Church Discipline E-mail
A Dispensational Approach to Church Discipline.


by Dr. Rob Renberg, Sr. Pastor of Parkside Bible Church, Holland, MI


Let’s Take a Vote. . . .Not!
 
     In the “tolerant” day and age in which we live, when standards of behavior and godly living are mocked and minimized, it is of utmost importance to get back to a biblical foundation of morality and accountability within the church. In our day, the church has become tolerant of sin even when it is found in its own people. Many denominations find themselves embroiled in controversy as tenets of biblical standards of sin are challenged, generally in the area of human sexuality and what used to be called deviant behavior. The modern church, in an effort to fill the seats with people and focus on the numbers they reach, often seems more willing to ignore sin than to denounce it, and more ready to compromise God’s law than to proclaim it. Ken Sande said in a recent interview with Christianity Today, “Clearly our culture is seeping into the church. This includes a general breakdown in respect for authority, and the embracing of individualism, the attitude that says nobody can tell me what to do. And even the democratic perspective in our country has entered many churches, so people believe everything should be done in a democratic way.”

     It is true that, historically, the church has sometimes erred in this matter of discipline, but today the problem is one of outright neglect. It would be difficult to show another area of Christian life commonly ignored by the modern evangelical church more than church discipline. At the same time, there has been a renewed interest in the subject among some evangelical churches, and in Grace churches around the world. I traveled to the Congo last year with Dr. Sam Vinton and taught a series of workshops on this subject for our national grace pastors, and found great reception for regaining the high moral ground of conduct in their churches. Since church discipline is a foundational method to draw the line of demarcation between the world and the church, one of the chief means of showing God’s people to be separated and identified as God’s special people, and a critical way of distinguishing a biblical church from a false one, it is of utmost importance to reestablish the principles and practice of church discipline in the day of moral relativism and post-modernism in which we live.
It Is Because of Love

     Much neglect in the area of church discipline is justified in the name of “love.” It is ironic that much of the biblical instruction and the principles for the implementation of church discipline are actually done on the basis of love. When the Apostle John wrote that we should “love one another,” he also wrote, “And this is love, that we walk in obedience to his commands.” (1) The Apostle Paul wrote of the importance of love in our relationships when he said “Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (2) He went on in that same context to affirm that love was the premier fruit of the Spirit and then gave instructions for the church discipline of members who have fallen into sin. (3)

     There can be no question that the exercise of church discipline is an affirmation of Christ’s love in the church. Immediately before the infamous church discipline situation and instruction of the immoral brother in 1 Corinthians 5, we find Paul stating, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit.” (4) Then in 2 Corinthians 2:8 we see the believers urged to “reaffirm [their] love for him.” When church discipline is properly handled and carried out, it is a profound demonstration of Christian love. Love doesn’t stand by and watch a drowning person sink without reaching a hand out to help. It is no more love for a Christian to watch a brother or sister in Christ actively pursue sinful behavior unchallenged than it is love for parents to watch their child walk unchecked into a catastrophe.

     If we truly desire God to bless our preaching and teaching in the church, to bless the ministries of evangelism and edification, then it is essential that we place the highest priority on living out our faith according to the truth of God’s Word. John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (5) The Bible tells us how to conduct ourselves in “the house of God.” (6) We do not look to the world for such guidance. If we are to practice Christian love, we must practice church discipline. However, it will do the Body of Christ no good if we practice the proper forms of discipline without the Fruit of the Spirit, which includes love, patience and gentleness. This does not suggest that church discipline is a cure-all for the problems and challenges in the contemporary church; nor that discipline is the best or only way in which we ought to display our love for one another. But we do stress the value and importance of leaders regaining the moral authority of leadership in the church, and having courage to obey God rather than man in the area of church discipline.
Is It Pauline?
 
