Today I listened to Mark Driscoll's 2 hour message on church discipline Link to Mars Hill Church, look in Menu, Downloads, sermons, theology, church. As one who has studied and written on this subject (The Transforming Community) , I found it to be Cross-centered, wise, courageous, clear, and full of excellent life experience.
As a pastor of many years it has been my sad privilege to be part of dozens of formal discipline cases and far fewer restorations. It was my experience of the effect of those situations upon my own life and upon the churches I have served that led me to that book. And I have seen what happens when a church winks at sin over a couple of decades and soon the whole place is infested with buried lies and cover-up. I would probably not make a book on church discipline my first, were I to do this again. But it was that with which I thought I could serve others.
As I listened today I was struck by a desire to do some posts on this subject and today I want to start with why discipline is all about the Gospel.
It may be hard for some who think of "Gospel centered" as soft and tolerant and patient to imagine that the firm language of the NT could possibly be a reflection of the Gospel -- "with such a one, do not eat," "Let him to be to you as a tax-collector," "Have nothing to do with . . . ," "after that reject him." I have heard many excuse sin in the name of being Gospel centered or even want to re-phrase Paul in light of a predetermined idea of what Gospel-centrality means. We can, of course, fall off the horse on the other side and become ranters and slanderers in the name of "defending the truth" -- as though the truth is defended by actions that deny it. But Gospel centeredness makes us passionate and patient at the same time.
Here is the Gospel framework.
The church is the precious bride of Jesus -- a bride purchased with his life blood -- blood shed because sin was so vile and wrath so certain that a sacrifice of substitution was offered to absorb wrath and remove sin and reconcile us to God. The very heart of the church is that she is the new human race redeemed from sin by Christ -- and so we must be as fervent in a desire to make her holy as he is. She will one day be presented faultless before him -- and in the meantime he has deputized elders to lead local churches and watch for the souls of its people so that the church makes progress in its holiness and understanding of the truth.
Sin and error will rise in the church -- it is to be expected and assumed. Sin and error are enemies of the church. Sin and error are enemies of the souls of men and women. The Gospel calls us to be clear about sin and error AND to deal with sin and error in each other with 1. the patience required for dealing with brothers and sisters in Christ and 2. with the firmness required by seeing sin for what it is. I cannot take sin lightly and I cannot be excessively severe.
Think of it this way -- I have three children. I love them deeply and that means I hate sin and foolishness in them. My love for them leads me to patience and gentleness. My hatred of sin in them leads me to clear correction. Gentle rebuke, humble correction, ruthless love are all ideas that belong together in the church.
Raising children also requires wisdom -- if I correct them for every error or sin they will become weary. Ps 130 exclaims, "If you numbered our sins, O Lord, who could stand?" God does not pick at us for every transgression -- but he does correct and rebuke and discipline us. Elders must be men of courage -- not wimpy men. They must be men of wisdom, not ranters.
The NT is filled with clear, patient, strong words calling us to love the church -- it is because we grasp Jesus love of the church and because we see the true enemy of God in sin and error that we will exercise ourselves in discipline. God gives us the opportunity to be his means for purifying the bride of his Son.
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