02.26. Discipline - its Necessity
Discipline - its Necessity In chapter one we spoke of the Church as being the house of God on earth and pointed out that order and responsibility were the principle thoughts connected with this figure of the Church. We further saw that God is a God of order and that if He dwells in a house, as He does in His Church, that house must be according to His mind and His order. Therefore, since "holiness becometh thine house, O Lord" (Psalms 93:5), it is our responsibility to keep the Assembly, His dwelling place, pure and holy. In 1 Timothy 3:14-15 we read: "These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." This was the reason for Paul’s writing this Epistle to Timothy-that he and we might know how to behave ourselves in the house of God. We thus learn that there must be a becoming behavior in God’s house and that order, holiness, and discipline must be maintained in His dwelling place.
God’s Holiness
Discipline in the Church is a necessity because of the holy and true One (Revelation 3:7) who is in the midst of His people and whose eyes are purer than to behold evil or to look on iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13) . Sin cannot be allowed to go on unjudged or evil tolerated where the holy One has His habitation. His house must be kept clean. Psalms 101:7 declares: "He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight."
It is important to remember as we take up the subject of discipline that it is connected with that aspect of the church presented in Scripture as the house of God. It is not the Church as the Body of Christ that is before us when considering the matter of discipline.
Christ’s Authority Maintained In Hebrews 3:6 we read of Christ being "son over his own house; whose house are we." Since Christ is Son over His house, His authority must be maintained and the lawlessness of man shut out. What is agreeable to Him is to be manifested. We have, therefore, to act in the responsibility of maintaining the order of His Word and to keep His house clean. This is the discipline of Christ as Son over His house. It is ecclesiastical in character-Assembly discipline. The discipline of the Father is that of fatherly care for a child. It is the exercise of individual love and grace flowing from the Father’s love towards an erring child. This is the the Father’s care over His family and is quite distinct from the Son exercising discipline over His house.
Discipline means subjection to rule, development of the habit of obedience by training and instruction, correction, and chastisement. It is the educative training of the disciple. This is what is necessary in the home, in the school, in government, and likewise in the house of God. No institution can prosper or succeed without such discipline.
If there is not the maintenance of discipline and godly order in the Assembly, it will soon be evident that the lack of it hinders the operation of the Holy Spirit and quenches His ministry. The Spirit of God is grieved by all that dishonors Christ and is contrary to His Word. He cannot bless disobedience, self-will, or unjudged sin. So spiritual dearth and lack of power in the Assembly are sure to follow the neglect of discipline which should be exercised for the honor and glory of the Lord, whose house we are.
Leavening Character of Sin
Another reason for the necessity of discipline in the Assembly is the fact that sin is like leaven which leavens the whole lump. The apostle speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. "Know ye not that a little leaven leaventh the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened." The nature of leaven is such that even a small particle of it will spread, leavening the whole lump. The only way to stop its leavening effect is to purge it out or to bake it in an oven thus arresting its action. Likewise sin will spread in an Assembly and leaven the whole gathering if it is not judged and purged out. Sin is defiling. It must be judged wherever it manifests itself, otherwise it will become diffused and corrupt the whole company.
Thus godly discipline is necessary to arrest the defiling effect of sin in the Assembly, thereby keeping it clean and unleavened. If one in whose heart the leaven of sin is working does not yield to instruction, pleading, warning, reproof, and godly care and judge himself, but persists in his course, the Assembly must, after due time and effort to deliver him, purge out that leavened person by putting him or her away as an evil person so that the gathering will not become leavened by this defiled one. But we must not think of discipline as being merely a deliberative and judicial act whereby one is excommunicated-put out of the Assembly. The great purpose of discipline should ever be to prevent the necessity of putting one away from the fellowship of believers. Nine tenths of the discipline which should go on in an Assembly ought to be individual in character, the exercise of pastoral care, and not that of the whole Church acting in judgment. All discipline should have correction and restoration as its aim. The extreme act of putting one outside the Assembly is not, properly speaking, discipline.
It is an admission that discipline has been ineffective and that no more can be done except to put such an one in the outside place as a wicked person. The Church has then nothing more to say to such an one, unless there is repentance and restoration to the Lord.
It is within the Assembly that discipline in its various forms is maintained and exercised to the glory of God and to the blessing of souls (1 Corinthians 5:12). Thus saints are led in the paths of obedience, trained in the ways of the Lord, and educated in that which is pleasing to Christ and becoming to saints. Truly, then, in view of what has been before us, it is imperative that discipline according to God’s Word be maintained in the Assembly -the house of God.