally, Stephen addresses body discipline, emphasizing that as members of Christ's body, we are called to love and care for one another through discipline. He outlines three levels: brotherly discipline, where we lovingly confront and restore a sinning brother; fatherly discipline, where more mature believers guide and mentor younger ones; and church discipline, a last resort exercised in a spirit of humility and love to address serious sin that affects the whole assembly.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto 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.
All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run, that ye may attain.
And every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air:
but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father’s wife.
And ye are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you.
For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him that hath so wrought this thing,
in the name of the Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
to deliver such a 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 the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our Passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ:
wherefore 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 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 do 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 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
You may be wondering what we are 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 will 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 in the whole Bible there is only one place where this word discipline occurs. Now, I am speaking according to the Hebrew and according to the Greek. The word that we now know as discipline occurs in only one place in the whole Bible.
That is Job 36:10:
He openeth also their ear to instruction,
And commandeth that they return from iniquity.
That is the only place in the whole Bible where the word discipline, in Hebrew and Greek, occurs. Even there, the word in the original Hebrew means chastisement or instruction. So, in our Chinese translation, we use the word instruction, because that is what the word originally means.
The word that we often find in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, is chastisement, chastening, or chastise. If you read the context, you will find that the word means to convict, to reprove, to instruct, and to train.
So, whether it is the Hebrew word discipline or the word chastening, they actually mean the same thing. Basically, it is training. It is a kind of child-training, training with a definite purpose of achieving a particular character and behaviour that results in moral and mental improvement.
In other words, discipline or chastening is to instruct, to educate, and to train, that there may be growth and progress into something that is in view.
Even our English word discipline comes from the word disciple. This word also means instruction, knowledge, or a pupil—that is, a disciple. So, all through, you will find that this is what the word discipline really means.
Discipline is not that terrible word. It is actually a good word, because it is by discipline that we are trained, mature, and arrive at something that is 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 man in the Garden of Eden, He put him under discipline.
God provided everything for man, and God told man that he could eat the fruit of all the trees, except 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 was still a babe. He needed to grow up, and the only way to grow up was to be put under discipline.
If he obeyed God and submitted himself to the authority of God, then he would grow up and become what God purposed man to be. But, unfortunately, he rebelled against God. He rebelled against the discipline that God had put him under, and because of that, man fell into sin.
When man fell into sin, God’s disciplinary hand came upon him. You may think that man was 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 more than nine hundred years, he died physically.
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: the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. In other words, man’s salvation would be through the seed of the woman.
If man submitted himself under the mighty hand of God, waiting for the seed of the woman to come and trusting in Him, he would be saved. Not only would his sins be forgiven, but he would receive the life from the tree of life that he missed at the beginning. He would be fully recovered to the purpose of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, discipline is a good thing. It is through discipline that we grow and are brought into the full purpose of God.
Thank God, after we believe in the Lord Jesus, we have our sins forgiven, we are given eternal life, and we become children of God. 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:
We will first consider God’s discipline, the discipline that comes from our heavenly Father.
In Hebrews 12, we find that we, as God’s children, are in a racecourse. We are running, but we are running against the current of the world. We are running upward, heavenward, towards God and towards our Lord Jesus. We are to gain Him and all His fullness.
As pilgrims upon this earth, remember that we are running against the current of the world. Because we are running against it, we cannot escape all kinds of contradictions, tribulations, sufferings, pains, oppositions, and hostilities—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, easy to become weary, and easy to give up. The writer to the 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 Perfecter of our faith. Think of how He battled against sin, even unto death, even unto blood. We have not come to that point yet.
Never allow what has happened to you in this life to pull you down. In the middle of the battle, look up unto Jesus, and you will find that His grace is sufficient for you.
This is what is apparent, what can be seen. This is what we find ourselves in. But, brothers and sisters, behind everything that seems to be opposing us and troubling us, remember that there is our heavenly Father.
Because He loves us so much, He chastens us. He uses all kinds of opposing forces to train us, that we may grow in our spiritual life. Brothers and sisters, we need to see this.
Oftentimes, when our eyes are only upon our circumstances, we faint and become weary. But we need to know that behind everything there is our heavenly Father. He knows everything. He knows what is going on.
