What is church discipline?

The Church & Christian LifeIn theological review

The short answer

Church discipline is the church's loving correction of a member in serious, unrepentant sin, following the steps Jesus gave: a private word, then witnesses, then the church, aimed throughout at winning the person back. Paul applies it in Corinth for the protection of the church and the good of the sinner. Its stated goal is restoration, not punishment, embarrassment or control.

The fuller answer

Jesus himself gives the pattern, and it begins as privately as possible. If your brother sins, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens, you have gained your brother. Only if he refuses do witnesses come, and only if he refuses them does the church hear of it. The sequence is the point: the smallest circle that can solve the problem is the right circle, gossip is excluded by design, and every step exists to win the person, not to win an argument. Most discipline in a healthy church happens at this first, quiet stage and is never heard of again.

If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Matthew 18:15-17 (BSB)

Paul shows the far end of the pattern in Corinth, where a man was living in open immorality and the church was tolerating it. Paul instructs the congregation to act, removing the man from fellowship, and he gives reasons in both directions: a little leaven works through the whole batch, so unaddressed sin teaches the whole church to take sin lightly; and the man himself is handed over so that his spirit may be saved. Even the severest step is described with a saving purpose. Discipline that enjoys severity, or that exists to protect leaders from criticism, has already departed from Paul's stated aims.

Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

Galatians 6:1 (BSB)

The companion instruction is Galatians: if someone is caught in a transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness, watching yourselves. Restoration is the word. Churches therefore distinguish discipline from disagreement, weakness, immaturity and being wounded by life: it addresses clear sin, brought to light, persisted in after patient, private, documented care. Done biblically it is slow, tearful, hopeful and rare at its formal stages. Done badly it is a reason people fear churches, which is exactly why Jesus fenced it with steps, witnesses and the goal of gaining a brother.

hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 5:5 (BSB)

It is worth naming what discipline is not, because the abuses are real and remembered. It is not a tool for settling scores, enforcing preferences, punishing doubt, questioning, grief or weakness, or protecting an institution's reputation at the cost of a person. It is not public shaming staged for effect, and it is never a substitute for involving the authorities where a crime has been committed; churches that handled crimes as internal spiritual matters have betrayed both the victim and the pattern in these texts. The steps Jesus gave assume time, privacy, evidence and tears. Anything faster and louder should be distrusted.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

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What is church membership?Church membership is the recognisable belonging the New Testament assumes: a known body of believers who have been received by a congregation, who gather, are taught and cared for, and who accept the shepherding and correction of that church. Luke says believers were added to the church. Paul treats the congregation as a definite body that can act together. Membership simply names and orders that belonging.What are the marks of a healthy church?A healthy church is marked by the faithful preaching of the Word, the right use of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and leaders who watch over the flock, including, when needed, loving discipline. Those are the historic marks summed up in the Belgic Confession. Around them grow the shared life of Acts: prayer, fellowship, generosity and steady growth in holiness and love.What is repentance?Repentance is a change of mind about sin and about God that turns into a change of direction. Peter's command joins both halves: repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away. It is more than feeling sorry, which can evaporate by morning. It is agreeing with God about your sin, grieving it, and leaving it, trusting the mercy that meets you on the way back.What is the church?The church is the people of God, not a building, a brand, or an audience. Jesus called it my church, promised to build it himself, and the first picture of it is a community devoted to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. If you belong to Christ, you already belong to his church. The local congregation is where that belonging takes flesh.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.