Is It Loving To Discipline?

I think that there are very good reasons for practicing church discipline. I think the main reason is to bring about godly change in the offending party. Always the best example of the perfect parent, God shows how it works in Hebrews 12:5-6:

"5 And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, his children? He said,
"My child, don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you,
and don't be discouraged when he corrects you.

6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes those he accepts as his children."

Parents who want their children to grow in godliness follow this discipline. They don' want to hurt their kids. They follow God's example because they love their own children. Good discipline may be painful, but it isn't harmful, and it brings about inward change when a heart is willing to receive it.

There is more than one purpose for the model of Christ-like discipline though. Discipline furthers healing. It corrects wrongs in thinking and actions, and it serves to protect the integrity, purity and unity of the church, the family and in other venues as well. The example of leaven comes to mind of course, in that sin that goes unchallenged, has a way of permeating the Church or the individual. Unchallenged sin tends to spread, and it is always harmful. In 1st Corinthians 5:9-11 Paul emphasizes the importance of Church discipline, by showing that there needs to be a distance between the godly and the persistenly sinful Christian when he said:

"9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not even to eat with such a person."

Whether Biblically modeled discipline takes place in a church, at home, or in some other venue, it is one of the ways that God uses to make believers have to come face-to-face with their sin and deal with it, especially when persistent, sinful behavior is in view, the way it is in Chapter 5 of 1st Corinthians.

How is it loving for example, to allow a brother in Christ to make smutty jokes or inappropriate remarks without correction? It isn't. It is lazy and cowardly. If we love, we must care enough to rebuke in love, and discipline them.