In a sense, it 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 that is 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. Our earthly parents may love us very much, but they have not numbered our hairs, and they cannot number them. It is beyond them.
But think of our heavenly Father. His love is so delicate, and His love is so deep. He knows how many hairs you have on your head. Not only does He know how many; He numbers every one of them.
Every morning, when I comb my hair, I always remember: well, one or two hairs have fallen, and the Father knows what numbers they are. He loves us so much.
To us, 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 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, 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 chastening of the heavenly Father? It means that when your Father is chastening you, when He is training you, do not neglect it. Do not reject it. Take it to heart. Bring it to Him. Have dealings with your heavenly Father as He 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.
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, rebel, and become angry.
Our focus is on men, things, and events. As we do that, we despise the chastening of our heavenly Father; that is to say, we do not learn.
If we do that, He loves us so much that He will arrange another similar circumstance to put us under the same thing all over again. If you still do not learn, you have to go through it again. 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: “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, brothers and sisters, that we grow in our spiritual life. There is no other way. Real spiritual growth is not an increase of head knowledge; it is an increase of heart knowledge. That is to say, you have to learn it by heart.
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art reproved of Him.
Sometimes we think that it is too much and that we cannot stand it any more. We fail because we see only 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, then 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.
Even 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 when our heavenly Father disciplines us, it is for eternity, and it is according to His knowledge and wisdom. He can never be wrong.
When we are under His discipline, at the time it is not a matter of joy. It would be false if we said that we are happy when we are under His discipline. No. At the time of discipline, it is not a matter of joy, but of grief. We feel pain.
But afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it. In other words, you need to be exercised. If you despise the chastening of the Lord, or if you faint under it, then you are not exercised by it and you do not yield fruit.
That is the first level of discipline, and thank God none of us escapes it. If you are able to escape it, you are not His son, but a bastard. I believe we are not. Thank God for that.
In conjunction with God’s discipline, there is self-discipline. In Galatians 5:23, the last fruit of the Spirit mentioned is self-control. If it is self-control, how can we say that it is the fruit of the Spirit?
This shows the relationship between self-control and Spirit-control. Self-control is cooperation on our part. We cooperate 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 bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but we are to exercise ourselves unto godliness. Exercise yourself unto likeness to God. This spiritual exercise is profitable not only in this age, but also in the age to come.
We need physical exercise. Physical exercise is important to help us grow up. We do not grow merely by eating, drinking, and sleeping. If we do not exercise, we cannot grow.
That is the reason children are so lively: they are growing up. If you put a child in bonds, with no exercise, and only feed him, feed him, feed him, he will die. He needs exercise.
When you are growing up, 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 also 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 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 accuses or excuses 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 our conscience is working, it either accuses or excuses. While it does, do you exercise yourself to listen to the voice of the Spirit? If you exercise yourself, you walk in the way of righteousness.
This is the only way we can walk righteously. How can we walk righteously before God in our daily life? How do we know whether something is right or wrong? Not by human standards, and 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. Our conscience will be at peace and will not accuse us. How we need the blood of our Lord Jesus every day, every moment.
In 1 John 2, the Spirit of God is described as the anointing Who dwells in our spirit and teaches us concerning all things. Whatever He teaches is right, true, and not false. The Word says, “Listen. Obey the teaching of the anointing.” Then you abide in Christ.
How do we walk in the way of holiness, in a way of being separated? It is by intuition. We intuitively know what the will of God is because He teaches us in our spirit. It is not 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 exercising self-discipline.
The glory of God is manifested to us, and 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 transformed into the image of Christ. That is the way we grow into His character.
But if we neglect our conscience and what it is speaking to us, we continue in sin and darkness. If we do not listen to the teaching of the anointing, we will be conformed to the world instead of being sanctified. If we neglect communion with God, we will not be transformed from glory to glory.
So we need to exercise. Is our spirit merely dormant, or is it in active 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 go on within our spirit.
According to Ephesians 3, the Holy Spirit strengthens our inner man, Christ dwells in our heart, and we are rooted and grounded in love. Only when our spirit is in practical union with God’s Spirit will self-discipline continue 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 self is.
