Zeal for God's House
The
Motivation for Christian Discipline
Introduction
The first official act of Jesus’ public ministry was His cleansing of the
temple. Jesus and His disciples went up to
Still today the Lord Jesus Christ drives out of His Father’s house those
who have no business to
be in that house, and who are defiling that house of His Father. The Lord Jesus does that today by the faithful
church through the exercise of Christian discipline. When discipline is
exercised, those who defile the house of God are driven out. And when that discipline is exercised
faithfully, the one who drives them out in the end is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
There is in the churches today a widespread neglect of the exercise of
Christian discipline. Men stand by doing nothing while God's house is being
defiled. Christian discipline is a dead
letter in the churches. The vast
majority of evangelical churches in our land today have no concept of Christian
discipline. There is little understanding that it belongs to the calling of the
church to exercise the keys of the kingdom of heaven and in the end to exclude
impenitent sinners from the
The membership rolls of many churches include those who for many years have
never set foot in the sanctuary, or who have darkened the doors of the church
only very infrequently. They don't attend the divine worship services. They
don't contribute regularly to the support of the gospel ministry. Yet they're
left on the rolls of the church. No one visits them. They are left undisturbed.
What can be said about this neglect of Christian discipline in the churches
today? This is what can be said about it -- men are not consumed today by a
zeal for the purity of the house of
God.
The Motivation for Christian Discipline
The neglect of Christian discipline in the church is
undoubtedly due, at least in part, to the fact that men have lost sight of the
motivation for Christian discipline. They don’t understand the reason for
Christian discipline and have no idea of the purpose that Christian discipline
serves. A clear understanding of the motivation for discipline is necessary if
discipline is going to be preserved in the church. Even in the true
That motivation comes down to one thing -- love. That is the motivation for
discipline -- love for the erring brother who is the object of discipline, love
for the church as a whole that exercises discipline, and ultimately love for
God on behalf of whom, and out of a zeal for whose name, discipline is
exercised.
Motivation # 1: Love for the Erring Brother
The first motivation for Christian discipline is love for the erring
brother. Discipline must be motivated by love. They are wrong who object to the
exercise of Christian discipline because it is, they allege, unloving. That's a
characteristic criticism of the Reformed practice of Christian discipline. We
repudiate that charge. On the contrary, we are convinced that discipline is
motivated by love. It is exactly love for the erring brother that moves the
church to discipline.
This is true, is it not, of parents in the discipline of their children? What
moves fathers and mothers to discipline their children is the love that they have for their children. The wise preacher in
Proverbs 13:24
says
this: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but
he that loveth him chasteneth
him betimes." A father who loves his son does not ignore wickedness in the
life of that son. A father who loves his son and who does not to see his son or
his daughter go on impenitently in sin, ultimately to spiritual and eternal
ruin, disciplines that son or that daughter.
What is true in the covenant home is equally true in the covenant family of
God, the church. Just as discipline
in home is motivated by parental love, discipline in the church is motivated by
love for the erring brother.
But then, it must be motivated by love. Every parent has to ask
that question in the discipline of his children: "Is my discipline really
motivated by love for my son or for my daughter; or is my discipline motivated
by my own wrath because my will has been defied? Is my discipline a way to vent
my own anger and to make the one who has hurt me in some respect feel that hurt himself?”
In the church, too, we have to ask ourselves that question. Does love really motivate the
discipline of the erring brother? Is it love, really love, that moves me
privately to go see the brother when the brother has sinned against me? If it
is not love in your heart, then do not go. Don't go! The elders, too, must be
motivated by love in their hearts when they visit those who are wayward. It
becomes a real temptation, especially when a discipline case is long-standing
and is dragged out over a period of time, that pretty soon the elders become
weary of it. Pretty soon it becomes a temptation not to carry on the discipline
work out of the real motivation of love.
Even when Christian discipline leads to excommunication, even when the form for
excommunication is read publicly even then the motivation on the part of the
congregation must still be love. Out of love the congregation proceeds to what
Reformed churches regard as the "extreme remedy."
The Goal of Christian Discipline
Love in Christian discipline aims at the good of the one who is
disciplined. Love always aims at the good of the one who is disciplined.
Parents who love their children are interested in the good of their children.
In Christian discipline the aim is that the brother return.
The goal is that he come back to the church in the way of repentance and
confession and is restored to membership in the congregation. Love does not
desire that he be cut off permanently. Love in discipline is not interested in
getting rid of an unsavory member who has been rather troublesome in the
congregation. But love in discipline always aims at the brother's return.
That, too, is true of the discipline of Christian parents. Because it is out of
love that they discipline their children their discipline aims to be a remedy
to make their children see the error of their ways, bring them back again, and
move them to repentance. That is the thing the church must be interested in
also in the exercise of Christian discipline.