     The way of regaining the influence God wants the church to display in the world lies only along the road of biblical revelation. From a dispensational perspective, we find many guideposts for us on this road. We can identify at least six reasons in the Pauline epistles for the purpose and practice of Church Discipline:
    
     1. To bring glory to God. It is always glorifying to God when we obey his Word as we teach and admonish others (Col. 3:16-17).
     2. To restore, heal, and build up believers who have fallen into habitual sin (2 Thes. 3:14-15; Heb. 12:10-13; Gal. 6:1).
     3. To edify and build up the Body and produce a healthy faith, one sound in doctrine (Tit. 1:13; 1 Tim. 1:19-20).
     4. To win a soul to Christ, if the sinning person is only a professing Christian (2 Tim. 2:24-26).
     5. To silence false teachers and minimize their influence in the church (Tit. 1:10-11; 2 Tim. 3:5-7).
     6. To show the importance of godly leadership in setting an example for the rest of the body and to promote godly fear (1 Tim. 5:20).

     A key passage in the Bible used as a pattern for church discipline is also one that merits a dispensational consideration. Matthew 18:15-17 provides specific steps to follow in the loving discipline and restoration of a sinning brother or sister in the Lord, but the context also poses some difficulty for those who rightly divide the Word of truth. I have often said from the pulpit that we believe the whole Bible is “for” us, but it is not all “to” us. C.R. Stam used the illustration of a modern day United States Post Office to show how this works. Postal employees must “rightly divide” the mail so that each person receives what is addressed to him. Just as it would be a mistake to simply dump all the mail on the floor and invite people to “come and get it,” without distinction as to whom the mail is addressed, so we must look through a dispensational lens to understand what mail is actually written “to” us, while being blessed by the mail written to others in different ages, which is “for” us (2 Tim.3:16), albeit in a secondary manner and fashion. (7) Another good way to remember this important hermeneutic is that there are within the Scriptures certain truths that Craig MacDonald calls “vertical and horizontal.” (8) It is with this understanding of Dispensationalism that we can turn our attention to the consideration of the application of Matthew 18:15-17 in the scope of church discipline today as a horizontal truth but not directly given to Body members and the Church of the Mystery, but intended by God for the purpose of general application to this dispensation which is confirmed by the Apostle Paul’s use of the same steps in his epistles.

     In medieval times, the traditional interpretation was that the “keys of the kingdom” (Mat.16:19 & cf. 18:18) had to do with the authority of the church in both spiritual matters and secular power. All through the Middle ages people lived in mortal fear of what they considered the church’s control over their bodies and souls. The Reformation called this dogma into question. The Protestant Reformers objected to the notion that in the promise of the keys God had written a blank check and surrendered His sovereign authority to the Roman Catholic Church. Calvin claimed that in the promise of the keys “it is not so much power as ministry. Properly speaking, Christ did not give this power to men but to His Word, of which He made men the ministers.” (9) Modern dispensational scholarship supports the Reformation interpretation of the “power of the keys.” It had to do with apostolic authority, but with the apostolic and prophetic ministry ceasing with the completed Word of God, (10) along with the accompanying miraculous sign gifts, the specific instruction to Peter and the Apostles of the Kingdom church became a general principle of a “horizontal truth” for application and instruction in the Church, the Body of Christ, made up of both Jew and Gentile. As Martin Luther wrote in 1521, “But I claim that if St. Peter himself were sitting in Rome today I would still deny that he is pope and supposed to rule over all others by divine right. The papacy is a human invention of which God knows nothing. All churches are equal, and their unity does not depend on the sovereignty of this one man, but as St. Paul says in Ephesians 4, their unity depends on one faith, one baptism, one Lord Jesus Christ, and these are all in common and equal possession of the parishes in the world.” (11) Just because we see the word “church” in the Scriptures does not mean the inspired author is speaking of the Body of Christ. (12) Ekklesia simply means “a called out assembly or group.” (13) Jesus said to Simon, son of Jonah, in Matthew 16:18-19 that “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church [ekklesia], and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Rome uses this passage as proof of the Papacy: The Church built upon Peter with the power to forgive and to bind sin.

