Discipline vs. Punishment

(28 August 2008)

Hebr. 12:9, “Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?”

Church discipline has often baffled me; it seems more Church punishment than discipline. A man was trapped in sin, but he repented; a year later he told the leaders of his experience, and they took action. He was past the sin, and yet they took him out of leadership and punished him. Many have no understanding of the purpose of Church discipline. We fall out with God before we fall out with each other or fall into sin. Sin is the cobweb; falling out is the spider. Don’t go for the cobweb; go for the spider. If a brother (or sister) has fallen out with God, he will begin to walk in the flesh and infect the whole body. He must be disciplined, but not punished. Sin and punishment are one and the same. As soon as the person started sinning, he started punishing himself. He needs to be pulled aside and exhorted with the disciplines of falling back in with God, of spending time with Him, of listening to Him, and of being loved by Him. Others can spend time seeing that he spends time with the Lord. Pull him away from all that would distract from Jesus, like leadership. Let him listen to the Good Shepherd. Once this is done, it can be over. There is no need to keep bringing up the failure, for the failure was not the sin, but the fact that he was deceived into falling away from the abiding presence of Jesus. There will be the odd time when we discover that the person never really wanted Jesus and doesn’t want Him now. We don’t need to put that one out of the fellowship; God has already done that. Just agree with God and wait. If the person falls back into Jesus, he will always be welcome.