SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/6/2023 11:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Purpose of Discipline
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
18:15c
Message of the verse: “if he listens to you, you have won your brother.”
I have been talking about what the purpose of
discipline is in different parts of my SD’s while going through this section in
Matthew chapter 18, but I think we will look more thoroughly at it in this SD.
The actual purpose of discipline is spiritual restoration
as seen in this last part of Matthew 18:15, “you have won your brother.” When the sinning brother is rebuked and he
turns from his sin and is forgiven, he is won back to fellowship with the Body
and with its head, Jesus Christ.
I have mentioned about the last pastor that I had in the
church that I attended for 32 years, the church where I was baptized , as it
was the only church that I went to after I became a believer. He was the third pastor in that church and
the first two were very godly men who preached and taught from the Bible,
causing me to learn from their teachings.
This last man seemed to me to treat discipline in a way that would
certainly do harm to the people whom he said were sinning. I heard him say to some of the men that I
worked with on repairing the church that he was going to take them to the
board, and he said it in a mean-spirited way.
I am happy to learn from John MacArthur’s preaching and teaching what
the true reason for discipline is all about.
I have to admit that there are still some hard feelings about what
happened in my former church and I am not the only one. He finally quit, but what he did to that
church was totally wrong and the Lord is the One who will have to deal with
this as He sees fit. My hope would be
that he finally confesses what he has done wrong.
Let
us look at some verses to help us in looking at this situation of
discipline. Proverbs 11:30 says “He who
is wise wins souls,” the writer of Proverbs declared. Galatians 6:1 written by the apostle Paul
says “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any
trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each
one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.” James 5:19-20 “19 My
brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from
the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude
of sins.” “In some cases, as in that of
the James passage you may be confronting a professing Christian who is not even
saved. Enacting discipline has often, in MacArthur's” experience, led to the admission by the sinner that he had never
been saved and then to his desire for true conversion.”
MacArthur
goes on “Won is from kerdaind, which
was originally a term of commerce referring to financial gain or profit. Here it refers to the gaining back of
something of value that is lost, namely, an erring brother.” It was not long ago that we studied the
passage about the lost sheep, and how the owner left the 99 and went out and
searched for that lost 100th sheep.
He cared for that sheep as much as the other 99. The shepherd’s will was “that one of these
little ones would not perish.” Now we
who are believers should be on the lookout for sheep who seem to be having some
kind of troubles so that we can be talking to those who seem lost or troubled
or who have sinned so we can do as our verse says, to win the brother back.
When
a church member falls into sin and nothing is done about it in the church then
the church as a whole suffers loss, because no individual believer in the Body
is reproducible, perhaps people in churches don’t really understand this
truth. When you think about the body of
Christ, which is the church, each individual is put into a particular church to
fill a need. The body is a wonderful
example of the church as all parts of the human body are useful.
MacArthur
concludes “Churches as well as individual Christians are tempted to say of a
sinning brother, in effect if not in words, ‘We have no business getting
involved. It’s his life, his decision,
and his responsibility. He’s accountable
to God, and what he is and does is only between him and the Lord.’ That attitude may sound loving and spiritual
on the surface, but it does not square with Scripture. It reflects ungodly indifference, not loving
concern for the brother who has fallen.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “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” (Ps. 139:23-24).
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Holy Spirit will give me aid
as I am memorizing verses in order to meditate on them.
1/6/2023 12:20 PM
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