     Protestants have used all kinds of interpretive theological gymnastics to try to deny these claims of Rome, but because they agree in essence with the Roman church that this Church, which Christ spoke of, is our present Church, the Body of Christ, they lose the literal hermeneutical argument. But a dispensational perspective teaches that the church Jesus spoke of is not the same as the Church, the Body of Christ, of today. The plain Pauline teaching is that the Church, of which he was sole revealer and minister, was a secret truth hidden in God and never before revealed to the sons of men in past generations. That would mean that Jesus did not refer to this present dispensation of the “One Body” Church made up of both Jew and Gentile (cf. Eph. 3:3-9; 5:32). The Church of which Jesus spoke is associated with the Kingdom of the heavens, which in contrast would be the long promised Messianic Kingdom predicted by all the prophets, which will be established here on earth when Jesus returns as King of kings after the Rapture of the Church and the Tribulation time of seven years spoken by Jesus in Matthew 24 and 25, which was prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures as the terrible “Day of the Lord.” As Baker states, “To make this Church identical with the Church of our present dispensation we must either say Paul was mistaken about our Church being a previously unrevealed secret, or we must say that the term ‘kingdom of heaven’ has suddenly taken on an entirely different meaning from the way it has been used previously in Matthew’s Gospel. But if we let Scripture speak for itself and recognize that Christ is going to have a great congregation or church (ekklesia) in the Millennial Kingdom (cf.Heb. 2:12 and Ps. 22:22), the meaning becomes perfectly clear. Christ told Peter and the other Eleven that they would sit on thrones in that Kingdom judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Mat.19:28). Why do we have to resort to an interpretation which completely nullifies the words of Christ to try to answer the claims of Rome? Rome is correct in delegating authority to Peter, but wrong in making the Millennial Church to be the Church in the world today. Rome is wrong in limiting this authority to Peter, for Christ gave this same authority to all Twelve of the Apostles, for all of them are to sit as Judges in that Kingdom (Jn. 20:23).” (14) It is this same ekklesia that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 18:17. This church is associated with the Messianic Kingdom, and while it is true that the Kingdom had not yet been established, the Lord was calling out His chosen people Israel for that Kingdom. As referenced earlier, ekklesia carries the idea of a “called out” company. Applying a dispensational hermeneutic to these passages helps us understand the specific reference Jesus intended for the Apostles’ future kingdom authority, and the secondary principle that applies to God’s people of any economy. As a “trans-dispensational” principle or “horizontal truth,” the rules the Lord gives here for dealing with a sinning brother are compatible and applicable with Pauline instruction for church discipline of members of the Body of Christ (cf.1 Cor. 5:3-5; 6:1-5; Gal. 6:1; 1 Tim. 5:19-20; Tit. 2:11). The binding and loosing on earth and in heaven means that the results of such scriptural proceedings here on earth are approved in heaven. If we remember that the Lord was addressing His Apostles, who were to be judges in Israel, we can find both the literal application for the Kingdom Church and the secondary (but very real) application to the Church, the Body of Christ, today in the present dispensation of grace.

Footnotes: All Scriptures referenced are from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted.
1 2 John 5,6.
2 Galatians 5:13-14.
3 Galatians 5:23, 6:1-2.
4 2 Corinthians 4:20-21.
5 3 John 4.
6 2 Timothy 3:15 (KJV).
7 C.R. Stam; Things That Differ; Chicago: BBS; 1951 20.
8 Craig MacDonald; Understanding Your Bible; Grand Rapids: GGF, 1995; 23-24.
9 John Calvin; Calvin’s Institutes; Mac Dill AFB: MacDonald, undated; 646.
10 A dispensational interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 combined with Colossians 1:25-26. Another line of thinking has the telion of 1 Cor.13:10 being a mature or full age of the dispensation coming into vogue to precipitate the cessation of the sign gifts and apostolic and prophetic authority. See Baker’s Dispensational Theology, pages 509-510 for this view.
11 Henry Hudson; Papal Power: Its Origins and Development; Durham: Bath, 1981; 60.
12 Acts 7:38 uses ekklesia to describe the children of Israel in the wilderness with Moses and Acts 19:32 uses ekklesia as a depiction of the riotous mob attempting to murder the Apostle Paul. Context (who, what, when, where, why) is everything when translating a particular Greek word!
13 C.K. Barrett; The International Critical Commentary: The Acts of the Apostles, Volume II; Edinburgh: Clark, 1998; 931.
14 Charles Baker; Understanding The Gospels: A Different Approach; Grand Rapids: GP, 1978; 140-141.

 
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