The Curious Case of Church Discipline

I have a confession to make. I hate church discipline. There it is, I’ve said it. Okay, maybe ‘hate’ is too much; strongly dislike it for sure, though. I realize that it may be necessary in certain situations; however, those instances are so rare I can’t even think of one right now. I have three main issues with the practice called “church discipline” all of which, in one way or another, center around the fact that we aren’t God.

Reason number one: we aren’t holy. Sorry, but it’s true . Our innate lack of holiness precludes us from rejecting other believers from our body. It’s kind of a “he without sin” meets “remove the beam from your own eye first” principle. You and I are completely and thoroughly fallible and it’s slightly hypocritical of us to punish someone else for being just like us. Slightly. Also, God’s holiness allows Him to judge sin objectively; our absence thereof means we can only evaluate sin subjectively. People are usually kicked out of church for “bringing shame” or “promoting sinfulness”, which generally means whatever they did was something obvious that the collective “we” doesn’t like (the sinner!). So, a congregant consistently cheats on his wife: hasta la vista, baby. Brother So-and-so consistently cheats on his taxes: let’s make him our accountant. But here’s the thing, God isn’t subjective. He looks at the guy who consistently cheats on his wife and the guy who consistently fails to treat his children with grace and love and He sees sin and feels shame. And we miss that. Sin is sin is sin with God. To Him there’s no difference between failing to adequately appreciate your spouse and beating them. Be we see a difference and judge them accordingly. For a group that’s God’s representative on earth, we sure don’t judge like Him. And we aren’t such great stone-throwers or splinter-pullers either.

Reason number dos: we aren’t omniscient. Even I don’t know everything. (Surprising, isn’t it?) Truth of the matter is, I can only see some of what you do and can only guess at what you’re thinking. That’s a problem, especially if I’m trying to judge you. And it’s a much bigger problem when “lack of repentance” is the criterion for banishing you from fellowship. Because try as I may or as obvious as it may seem, I do. not. know. that you’re unrepentant. Repentance for you may not look like it does for me, and that’s okay. It probably shouldn’t ’cause I’ve never been cloned (shockingly. There really should be more of me.) and we’re different types of people. The process of repentance may be longer and slower for you and I need to learn to deal with that. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. According to the Bible we can “know them by their fruit,” so someone who’s repentant will show obvious signs. Right? Well, yes and no. Someone who wants you to think they’re repentant definitely will. And here’s the kicker: you and I will never know the difference. So I prefer to leave it up to Someone who knows the thoughts and intents of their heart. Ya feel me?

Another way our non-omniscience fails us in the process of church discipline is in reconciliation or “restoring a brother to fellowship,” if you will. You and I do not know the end from the beginning; we have absolutely no clue what God is trying to accomplish in our “fallen” brother’s life. But we act like we do. We pray for specific things and looks for particular actions, and when we don’t see them, we assume there’s no progress. But God could be up to something wicked awesome that’s completely different from what we expect and we miss an incredible display of what our God can accomplish. How about instead of praying that Brother Jack goes back to his wife or that Sister Jill abandons alcohol, we ask that they are sensitive and open to God’s leading for that day and remember His good grace. Jack and Jill will probably appreciate it more. Just sayin’.

My last piece o’ beef with the whole church discipline deal is that I find it difficult to reconcile with the concept of grace (and grace begetting mercy). More accurately, I miss where grace fits in at all. From what I understand, the church is supposed to represent God. I know that God, in His grace, sent His Son to die that I might live even though my life was characterized by sin. I know that even though I consistently fail Him and often stubbornly refused repentance, He still bids me come. I know that when I try to live my life without Him, He never revokes my right to boldly approach His throne where Christ is still interceding for me. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see this paralleled in church discipline and it’s very, very hard for me to get past.

What then? Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid! But, where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. As I see it, when a fellow congregant messes up and “humanity shows” is the prefect opportunity for a deeper understanding of grace. It’s a time when can shower a person with a grace he doesn’t deserve but desperately needs. In doing so, we can reflect on our own salvation and stand in awe at the matchless grace God extended to us exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think and with which He continues to cover us. The somber, sobering process of discipline would instead be transformed into a church-wide “Grace Par-tay” complete with skittles and worship eagles (total SCL reference. Go check it out). Kidding about the skittles and eagles, of course. But overall, it strikes me as a more edifying turn of events.

Whew! Well, that was long and just the tip of the ice berg, really. I didn’t even get into humanity, shame and guilt, abandonment, punishment, shunning, pride, hypocrisy, and Christian gang violence! Some other time maybe (probably not).