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| by Erik Wait |
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The Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 30 is titled “Of Church Censures.” The word “censure” means “a condemning as wrong” or “judgment or resolution condemning a person for misconduct.” In essence this chapter is on church discipline. When most Christians think of the notion of “Church discipline” they tend to think of such terms only with a negative connotation. In their mind “church discipline” means “Somebody committed a really big sin and now the elders have to kick them out.” Unfortunately the narrow manner in which the Westminster Confession of Faith discusses church discipline reinforces rather than corrects this narrow negative view of what is actually a great sanctifying grace of God. After Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection He declared to the disciples:
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
The primary form of church discipline is the baptizing and instructing of the saints. To be a “disciple” is to be one who is “disciplined” or “discipled” by Jesus Christ through the agents He has appointed in the home (parents) and in the church (pastors, teachers, elders). When the preacher rightly declares the Word of God in all its fullness from the pulpit he is practicing church discipline. The more counseling and admonishment he does from the pulpit the less he will have to do in a formal judicial sense as taught in Matthew 18.
Furthermore, many people also have a negative connotation tied to even the formal judicial confrontational form of church discipline as well. What they fail to see is that when an elder confronts a wayward sheep concerning their sin he does so for their own good. The goal and motive is not to lay heavy burdens on the sheep but rather to save the fellow Christian from going astray and suffering the consequences and regrets of continuing in sin. The goal is to correct the fellow saint so that they will turn from their sin and be restored to the joy of their salvation and not bring dishonor to the name of Christ because their sin declares the wrong message to the world.
“Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” (Galatians 6:1-3)
I would rather have a brother in Christ confront me to my face (in love and gentleness) about my sin than turn a blind eye and allow me to continue on my foolishness. (Galatians 2:11) I would rather suffering the wounds of a brother than enjoy the kisses of the enemy. (Proverbs 27:6) When my closest brothers come to me to correct me I know that they do so because they love me and want the best for me. It may not feel good at the time and I may squirm and resist for a while, but because of our common bond in the faith I heed the counsel of my elders and brothers in Christ. And once in a while I even receive a motherly or sisterly rebuke in the church as well!
Because of our own sinfulness we often go through life with blinders on, not even seeing the dangers all around us. It is like driving in a car. We look in the rear and side view mirrors and look over our shoulder and yet often times there is a someone on a motorcycle in our blind spot. We then go to change lanes and almost run the rider off the road. The purpose of church discipline and accountability to our fellow Christians is so that they might look out for us and warn us, “Watch out! There is a motorcycle in the next lane!” But if we are proud, stubborn and hard hearted then rather than welcoming such corrective action we will continue in our sin only to suffer the consequences later when God Himself has to take a direct corrective action.
The Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 30 “Of Church Censures” states:
“I. The Lord Jesus, as king and head of His Church, has therein appointed a government, in the hand of Church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate.”
Likewise, the Belgic Confession Article 30 “The Government of the Church” states:
“We believe that this true church ought to be governed according to the spiritual order that our Lord has taught us in his Word. There should be ministers or pastors to preach the Word of God and administer the sacraments. There should also be elders and deacons, along with the pastors, to make up the council of the church. By this means true religion is preserved; true doctrine is able to take its course; and evil men are corrected spiritually and held in check, so that also the poor and all the afflicted may be helped and comforted according to their need. By this means everything will be done well and in good order in the church, when such persons are elected who are faithful and are chosen according to the rule that Paul gave to Timothy (1 Timothy 3).”
The Belgic Confession goes on to state in Article 31 “The Officers of the Church”:
“We believe that ministers of the Word of God, elders, and deacons ought to be chosen to their offices by a legitimate election of the church, with prayer in the name of the Lord, and in good order, as the Word of God teaches. So everyone must be careful not to push himself forward improperly, but he must wait for God's call, so that he may be assured of his calling and be certain that he is chosen by the Lord. As for the ministers of the Word, they all have the same power and authority, no matter where they may be, since they are all servants of Jesus Christ, the only universal bishop, and the only head of the church. Moreover, to keep God's holy order from being violated or despised, we say that everyone ought, as much as possible, to hold the ministers of the Word and elders of the church in special esteem, because of the work they do, and be at peace with them, without grumbling, quarreling, or fighting.”
There are three covenantal spheres in society (family, church and state) each with their own respective leaders who have the authority, jurisdiction and responsibility to carry on their duties as representatives of Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 6:4; 1 Timothy 3:5; Romans 13:1-4) None of them have inherent authority, rather their authority is entirely delegated to them by God as Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.” (John 19:11) Likewise Paul said of the Roman government of his own time, “Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” (Romans 13:1) In the Old Testament all three covenantal leaders were referred to as “elders.” Today we think of them as fathers, elders and the civil magistrate (a king, a prime minister, a president, governor, mayor etc.)
Notice that the confession rightly says that the church “officers” (elders, pastors, shepherds) are distinct form that of the civil magistrate but does not say that there is any notion of a “separation of church and state.” In fact, even the U.S. Constitution does not say that there is such a thing, only that the congress is not to either establish a state religion or interfere in the free exercise of religion. Ecclesiastical rulers are not to rule over the state and the state rulers are not to rule over the church and when either of these seeks to exercise an authority which has not been delegated to him the result is an infringement on the jurisdiction of the other.