That is not to say that the church must not be careful in the whole matter of
restoration. Indeed, the church must be careful. There must be genuine repentance before
someone is restored. In addition to repentance expressed, there must also be
the evidence of that repentance in the life of the one who is restored. The
Heidelberg Catechism says, at the end of the 85th Answer, that when those who
have been disciplined promise and show — not only promise, but also
show real amendment of life, they are again to be received as members of Christ
and His church. In the end, the consistory makes the judgment whether there is
genuine repentance and whether there is a showing of that repentance by a
changed life.
But then, when there is repentance, when there is conversion of life, in love the congregation must welcome back the restored sinner. As the father of the prodigal received his son with open arms, with the expression of his love to him on returning to the fellowship of the family, so must the church take back and restore the wayward sinner.
The Breaking of Fellowship
It is exactly out of love for the excommunicated member that, so long as he is excommunicated from the congregation, fellowship with him is broken off. That belongs to the exercise of Christian discipline, and that is an aspect of the calling of the congregation that must be taken seriously. It is not enough for the congregation that they pray earnestly on behalf of the one who has been excommunicated that God will work in his heart to bring him to repentance and restore him to the church. It is not enough, as is our calling when we have opportunity, to admonish the excommunicated person so that by that admonition his heart may be broken. But it belongs to the calling of every member of the church that we break off fellowship with the one who has been excommunicated.
The Scriptures are clear about this calling. In
I Corinthians 5,
the apostle speaks of this in verses 9-11,
“I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not
altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or with extortioners, or with idolators;
for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not
to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or
covetous, or an idolator, or a railer,
or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.''
No fellowship! Do not keep
company! Do not even eat with such an one!
It happens, sometimes, that the members of the church do not carry out this
calling. They do not take seriously the will of God in this respect. The motivation for this breaking of
fellowship is not that the members of the church are so much better than the
wayward sinner, for every one of us must say, "But for the grace of God,
there go I..” We are all sinners, and every sin that
is a censurable sin, and that calls for excommunication from the church when
there is impenitence in that sin, is a sin that you have committed and that I
have committed. None of us is a stranger to any of these sins. That is not
the point.
The point is that it is the will of God that so long as one goes on impenitent
in sin and under the discipline of the church, excommunicated from the
congregation, fellowship is disrupted.
The members of the church may not keep fellowship with one who has been
excommunicated.
For as all of us know by our own experience, so long as we go on impenitent in
any sin, so long as there is a sin in our life that we do not confess and break
with, our fellowship with God is disrupted. We do not have the sense of God's
smiling face shining down on us. We do not enjoy living communion with God. It
is only in the way of repentance that the fellowship with God is restored, the
sense of His favor experienced, and His blessing enjoyed once more. It is
exactly because of that, as a reflection of that, that the members of the
church are called to break off fellowship with the impenitent sinner
excommunicated from the congregation.
There are times when this will of Christ is not honored in a congregation.
There are times, even when someone has been excommunicated, that members of the
church continue to have friendly relationships with this individual. They
socialize with the person, going places together and doing things together.
They do not recognize the
validity of the excommunication of the church. This is wrong on the part of the members
of the church.
Love, real love that aims at the restoration of the sinner, requires
that fellowship be broken off. As hard as that may be, love does that. Love
does that in the hope that that breaking off of
fellowship, that not experiencing anymore the communion of God's people, will
be the very thing that God will use to break the sinner's hard heart, convict
the sinner of his guilt, and bring him to his knees in repentance. Then the
fellowship can be restored. Then the sinner can be brought back into the
communion of the church. Then the right hand of fellowship can again be
extended.
Motivation #2: Love for the Church
Besides being motivated in Christian discipline by love for
the erring brother, we must also be motivated by love for the church. Christian
discipline must be motivated by love not only for the individual member of the
church who goes on in sin, but for the church as a whole. Love is interested in
the well-being of the congregation. And love is concerned that the sinner left
impenitent in sin will be an influence for evil on the other members of the
church. The result of the example that he sets will lead other members of the
congregation astray. Out of a zeal, therefore, for the
other members of the church, discipline must he exercised.
That is the way it is with discipline in our covenant homes too. Parents
discipline their wayward child out of a love for that sinful child and in the
hope of bringing that sinful child back. But there ought also to be a love that
is concerned for the welfare of the rest of the family. Parents who neglect to
discipline a wayward or rebellious child expose their other children to the
influence of that wicked way of life. And there will be an influence.
Parents who are concerned for their other children, especially the younger
children in their home, take seriously their calling to discipline. What is
true in our covenant homes is also true in the family of God.
