Mandate to the Church – Part Five – Church Discipline

The last time I wrote on this topic I talked about the fact that churches are to practice church discipline because it is commanded of us by God. I also noted that its purpose is for restoration and the saving of souls.

This last point is well illustrated by 1 Corinthians 5:5. Paul’s instruction concerning the handling of a particular man caught in an incestuous relationship with his step mother was that they were to “deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved.”

Paul’s point is that when we discipline a believer in Christ, the act of discipline is a means of sanctification designed to help bring victory of the Spirit over our flesh. Church discipline, a godly rebuke, a humble and caring correction: we ought to covet these things for ourselves and those whom we love.

In addition to the benefit to the one being disciplined there is also a benefit to the church. Paul continues: “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.” (1 Cor 5:6-7a)

The church must be pure. It must not be defiled by open rebellion against God. The church that coddles sin as a sign of its progressive and tolerant nature is defiling itself and becomes no better than a den of robbers. The church that lovingly and firmly rebukes sin and reproves the sinner to the extent directed by Scripture cleanses itself and signals a love for God and His people, thus demonstrating to the world that God sent Jesus, His Son to save the world.

That is probably the most important point I want to make about church discipline. It is the appropriate action of a loving people. To tolerate sin is to signal a hatred of God and a disdain for the sinner. If we always remember that church discipline is an effort to restore and save a person’s soul we can never go wrong in glorifying God and demonstrating true love to His people and in so doing we preserve the witness of the gospel inherent in the Church.

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four

Unity in the Church – A Sure Path

There is no question that our Lord desires the Church to be unified. However, achieving unity in the church is difficult. We are sinful creatures who are driven by our individual passions, and those passions conflict. As a result, we choose to avoid each other, or we openly fight with each other. In either case, we are not in unity.

The question is, “can we obtain unity”? James says, “yes, you can, but you have to understand why you lack unity and what it takes to achieve unity.” He begins by asking some questions to which he gives the answer.

”What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” James 4:1-3

It is all about personal pleasure. We are guided by our passions, and when our passions are fueled by the motive of personal pleasure, we come into conflict with each other.

It is interesting that James’ answer does not primarily involve changing our passions but changing our activity along with our passions. His instruction to us is to pray; ask God for the things that we want. “You fight with each other because you don’t have what you want, but did you ask for it?” So, one of the reasons we fail to achieve unity in the church is because we don’t ask God to give us what we want; we don’t pray.

However, it does not stop there. Some of us ask but still, we don’t receive. This is where our passions come into play. When our passions are driven by selfish motives (personal pleasure), then our prayers are not answered. Our motives too, must change (Spiritual pleasure must win out). Our motives must be driven by the will of God. “You quarrel with one another and commit murder in your heart, because you do not seek the will of God.”

To achieve unity in the church, the people of the church must pray, asking God for the things they desire in accordance with the will of God. We must be Spirit lead people and people of prayer. This is a sure path to unity.

Mandate to the Church, Part 3 – Live In Peace

The Church is a blessing. I love her and desire to see her abiding in Christ. Much of the difficulty we see in the Church stems from the fact that the members of the body don’t abide in Christ. It is as if my hand said to my brain, “No, I will touch the fire, regardless of how much it hurts me and the body.” I pray with my Lord that the Church would be one as Jesus and His Father are one.

This goal was Paul’s when he told the Thessalonians, “Live in peace with one another.” He echoed the words of Jesus who said, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” To be the salt of the earth we must live in peace with each other. Now, peace and unity are things often discussed in the church but not nearly as often achieved.

The first reason for this state is that we are not abiding in Christ in every area of our lives. We hold out things for the self, personal things that we want to protect from the encroachment of our faith, and thus, we put a condition on how we live with one another. We live in peace so long as peace does not interfere with our personal god. The simple answer to dealing with this problem is to kill the self, to mortify the flesh and the desires thereof.

The second reason is more about knowledge and understanding. Often we don’t live in peace with one another because we don’t know what living in peace looks like. In fact, we have created a picture of peace in our minds that is not true. Paul explains to us what peace looks like. I start with the first few pictures found in 1 Thessalonians 5:13-14. Peace can only exist in the Church when the following things are true:

• The unruly are admonished – Church discipline is practiced
• The fainthearted are encouraged – Pastoral care is done
• The weak are being helped – True religion is active
• The governing attitude is patience – We are longsuffering

If we can grasp these things, understand them rightly and practice them well, we will see our selfish motivation die. It would defeat my purpose here to let you walk away from this word looking at the “leaders” in your church saying, “Yeah, they really should be doing these things.” Paul was writing to the whole church, not just the “leaders”. Christ was speaking to all his disciples not just some. These things fall under the realm of responsibility for us all.