But when you are really living in communion with God and cooperating with the Spirit of God, then, brothers and sisters, you will find that in your daily life your soul will be dealt with. Your affections will be dealt with. Your mind will be dealt with. Your volition, will, and 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.
This exercise also reaches our body. Paul says, “I buffet my body.” The word buffet is a strong word. He says, “I beat my body blue and black.” Why? Because our physical body, with its lusts and passions, tries to control us. It tries to hinder us from following the Lord and doing the will of God.
Paul says, “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? Discipline. We need discipline.
When we come to the meeting, we need discipline. Brothers and sisters, if the meeting starts at ten o’clock, do not come at ten-thirty. We need discipline. We need to be punctual. That is part of self-discipline.
Unfortunately, we do not know self-discipline. A 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.
How Paul disciplined himself, and how we neglect self-discipline! Brothers and sisters, discipline is so important. Do not think that the Christian life is merely an easy-going life. It cannot be, because the world will not allow you.
A Christian life is a disciplined life. We are under the discipline of God, and we discipline ourselves in response to God our Father. Self-discipline is necessary for our spiritual growth.
Thirdly, there is body discipline. Not only is there God’s discipline and self-discipline, but there is discipline in the body of Christ.
We who believe in the Lord Jesus are not merely individuals. Our individuality never disappears. Through eternity, we retain our individuality. 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 disappears, but our individualism needs to be dealt with. After we are saved, we are put into the body of Christ. We are members one of another.
You are not alone. You are not a 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, brothers and sisters, there is discipline going on.
All the members of my physical body are under discipline. If any member becomes independent, sickness comes. Death will come there. 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. Being members of the body, we love one another, and because we love one another, we discipline one another.
Discipline never comes from hate. It comes from love. If you love, you can discipline. If you do not love, dare you discipline?
Every member of my body loves the others so much that they help one another and care for one another. They 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 will not use all his terminology, but I will use his classification:
He mentions this in a small pamphlet called The Character and Object of Discipline in the House of God.
In Matthew 18, which we shared last Lord’s Day, we are told what to do if a brother sins against us. Do we hold a grudge against him? Naturally, we may be inclined to do so, but we are members one of another. We forgive.
When you eat too quickly and your teeth bite your tongue, what happens? Your tongue forgives. Then they work together again. Love is behind it.
There is no sin that your brother can commit against you which is greater than the things you have committed against God. He has forgiven you everything. How can we not forgive our brother or sister?
We owed Him ten thousand talents—millions of dollars—and He forgave us. Our brother may owe us only a few dollars, a hundred denarii, and yet 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 the 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, reprove him, and show him what is destructive. You help him to see. In love, speak the truth in love, not in a revengeful spirit. Hopefully, you gain your brother and restore him to fellowship.
That is discipline. Discipline is unto restoration, not unto destruction.
If he does not listen to you, your responsibility of love does not end. Get one or two whom he respects. Go to him again. Plead with him. This is brotherly discipline.
If we, as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, really exercised 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. We do not fulfil it. If you see a brother or sister in darkness, and he has sinned against you, not only must you forgive him, but you must try to restore him.
That 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 every brother’s and sister’s responsibility.
There is another level: Galatians 6:1.
Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
This is called fatherly discipline. According to 1 John, in the family of God there are little children, young men, and fathers. There are those who are spiritually more mature—those who know God in a deeper way.
Because you know God in a deeper way, you see things more clearly. You have received more dealings yourself, 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 it. But you have experienced it before. You have gone that way before. You know what it is and how to get out of it. It is your responsibility of love to restore that brother.
You cannot merely stand by and let that brother fall. You must go to him to restore him, but with a spirit of meekness. Do not go with an arrogant attitude: “I know better. You are at fault. Repent,” as if you are the judge.
No. You are no better than he is. It is the grace of God. God has not set you up as a judge to your brother. Go in a spirit of meekness. Humble yourself before your brother. Tell him that you have gone the same way, what the Lord has taught you, and try to restore him.
