Matthew 18:15-20

CHURCH DISCIPLINE

Matthew 18:15-20. “If thy brother may sin, go, convict him, between thee and him alone.” Many a time you can win him by thus going privately and quietly, with the loving overtures of a friend and the sympathies of a brother. This is invaluable direction. Be sure that you heed it. It is awfully grievous to the Savior to go recklessly into Church discipline, widen the breach, and ruin the brother, world without end; whereas, if you had gone alone, not so much as intimating the matter to a human being, in the great majority of cases you would succeed. The great mistake is in speaking of it, and thus giving it publicity.

“But if he may not hearken, take with thee yet one or two, in order than in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” If your kind and loving visit in the capacity of a sympathizing brother, no publicity having been given even to the Church, much less the world, has signally failed, after all you could do by prayer and entreaty to soften his heart and win him back for Jesus, now the omens look really gloomy, rigid discipline, in all probability, becoming your imperative duty, in order to remove the unholy leaven out of the lump.

“And if he may not hear them, tell it to the Church; but if he may not hear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican. Truly, I say unto you, So many things as you may bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and so many things as you may loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” Church here is ekklesia, from ek, “out,” and kaleo, “to call.”

Hence it means the company of individuals called out of this wicked world by the Holy Ghost, and organized with a bishop i.e., the pastor or leader of the band, having in charge the spiritual interest; a deacon i.e., the holy man or woman having charge of the temporal interest; and the eldership, composed of the people enjoying spiritual seniority, being intrusted with the general interest. Our Lord here provides abundantly for the government of the Church, in this simple and unmistakable formula; i.e., first go to the offending party, alone with him, on your knees, with your tears of sympathy and words of kindness. If you fail, then take one or two brothers or sisters, filled with the Holy Ghost, and wait on him, invoking the blessing and help of God. If then you fail, bring the case before the whole Church. In case of final failure, let him be to you as a heathen or a publican. Now you observe that our Lord says that, pursuing this course, if faithful and true, your final verdict is ratified in heaven, standing valid, and preparing all parties to meet at the judgment bar. Thus our Savior has made perfect provision for the perpetuated purity of the Church, which is absolutely indispensable; as Paul says, “A little leaven will leaven the whole lump” i.e., one corrupt member is likely to contaminate the whole Church, as one rotten potato will rot a barrel. O how the wicked, worldly Churches of the present day need the enforcement of this law! “Brother Godbey, it would tear our Churches all to pieces, and break up our organizations.” All right; Jesus makes no mistakes. Awful will be our responsibility. If we do not enforce discipline, and remove the rotten apples out of the pile, they will soon all go to destruction. Such is the apostasy of the Churches of the present age that discipline has become a matter of bygone history. If not revived and enforced, according to the very words of Jesus in this paragraph, which is plain, simple, practical, leaving excuse for none, we never can have a genuine revival of the Churches. Holiness people, beware! and enforce discipline as here enjoined by our blessed and glorious Lord, or we go the way of our ecclesiastical predecessors, in the track of fallen Judaism, Romanism, and the dead Protestant Churches. Good Lord, deliver us!