It is my hope in the days to come to talk about these things in more detail. I ask that you prayerfully consider them. Pick any one or more of them, and let me know how you would describe them and expect to see them being practiced in the Church. Pray that you would practice them yourself and then do it.

• Part One
• Part Two

Mandate to the Church, Part Two - Love Your Pastor

Previously I talked about appreciating your pastor. I mentioned that we should recognize the heavy burden upon him as he sits under the charge to care for our souls. This recognition leads to an unwillingness to slander or speak ill of our pastor. It leads to a deep appreciation for and a graciousness toward him.

As Paul continues his plea to the church, he takes our treatment of those who have charge over us to a higher level. It is not enough that we appreciate our pastor. Paul says, “We request of you brethren…that you esteem them highly in love because of their work.” Three things must be addressed here. One, what we are to do. Two, how we are to do it. Three, why we are to do it.

What we are to do is esteem our pastor. The word esteem communicates the idea that we are to view our pastor as one who is above us as our leader, governor, or prince. In other words, our actions toward our pastor must be akin to those of a follower to his leader, a citizen to his governor, or a subject to his prince. This is how you are to think of and treat your pastor.

Now, if we were to leave it there, we would miss something very important. Many people are fine with the concept that a follower can disrespect a leader, a citizen can criticize and ridicule a governor and a subject can subvert and even plot against a prince, but not if he loves him. That is how we are to esteem our pastor: with love. It is more than just appreciating him. It is loving him as one who has charge or authority over us. We are to look at our pastors as men whose rule over us is a joy to our hearts.

Some might say, they love their pastor by keeping him humble, but that is not your job. You esteem him with love. Submit to him, even in joy, desiring and praying for his success as God’s under-shepherd. God will humble the man, if humbling is necessary. You esteem with love.

Why must we esteem our pastor with love? Because of his work. Now this word ‘work’ may speak of the things that he does, the output of his life, or it may speak of employment, that with which he is occupied. I tend to think it refers here to the latter. The reason we esteem our pastor in love is because of where God has placed him. He is not your pastor because you choose him. He is not your pastor because he was the best candidate for the job. He is your pastor because God, in his care for you, gave him that office. In recognition of this fact, we should esteem him as one who has authority over us, because God has given him that authority. We should do so in love, because it was in love that God placed him over us.

This is the beginning of the path to unity for God’s people.

Part One

Mandate to the Church, Part One - Appreciate Your Pastor

Over the next few posts I intend to talk about some things that we as Christians are taught to do in scripture as it relates to the body of Christ, the Church. One of the most life changing concepts to ever grasp my heart was the idea that I am a member of a body, accountable to that body and impactful on that body. In other words, when I learned that my character, the health of my soul, has a direct impact on the health of the church, my concern for my own soul became even stronger.

I am grateful for those who teach me how to be a better Christian and how to have a closer walk with Jesus. However, I fear that too often we stop in our thinking at the point of our individual relationship with God and rarely transfer the concept of spiritual growth to the realm of the corporate body. As a result, we “go to church” as individuals, we worship as individuals and we later wonder why we don’t feel more loved by others in the church or have more love for them. We have removed the concept of the body of Christ from Christianity and the Church is suffering the consequences.

For this reason, I address these messages to the church. In fact they were first addressed to the church in Thessalonica by Paul – 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22. Here Paul gives a list of things that the church is to do. They are not suggestions to consider and adopt if you agree. They are imperatives – “do this”. As I read them they seem to be aiming toward the idea that the church is a body and must conduct itself in a unified way, “having the same mind”.

Paul’s first imperative is this: “But we request of you, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction.” 1 Thessalonians 5:12. Here Paul starts with a plea. It is not technically an imperative, but it is followed by a string of imperatives which show that while Paul is pleading for us to do this, he really does expect us to do so.

What Paul wants and expects of the Church first is that we appreciate our pastor. Our pastor is the one who labors for the gospel among us. He has been given charge over us. This means that our pastor has both authority over and responsibility for us. He is told that he will give an account for those under his charge. The spiritual weight upon him is great, and he is yet a man. Therefore, Paul says, appreciate him. The Amplified version helps by telling us to recognize him for what he is, namely one who cares for and is responsible for your soul, one who has the weight of your eternity on his shoulders.

I believe that if we, as the church, look at our pastor in this light, we will be more gracious and even appreciative of him. We will not speak ill of him, rather, we will seek to encourage him with words of affirmation and prayers of intercession. It only makes sense that a church who cares for her pastor in this way is a unified church, one that has put aside all envy, malice and strife.

