SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/12/2023 10:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-6 “The
Process and Place for Discipline”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
18:16-17
Message of the verses: “16 But if he does
not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be
established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 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.”
It is my hope to finish this section in our SD for
today as it seems like we have been on the subject of discipline, and it is an
important subject, for a long time. We
have just been talking about how this last step of discipline is to remove the
person from the church, however that does not mean that believers in the church
cannot have contact with him outside the church, for as mentioned many times
the purpose of discipline is to bring back the person to restore fellowship
with the Lord and with the church members.
MacArthur writes “When there is opportunity to admonish him and try to
call him back, the opportunity should be taken.
In fact, such opportunities should be sought. But the contacts should be for the purpose of
admonishment and no other.” I guess he
is saying not to go out and have a good time with this person, but to continue
to talk to him about his sinful actions and desire for him to confess and
forsake the sinful thing that this person was doing.
Administering
discipline is not an easy thing to do but necessary, and it should never the
prerogative of a single person in a church, no matter what his position or
qualifications. I have been talking a
bit about how the body of Christ is to function, as like in the human body all
parts are needed to make it function properly.
The same in the church, as perhaps one of the members had been praying
for this person who was taken out of the church and then because of this burden
he goes and talks to the sinning brother, and by the grace of God this sinning
person understands the sinfulness of what he has been doing and repents and
thus is brought back into fellowship. It
is the job of the entire church to be a part of the discipline process for if
it was up to one person, like in the case of Diotrephes, whom John describes as
one “who lives to be first.” “For this
reason, if I come,” John goes on to write, “I will call attention to his deeds
which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked works, and not satisfied with
this, neither does he himself receive the brethren, and he forbids those who
desire to do so, and puts them out of the church” (3 John 9-10). We see in this passage from 3 John why
discipline should not be done by one person.
MacArthur writes “Autocratic self-righteousness has no part in Christ’s
plan for His church and can never be successful in purifying it. Only the loyal body of believers has the
right to put a member out of its fellowship, and that only after the first
three steps of discipline have failed.”
We
close by talking about the person in Corinth who was actually having sexual
relations with his father’s wife, (not his mother), and Paul was very involved
in this as seen in the sixth chapter.
However after the sinning brother was put out of the church it seems
that he had repented and Paul writes the following in 2 Corinthians 2:5-8 “5 But
if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree — in
order not to say too much — to all of you. 6 Sufficient for such a one is this punishment
which was inflicted by the majority, 7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive
and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed
by excessive sorrow. 8 Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for
him.” It seems to me that this church
went from first of all accepting the sinful acts of this man, and then Paul
wrote to them about it and then they do not want to bring the brother back into
fellowship after he repented, and thus both things were wrong. MacArthur concludes “When a believer repents,
he is to be welcomed back into the fellowship and not held at arm’s length as a
second-class member. He is to be
forgiven and embraced, just as the Savior forgave and embraced the prodigal
Peter when he returned from his disobedience (John 21:15-22).”
Well
we are still not done with talking about discipline as the next section (Matt.
18:18-20) will be our next set of verses, and the title of this section is “The
Authority for Discipline.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The subject from our Wednesday evening
service was “self-control,” which is the last section from Galatians five on
the “fruit of the Spirit.” Having
self-control, through the power of the Holy Spirit is something that will keep
us from sin, and along with that is to remember Psalm 139:23-24 where the Psalmist
says “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious
thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the
everlasting way.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is my
desire to have the Holy Spirit search me each and every day in order that I am
not holding back any sin that I need to confess.
1/12/2023 10:59 AM
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