What is church discipline?
Question 09055
Church discipline is one of the most neglected functions of the modern church. Many congregations have never practised it. Many pastors have never been trained in it. And many believers would be horrified at the suggestion that a church has the right and the responsibility to confront sin in its members and, if necessary, to remove someone from fellowship. Yet the New Testament is unambiguous: church discipline is not optional. It is commanded, it is described in detail, and it serves purposes that are essential to the health, holiness, and witness of the church.
The Teaching of Jesus
The foundational text is Matthew 18:15-20, where Jesus Himself establishes the process. The pattern is graduated and restorative in purpose. If a brother sins, the offended party goes to him privately. If he listens, the relationship is restored and the matter ends. If he does not listen, one or two witnesses are brought, so that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses (a principle drawn from Deuteronomy 19:15). If he still refuses to listen, the matter is brought before the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be treated “as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17), which in the context of a Jewish community meant being regarded as outside the covenant community.
The purpose at every stage is restoration, not punishment. The goal is to bring the sinning brother to repentance. The graduated process gives repeated opportunities for that to happen before the most serious step is taken. Private confrontation preserves dignity. The involvement of witnesses ensures fairness. The involvement of the church ensures accountability. The final step, removal from fellowship, is the last resort when every attempt at restoration has been refused.
Paul’s Practice and Instructions
Paul applied this principle directly. In 1 Corinthians 5, he confronted the Corinthian church for tolerating a member living in flagrant sexual immorality, a man involved in a relationship with his father’s wife. Paul’s instruction was unequivocal: “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 5:5). The purpose is striking. Even in the most severe expression of discipline, the ultimate aim is the person’s salvation, not their destruction. Paul rebuked the church for its arrogance in tolerating what should have been addressed, warning that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). Unaddressed sin spreads. It normalises what should be confronted and corrupts the community that should be distinct.
The outcome in this case appears to have been positive. In 2 Corinthians 2:5-8, Paul urges the church to forgive and comfort a man who has been disciplined, “so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.” The discipline achieved its restorative purpose: the man repented, and the church was instructed to receive him back with love and affirmation. This is the complete picture. Discipline without restoration is cruelty. Restoration without discipline is indifference.
What Warrants Church Discipline
Church discipline is not for every disagreement, every personality clash, or every imperfection. It is for persistent, unrepentant sin that damages the individual, the church, or its witness. Paul’s list in 1 Corinthians 5:11 includes sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, reviling, drunkenness, and swindling. He instructs believers not even to eat with someone who bears the name of brother while living in these patterns. The common thread is not the severity of the sin alone but the refusal to repent. A believer who sins and repents is to be forgiven. A believer who sins and refuses to acknowledge it, who digs in and defends what Scripture condemns, is the proper subject of discipline.
So, now what?
If your church has no process for dealing with persistent unrepentant sin in its membership, something essential is missing. Church discipline is an act of love, both toward the individual who needs to be called back from a destructive path and toward the community whose holiness and witness are at stake. It requires courage, wisdom, patience, and an unwavering commitment to the goal of restoration rather than retribution. It is painful. It is necessary. And when it is practised faithfully, following the process Jesus established, it produces the kind of repentance and restoration that no amount of looking the other way will ever achieve.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” Matthew 18:15 (ESV)