Recognize and appreciate your Pastor for his burden is great!

Choosing Leaders in the Church

Churches use many different criteria for choosing elders and deacons for ministry. Some are biblical and some are not. Most will look to 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1 for guidance, which is great. Some look to the activity of the person being considered and simply ask, "Is he serving" and assume that if he is serving then he must be growing or at least fairly mature in his faith. Sadly, some go on the principle of "He's a great guy, I really like him, He has such a genuine heart." Others allow themselves to be coerced or bullied into giving a person the authority of an elder or deacon.

My question is how many pastors/elders or church leaders consider 1 Tim 5:22? Paul tells Timothy to not "lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others...." Now let me say I think he is referring to making a person an elder or deacon by the laying on of hands, which is ordination. If that is the case it seems that he is saying that the ordaining body holds some responsibility before God for the conduct of the one they ordain. In other words, if a pastor/elder ordains an individual and that individual sins there is some culpability owned by the pastor/elder simply by his association with that man's ordination.

I'm not sure how far it goes, but it is a sobering thought. Churches need to be gracious when dealing with the weaknesses of others. But when it comes to ordaining elders and deacons churches should be gracious and discerning. More is at stake than just bad leadership. The very purity of our souls is impacted by our rash decisions.

Authority & Church Leadership

I've been thinking a lot about authority this week. In particular, I've been thinking about Church leadership and authority. Mark Dever has a little book about Church leadership in which he shows that Christ, as the head of the Church and thereby the ultimate authority over the Church gave a certain degree of Authority to the overseers of the church. I have been wondering about what this means and the first thought is that it seems that it means that Church leaders have a very high degree of responsibility.

We talked some about this in a meeting at church this morning and we were reminded of Hebrews 13 where the Church is told "Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account." This verse tells me three things: there are people in the church who have authority to rule over others, those who are under their authority have an obligation to be obedient and submissive to their leaders, and those who have been given the responsibility for leadership actually have the responsibility for the souls of others and must give an account to God one day for those souls under their care.

My conclusion then for myself and any other leader in the church (and I think this is particular for elders - including pastors - and deacons) is that we need to understand the position of authority that God has placed us in and start acting with that authority because even if we don't realize our responsibility I don't think we will be allowed to plead ignorance before our heavenly Father.

A final note: Authority does not just entail telling others what to do. Authority in it's large detail entails making disciples, training, teaching, shepherding, and a host of other things that affect the soul of the person you lead. In short, leadership is influence infected with love and compassion or a desire for the welfare of the one you lead.

What a weighty responsibility!

The Church's Response to Gay Marriage

This week Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill to repeal a 1913 law, which up until now protected the sovereignty of other states to determine what constituted a legal marriage. With this bill Mass. has opened the door for gay couples from any state to come to their state to be legally married.

Several problems present themselves to me as a result of this decision. First and most practically is the question of what do states do with couples who return from Massachusetts with legal marriage certificates looking for the rights any other married couple in that state? A great dilemma will be faced by many states. I can only imagine the legal expenses that will be supported by tax payers all over America when states have to debate these issues and defend their findings.

Second, and more pressing for the Church is the question of how to respond. I fear we will simply ignore the problem as we have already ignored the problem presented by insurance companies and corporations that choose to recognize same sex couples as equally deserving of coverage as married couples.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a proponent of using the Church as a political platform. I’m not really all too excited about the Church being directly involved in social activism. I’m certainly not one to encourage Christians to make fools of themselves in the work place or on public stage.

With that said, while I’m not opposed to Christian organizations and individuals representing Christian standards in the corporate and political world I believe the Church’s response should be focused in a different direction, i.e. it’s teaching. The Church needs to remember that it’s job is not to change social policy but to change hearts, and the only effective change in hearts that the Church should ever focus on is one where the heart is changed in it’s disposition toward God and sin. Only when people’s hearts have gone from hating God and loving sin to loving God and hating sin will the Church have an eternal impact on such issues as we are faced with in Massachusetts. And this brings us back to her teaching. Her teaching must be routed in the gospel teaching about the grace of God that comes to us through the death of Jesus Christ. She should address the moral issues of the day, but only in so far as they serve to point people to their need for Christ and to God’s sovereign authority over all creatures.

To some this may sound simplistic and even naïve. However, it is my opinion that the gospel is more effective in changing people’s minds than any theory, argument or political position and thus the Church should focus her attention on proclaiming the gospel to the heart’s of God’s children.