The danger here must not be minimized. It must be taken seriously. The
Scriptures point out the seriousness of this whole matter. In
I Corinthians 5:6,
the apostle Paul speaks of this. "Your glorying," he says,
“is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump?" The apostle
is referring to a sinful member of the congregation at
There are other passages of Scripture that refer to this same thing. In
II Timothy 2:17
the apostle compares an impenitent sinner in the congregation to a
canker -- literally, gangrene. If the gangrenous member is not cut off, pretty
soon the whole body is filled with gangrene and the person dies. Sin in the
congregation is like that.
Out of love, therefore, for the church as a whole, Christian discipline must be
exercised. History demonstrates the truth of this. History demonstrates that a
failure on the part of the church to exercise Christian discipline results in
the decay, and in the end the destruction, of the whole church.
Just let wickedness on the part of some of the young people be
tolerated in a congregation. Let the elders take a tolerant view of that
wickedness -- "They're just sowing their
wild oats. And, after all, they're covenant children and they'll come around
eventually" -- so that loose and wild living is ignored. Rather than to
deal with these young people, the elders wink at their immorality and drunkenness.
What happens? What happens is that
pretty soon the other young people are influenced by that wickedness left
undisciplined in the congregation, and pretty soon the congregation is infected
with wicked and worldly young people.
Or let a church adopt the teaching that God's grace is in one sense or another common,
and all men are the objects of the favor of God, so that at the very least He
desires the salvation of every individual member of the human race, and that
false doctrine in the church works itself through. Pretty soon the church is
teaching about the cross of Christ that it was a death of Christ for everybody,
an atonement that made salvation available for all but efficacious for none.
Pretty soon it is denied that there is in the decree of God a restricting of
salvation to some only. Reprobation is set aside. And pretty soon salvation is
openly taught as being dependent on the free will of the sinner. Principles
work through. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Or let a higher critical view of the Scriptures be tolerated in the church. Let
it begin by men saying about the Bible that it is both the word of God and the
word of men. Pretty soon the opening chapters of Genesis are denied and
regarded as myth. The first chapters of Genesis recount religious experience,
they do not record historical fact. In that way the teaching of evolution is
imported into the church. After that, the miracles are denied, the virgin birth
of Christ, and the blood atonement. Principles work through. A little leaven
leavens the whole lump.
Or let the church set aside the Bible's teaching concerning marriage that
marriage is for life, and that the only legitimate reason for divorce is unrepented-of adultery, and that even in that case the bond
of marriage is not broken. Let the church set that doctrine aside, let the
church permit the remarriage of just the innocent party. Let it begin with
remarriage of the person whose sin was not the occasion for the breakup of the
marriage. Let it be permitted that only that person be
allowed to be remarried. Pretty soon the church is filled with married and
divorced persons who are divorced for every reason and are permitted to
remarry.
Sin breeds sin. It does that in one's life. And it does that
in the life of a church and in the life of a denomination of churches. Out of
love for the church, therefore, and motivated by a zeal
for the holiness of the church, let the church exercise Christian discipline.
Motivation
# 3: Love for God
But the motivation does not end in love for the erring
brother, or in love for the church. In the end, the motivation for Christian
discipline must be love for God.
This is the way it must be in the Christian home. This is why parents in the
church must be faithful to exercise discipline over their children. The
motivation must be love for the Lord God. They must be interested in the honor
of His name. His glory must mean more to them than anything else.
That is the great evil of parents who do not discipline their children. It is
not that, in the end, they do not really love their children. It is not that,
in the end, there is no love for the rest of the family and concern for the
well-being of the other members of the family. The great evil of the neglect of
parental discipline is that parents do not love God as they ought to love him.
This was the word of God to Eli expressing the seriousness of Eli's neglect to
discipline his wicked sons, Hophni and Phinehas. In
I Samuel 2:29,
God Himself says about Eli that
he honored his sons more than he honored God. No parent may honor his children
more than he honors God. The parent who honors God, God first of all, God's
glory, God's name, will for God's sake discipline his children.
That was Jesus' motivation for cleansing the temple. That's what
John 2:17
tells us, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up." He had a zeal for God's
house, God's honor and God's name. He was moved to righteous anger because it
was God's honor that was being trampled upon by the defilement of His house. It
was out of zeal for Jehovah God that the Lord Jesus made a whip and drove out
those buyers and sellers. That same kind of zeal for the house of God and for
the honor of God's name must motivate the church in the exercise of Christian
discipline.
So much did the Lord Jesus Christ love God that He laid down His life in
obedience to God. That was the cleansing of God's temple. That is what the
cleansing of God's temple and the zeal for the holiness of the
May the zeal of our Lord be the incentive to the church to preserve the
exercise of Christian discipline. May the church be
motivated by love for the erring brother, love for the congregation as a whole,
and, above all, love for God.