Understanding Church Discipline by Leeman Jonathan;

Author:Leeman, Jonathan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Christian Church/General
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2016-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

A Description of Your Work—Part 2

In some ways, church discipline is about nothing more or less than assessing repentance. You shouldn’t be surprised when Christians sin. The question is, do they repent? Once you establish that a person has sinned, that is the only question you are trying to answer.

Compare Dave and Pedro. Both struggled with drinking too much and could probably be labeled alcoholics. Both claimed they wanted to quit. Both tried to quit. Pedro did. Dave didn’t. Or, he sort of did, then he didn’t. Then did, then didn’t. And so it went. Certainly Pedro was repentant. Was Dave? That’s not always an easy question to answer.

I remember meeting almost weekly with Mike while he struggled with a pornography addiction. On a couple of occasions he went beyond pornography to meeting with women. Mike talked as if he hated his sin and generally seemed to be filled with remorse. But then he would pursue his sin again. In counseling Mike, I sometimes used the carrot of God’s promises. Other times I would use the stick of God’s warnings. Then carrot, then stick. Then anything else I could think of. I remember once sitting with Mike in a restaurant after the latest round of confessions. I sat dumbly, thinking to myself, “I have nothing to say. There’s nothing else in my tool bag to help this guy!” I started to wonder if I should I bring in two or three others, or take it to the elders, and if it could go to the church.

Gratefully, I could see a couple of other patterns in Mike’s life. First, the frequency with which he looked at pornography was decreasing—from seven days a week, to four days a week, to one day a week, and so on. Second, as long as I was in regular contact with Mike, he did better. When I got busy, he did worse. This encouraged me, ironically, because it suggested that the man was probably weaker than he was rebellious.

Paul tells us to account not just for the nature of the sin, but the nature of the sinner: “warn those who are irresponsible, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thess. 5:14).

Ultimately, it seemed to me that Mike was repentant. I never took it further.

Two Kinds of Sorrow

Sometimes church members acknowledge they are in sin and refuse to budge. Sometimes they refuse to acknowledge they are in sin, such as in marital spats. Yet sometimes they admit they are wrong and promise to change. Your task then is to discern between godly sorry and worldly sorrow. Notice how Paul distinguishes between the two with the Corinthians:

Now I rejoice . . . because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed. . . . For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death. For consider how much diligence this very thing—this grieving as God wills—has produced in you:

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