In a world where church hurt is a trending hashtag, where tolerance is considered the highest virtue, and where authority is often viewed with suspicion, what role does church discipline have in today’s church?
First off, what is church discipline – because that’s not actually a phrase you’ll find in the Bible.
9Marks defines it this way: “Church discipline is the church’s act of confronting someone’s sin and calling them to repent…”
The Reformers believed, along with the faithful preaching of God’s Word and the proper administration of the sacraments, that church discipline was one of the marks of a true church (Belgic Confession, Art. 29; Westminster Confession of Faith 25.4).
But even before modern ministries or the Reformation, church discipline is a biblical practice.
The first clear outline of it comes from Jesus Himself in Matthew 18, where He explains how His followers are to respond when a brother or sister sins (Matt. 18:15–20). Rather than gossiping, ignoring it, or publicly shaming someone, Jesus lays out a loving, intentional process that begins privately and only escalates when someone refuses to repent.
Later in the New Testament, the pastor and author of Hebrews builds on the notion of church discipline in chapter 12 by first reminding believers that God disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12:5–11). Like a good father, God corrects His children—not because He delights in punishment, but because He desires their holiness. As the pastor writes in Hebrews, God’s discipline (and therefore all godly discipline) “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).
If God lovingly disciplines His children, then it should not surprise us that He has also given His church a means of lovingly correcting one another (Matt. 18:15–20; 1 Cor. 5:1–13).
Unfortunately, church discipline has developed a bad reputation, and, to be fair, sometimes that’s deserved, as it’s done without love, is humiliating, and is carried out in very unbiblical ways. There have been churches that have used discipline as a weapon to control people, settle personal scores, or publicly embarrass those who have failed. Let’s be clear on this: that isn’t biblical church discipline; that’s spiritual abuse, and that is the cause of true church hurt.
But just because something can be abused doesn’t mean it should be abandoned, particularly when it’s biblical.
The purpose of church discipline has never been punishment. Its purpose is restoration as well as protection (Gal. 6:1; 2 Thess. 3:14–15).
It’s restorative to bring people back to a place of holiness and faithfulness, but it’s also about protection because to remain in unrepentant sin is to put ourselves under the judgment and wrath of God (1 Cor. 5:5; Heb. 10:26–31) – and so discipline seeks to protect us from God’s judgment by restoring us to the true walk of holiness.
Paul makes this abundantly clear. Whether instructing the church in Corinth to remove an unrepentant man from fellowship (1 Cor. 5:1–13) or encouraging the Galatians to restore a brother caught in sin “in a spirit of gentleness” (Gal. 6:1), the goal of church discipline is always the same: repentance, reconciliation, and renewed fellowship with Christ and His people (2 Cor. 2:5–11).
Unfortunately, many people assume that discipline is the opposite of love. Yet, according to Hebrews, church discipline is one of the ways that church leadership is to love the congregation (Heb. 12:5–11; Prov. 3:11–12).
A healthy church doesn’t ignore sin because it loves people. It addresses sin because it loves people (Rev. 3:19).
Of course, not every issue or matter of sin requires church discipline. As Christians are called to be patient with one another, address issues individually first, extend grace, and bear with one another’s weaknesses (Matt. 18:15; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12–14), church discipline is reserved for serious, outward, unrepentant sin that threatens the individual’s soul, the integrity and health of the church, or the testimony of Christ (1 Cor. 5:6–13; Titus 3:10–11).
In every case of church discipline, each conversation should be marked by humility, gentleness, and with the sincere hope that repentance will follow (Gal. 6:1; 2 Tim. 2:24–26).
When practiced biblically, church discipline is not cold or harsh. It is one of the clearest demonstrations that a church actually believes the gospel and takes the Scriptures seriously. This is why the Reformers said it was one of the marks of a true church. Church discipline is a practice that loves people enough to call them away from what will destroy them and to call them back to the Savior who forgives them and to the church that loves them.
Even the Bible tells us that no one enjoys church discipline (Heb. 12:11). While this is speaking of the person receiving it, the same goes for those who must carry it out. I’ve been part of a number of church discipline cases, and while I’m grateful for those testimonies that result in restoration, I wish I didn’t have to do any of them.
And so what is church discipline? It’s an act in which the church seeks to be the church as we love and care for one another, even when the road is rough, and the conversations are hard.
So if you find yourself in sin and under church discipline, understand that if you are being approached in a godly and biblical way, what is happening is for the good of your soul, and it is being done out of love, because that is the backbone of church discipline: love of God, love of His Word, and love of the church.
Additional Confessional References:
- Belgic Confession, Article 29 — The Marks of the True Church
- Belgic Confession, Article 32 — The Order and Discipline of the Church
- Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 82–85 (especially Q&A 85 on the keys of the kingdom)
- Westminster Confession of Faith 30.1–30.4 — Of Church Censures
- Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 173
- https://www.9marks.org/answer/what-church-discipline/
