According to the dictionary, Discipline means: instruction: a mode of life according to rules; subjection to control; an instrument of punishment; to be subject to discipline; to bring under control; to chastise. As far as ecclesiastical discipline in the Christian Church is concerned, it was a prominent part of church government in the Apostolic age and was more or less recognised as essential down through the centuries of the church’s history. It degenerated, for example, in the Middle Ages, to the exercising of Church authority in calling upon offenders within the church to do penance or pay for indulgences and such like practices. There was more than a tendency to hand over cases for discipline to the Civil Magistrate on the part of the Reformed Church, although this did not continue in parts of the Reformed Church in Holland, France and Scotland. This action adopted in cases of discipline was modified. The Second Book of Discipline, approved by the Reformed Church in Scotland in 1578, and by which church government was established in 1592 and 1690, is said to be a Presbyterian standard on order and government.
The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland has all along taken as its guide book on church government and discipline, H. Wellwood Moncrieff’s The Practice of the Free Church of Scotland: (fourth edition). At the beginning of chapter 5, on Discipline, the following statements occur: “Church discipline is held to be of great use and necessity in our ecclesiastical system. It is regarded as belonging to that government which Christ has instituted in the visible order of His kingdom, and which, by His institution, is essentially distinct from the government of Civil Magistrates. The purpose of it is declared to be . . . “That the name of God, by reason of ungodly and wicked persons living in the church, be not blasphemed, nor His wrath provoked against His people; that the godly be not leavened with, but preserved from, the contagion, and stricken with fear; and that sinners who are to be censured may be ashamed, to the destruction of the flesh, and saving of the spirit in the day of the Lord Jesus.” The object of discipline is thus said to be a three-fold one — “The glory of God, the purity of the church, and the spiritual good of the offender. When scripturally and prudently exercised, discipline becomes more a privilege than a punishment, as one of the ordinances granted to the professing people of God.”
What is admitted as a ground of action?
“It admits of nothing as a ground for its action, but what has been declared censurable by the Word of God, or by some act or universal custom of the church agreeable thereto. It does not apply to every kind of sin, but to those sins only which occasion scandal, or tend, by their character, to bring open reproach upon the cause of Christ, or to interfere manifestly with spiritual edification . . . .” These statements will stand the test of Scripture, are clear in their guidance and are wisely worded. There is great need today in different branches of the professing Christian church, for those in office to awaken out of sleep as far as church discipline is concerned and to apply their minds and their practice to the basic principles inherent in true church discipline.
For the further information of our readers we will briefly indicate some of the church censures which our church law stipulates in appropriate cases: (1) Admonition is the lowest kind of censure which takes the form of an affectionate warning; (2) Rebuke is a more formal censure, after conviction or confession of a scandalous offence; (3) Suspension from privileges; (4) Suspension from office either for a given time or without stating a period of time; (5) Deposition consists in formally depriving a man of the office which he held in the church; and (6) Excommunication is the highest censure. It consists in striking the offender off the communion roll, and declaring him no longer a member of the church.
Rev. Robert Forbes in his Rules and Procedure for Church Courts observes regarding censures: “None of these censures involve civil effects, but are purely spiritual; nevertheless they are very solemn, and, when inflicted on right grounds, are sanctioned and ratified by the church’s living Head in heaven.”
In recording these points relative to this vital subject, we have in view those readers inside and outside the church, who are not conversant with even these salient facts on church discipline. Once and again the general public are confronted with reports of what is said and what is done by some prominent members of churches, all apparently inconsistent with the doctrine of the Word of God and the conduct required of Christians. Yet, little, or rather nothing at all, is heard of the exercise of real, Scriptural, faithful discipline on the part of Church Courts. This general lack of the exercise of discipline has contributed to a great degree to the spiritual declension and the compromising with the world, so prevalent in churches today. The exercise of God given authority is being resented and rejected on every hand in these times. It is a sad state of matters when the professing Christian church is afraid to use its authority to deal with offenders under its jurisdiction. Of course there are many who bear office in churches, who are offenders themselves as to doctrine and practice, and thus they have lost their power to govern in the church when obvious cases arise which ought to be subject to discipline. “Help, Lord: for the godly man ceaseth: for the faithful fail from among the children of men” (Ps. 12: 1).
There is clear and divine guidance given by the Lord Jesus Christ, in certain cases which require the application of church discipline. This appears in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 18, as follows: “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican” (ver. 15-17).
And the Apostle Paul instructs the church at Rome to act as follows in the case he refers to: “Now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Rom. 16: 17). Again; the Apostle had of necessity to give instruction to the church at Corinth in the matter of the exercise of discipline relative to offending members of that church. He writes to them thus: “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 . . . do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Corinth., chap. V, vers. XI-XIII).
These references will suffice for our readers to see and study the place which was given by the Lord Jesus and in the apostolic church, to the exercise of church discipline. In all this of course there was made manifest that the Christian church in its best and most prosperous state under the Gospel, was anything but perfect as to the character and conduct of all its members. False brethren arose at times and backsliders appeared in the midst of the church, and such persons constituted a real danger to the purity, witness and comfort of the church. Over against such grievous events, the church has authority and divine guidance to exercise discipline with the object in view, already stated.
When the Christian church, through any of its Courts, exercises discipline in a scriptural manner, relative to any person under its jurisdiction, then the church conserves a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man; and also preserves the witness of the church on the side of righteousness and against sin which is dishonouring to the church’s Head and King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In certain matters, which we are not to detail here, the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, is said by some of its critics to disallow liberty of conscience to its members. Is the church forbidden by Scripture to indicate to its members what it clearly conceives to be transgression of the law of God? We think not. The Apostle Paul laid down that even the “railer” was to be “put out” as well as the drunkard and other offenders. A church without discipline is a church which comes seriously short in its professed devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Any amount of spurious charity will not cover over such laxity. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah, chap. 8, v. 20).