At the same time, be fearful that you also may fall into temptation. Sometimes, when you are dealing with another brother or sister, you try to rescue him and fall into the trap yourself. You become angry, arrogant, or despising towards your brother or sister. You fall too.
So be careful. That is fatherly discipline. How we need, in the house of God, fathers and mothers who are able truly to take care of those who are weaker and younger in the Lord.
If brotherly discipline and fatherly discipline were exercised in the church, the church would hardly need to exercise formal church discipline. Everything would be taken care of, and that is what it should be.
Church discipline is the last resort. You do not enter into church discipline lightly. Who are we, sinners forgiven by grace, to set ourselves up as judges of our brothers and sisters?
May that spirit never enter our minds. We are as sinful as anybody else. When the church exercises discipline, it is not discipline exercised merely upon a particular brother or sister. At the same time, the whole church is under discipline.
In other words, the whole church should be in repentance, sorrow, pain, and a contrite spirit. When one member falls, the whole body suffers. That is the spirit required.
It is not the spirit that says, “That brother is under discipline, but I am standing righteous.” No. You are in the same position. Humble yourself before the Lord. That brother’s failure is my failure. The whole church must be in that spirit, and only in that spirit can discipline be exercised.
That is why Paul had to stir up the conscience of the church to discipline the brother who had sinned so grievously in 1 Corinthians 5—something that even the world did not have.
The church thought things were all right. They were broad-minded and tolerant. They did not care. The whole church needed to come under conviction, seeing that it was their carelessness and their sin. If one brother sins, at least 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 and that he may repent. If he repents, receive him back with love.
That is the whole atmosphere of true discipline.
When we consider church discipline, we find only a few cases in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 5, a brother had committed a hideous sin. It was not merely a matter of a brother sinning against you, where you forgive; it was sin so terrible that it affected the whole assembly and its testimony, while the brother remained unrepentant.
In such a case, the whole church’s conscience should be aroused. The church should repent and exercise discipline to put him out. That is an extreme case, because otherwise he will leaven the whole lump.
The church is like a pure flour offering to be offered as a meal offering unto God. If there is leaven in it, it will leaven the whole lump and affect the whole assembly. It must be dealt with so that we may celebrate the feast of unleavened bread with purity and sincerity.
Another case is found in 2 John. There are people who do not believe that Jesus is God. Some do not believe in His divinity, and others do not believe in His humanity. Such heresy strikes at the very root of our faith.
There may be people in that teaching because they have never known anything better. That is different. But there are people who should know and yet do not believe in the divinity and humanity of our Lord Jesus. What do you do? You do not even greet them or receive them in your house. In other words, you keep them out.
These are two extreme cases. Apart from these, there are a few other cases. In Romans 16, if anyone causes division and seeks to spread division among God’s people, you should turn away from him.
In 2 Thessalonians 3, if a brother or sister walks disorderly—for example, refusing to work and becoming a busybody—then the Word of God says, “If any will not work, neither let him eat.” If he does not listen, do not keep company with that person; yet admonish him as a brother.
In Titus 3, a heretical man does not necessarily mean someone holding grievous heresy, such as denying the divinity or humanity of Christ. It can mean a person who strongly holds to his own opinion. You admonish him once or twice, and if he still holds to it, let him go. You cannot have him any more.
Even in 1 Timothy 5, if an elder sins, it is a serious case because it affects the whole church. If he is not repentant, there must be two or three witnesses. The matter should not remain hidden but should be brought into the open. If it is true, he needs to be rebuked openly.
Brothers and sisters, that is what Scripture says. It is very serious. It is not something with which we can play.
Church discipline is the last resort. We should hesitate to exercise it. We must be very careful and humble ourselves before the Lord. The whole church needs to be humbled before it can be done.
Because the life of the church is love, may the Lord help us.
Let us realise how much we need discipline. We need the Father, our heavenly Father, to discipline us. Otherwise, who will correct us? Will you ask Him to chasten you?
How much we need self-discipline. We are too loose, and because of that we miss spiritual growth. How we need to tremble and be fearful when we come to this matter of church discipline, or 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 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.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 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.
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 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. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 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.
1 It is reported commonly 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. 2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 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, 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 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. 6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 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: 8 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.