Dr. Betters,
I recently listened to several of your sermons on "Church Discipline" and... the question I have is, how does church leadership decide what actions are acceptable and which are not? For example: We all agree that adultery is wrong and should be addressed. However, what about a member watching a rated "R" movie that has explicit sex scenes. Or a shoplifter compared to someone who continually takes office supplies from work. Finally, a drug dealer compared to a member that owns a store that sells beer, cigarettes and lotto tickets. This is the number one question I am asked when I present this teaching to my fellow believers "Where do we draw the line."

Pastor Betters responds:

Dear Colby,
This is a great question and one that is asked whenever church discipline is taught. For what sins do we discipline? Since church discipline is designed to purify the church and to recapture the offending brother so that he might be reconciled to the body, the sins which are formally disciplined are those which are egregious in nature and which affect the corporate witness of the church. In 1 Corinthians 5 we learn of an offense that needed to be addressed. Yet the church prided itself on their liberal openness and did not take any action. There was a man in the church who was having a sexual relationship with his step-mother. It appears as though it was well known throughout the church and the church refused to discipline the offenders. Paul commands them to do so and warns them of his own wrath if they do not. Read below with my comments added.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship (excommunicated; my comment) the man who did this? Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus (this was a public sin and needed to be dealt with in a public way; my comments) and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, (this is a process Jesus instructed the church to employ in Matthew 18:15-17; my comments) hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved (the purpose of all discipline is to restore the fallen; my comments) on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-- not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

The church needs to be careful in making this delineation since it can become very easy to slip into a legalism that is not healthy for the church. Discipline is serious business and thus the leadership of the church must be very selective in determining whether or not the sin is injuring the public and corporate witness of the church. Some sins are more injurious to the entire body than others. Other sins are more injurious to the individual and have little if any impact on the corporate witness of the church. Paul gives us a list of egregious offenses in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. This is certainly not meant to be an exhaustive list. But it is a list of sins that are public in nature. In the context of 1 Corinthians 5 noted above Paul says,

1 Corinthians 6:9-20

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. "Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

I hope this helps.

In His Grip,
Dr. Chuck Betters

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