The Belgic Confession Article 32 “The Order and Discipline of the Church” likewise states:
“We also believe that although it is useful and good for those who govern the churches to establish and set up a certain order among themselves for maintaining the body of the church, they ought always to guard against deviating from what Christ, our only Master, has ordained for us. Therefore we reject all human innovations and all laws imposed on us, in our worship of God, which bind and force our consciences in any way. So we accept only what is proper to maintain harmony and unity and to keep all in obedience to God. To that end excommunication, with all it involves, according to the Word of God, is required.”
The Westminster Confession goes on to teach:
“II. To these officers the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed; by virtue whereof, they have power, respectively, to retain, and remit sins; to shut that kingdom against the impenitent, both by the Word, and censures; and to open it unto penitent sinners, by the ministry of the Gospel; and by absolution from censures, as occasion shall require.”
One of the most important and yet also one of the most misused or misunderstood passages on the issue of Church censures, or church discipline, is found in Matthew 18 in which Jesus teaches on how to save lost sheep that have gone astray:
“’For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? f it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.’ Then Peter came and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” (Matthew 18:11-22)
The entire passage is about going after staying sheep and seeking to bring them back into the fold. It is a teaching on how to forgive sins. Jesus states that He came to “seek and save that which was lost” and then after His teaching Peter asks, “How many times should I forgive my brother.” The focus therefore ought to be on how to redeem and bring back the wayward sheep and each step of confrontational process is to be a means of pulling the wanderer back from the brink of destruction. In other words, while this text surely gives us a three step process for dealing with a disciplinary issue confront one on one, then with a witness and finally with the entire church) the emphasis is not on the censure of a Christian but on the great lengths that Jesus will go to bring a person back to a state of grace. We are to forgive not merely seven times seven, but seventy times seven.
The passage is applicable both to church discipline as well as dealing with individual offenses between brothers in Christ. The text provides principles for the process of confronting, correcting, counseling, confirming accounts with witnesses and then finally either restoring a straying brother or sadly excommunicating him from the life of the flock so that he is no longer under the protection of Jesus’ appointed shepherds. The Confession affirms this when it states:
“III. Church censures are necessary, for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren, for deterring of others from the like offenses, for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump, for vindicating the honor of Christ, and the holy profession of the Gospel, and for preventing the wrath of God, which might justly fall upon the Church, if they should suffer His covenant, and the seals thereof, to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders.”
As the Confession states, the serious offenses of a believer not only affect an individual who must be brought under church discipline but then entire flock and the reputation of the name of Christ as well. If the Church turns a blind eye to open and wanton sin, then the message that is sent is that repentance is not necessary, that the gospel condones and promotes sin and the result is that this sin will spread throughout the Church and bring scandal to the bride of Christ. One of the clearest examples of this is a case in the Church of Corinth in which a believer is having sex with his father’s wife:
“It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst. For I, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus. I have decided to delver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the leaven, that you may be a new lamp, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler - not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (1 Corinthians 5:1-13)
Every Christian sins. The Christian life is one of progressing in sanctification, of battling against sin and it is the common experience of every believer that we do things that we wish we had not done as Paul states:
“For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” (Galatians 5:17; cf. Romans 7:15-24)
But there is a huge difference between a Christian who battles against sin and lives a life of constant confession and repentance and one who practices and a church that condones sin in the name of grace. The result of turning a blind eye to sin is that it spreads throughout the church. If this continues and the leaders of the church do not rightly practice church discipline then the Lord Himself will step in and judge the church, removing His lampstand (the Holy Spirit) from among their midst as He warned the various churches in His epistles in the Book of Revelation:
“To the angel of the Church in Ephesus... But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.” (Revelation 2:1, 4-5, 20)
The Westminster Confession goes on to that Church censures are:
“IV. For the better attaining of these ends, the officers of the Church are to proceed by admonition; suspension from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper for a season; and by excommunication from the Church; according to the nature of the crime, and demerit of the person.”
This portion of this chapter presents a three step process in exercising church discipline. First, a verbal admonition, second a suspension of access to the Lord’s Supper and then third a formal act of excommunication. I have to say that I strongly disagree with this portion of this chapter and that there is absolutely no Biblical warrant for the second step, that is the “suspension from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper for a season.” The Lord’s Supper is communion. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17) To be removed from the table fellowship of the saints is ex-communion. This is why Paul tells the Corinthian church that in preparation for the Passover, which is Christ, that they are to remove the leaven of the sin of the man who is having sex with his father’s wife and that they are not even to eat with such a person. (1 Corinthians 5:7) The language of 1 Corinthians chapter 5 is borrowed from preparatory requirements for partaking of Passover which was a foreshadow of Christ. (cf. Exodus 12:15) For anyone to be judicially removed from the Lord’s Supper, the cup and table of Christ, is to be excommunicated. This is why the majority of the Western Church is wrong in keeping a covenant children who have been baptized from the Lord’s Supper. Matthew 18 presents a threefold judicial process (three forms of verbal admonitions) that leads up to excommunication and nowhere does it say anything about merely removing a person from the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Such an error is a hold over in Western Protestant Churches from Roman Catholicism.
Study Questions for Applying This Lesson
(1) Do you see church discipline Biblically applied as a means of grace or as an infringement on your autonomy?
(2) Do you live your life openly, humbly willing to receive correction from your fellow Christians?
(3) When you see a fellow Christian sliding into sin, do you lovingly and humbly go to them and try to correct them? Or do you turn a blind eye to their sin and say to yourself, “It isn’t any of my business.”
(4) Do you live a double life, fearing that someone might find out about your secret sin and consequently the elders will “lower the boom” on you?
(5) When someone has been removed from the Table because they continue in grievous sin, do you continue to pray for them? Or do you gossip about them and think to yourself, “I would never do that!”
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