A church that consistently and whole-heartedly exercises the one another commands of Scripture will rarely need to get to the point in church discipline where people must be removed from the church.
Here’s the flow of Body Life that helps prevent the need for church discipline:
Notice how it starts with feeling like others care and ends with the motivation to change attitudes and behavior that are not Christ-like.
When the Body of Christ fulfills the one another commands of Scripture, people are helped early on in their struggles. Problems and sins are not left unchecked to escalate. Hearts tend to respond to true body life and so the hardening that leads to a lack of repentance rarely happens.
One of the reasons the one another commands work is that they are built on the premise of mutual, reciprocal response toward each other. It is not a one-sided endeavor where the struggling person feels like it is “me” and “them” but rather “us.” They come to realize that we all sin and struggle to keep the Lord first in our lives and we all need to help each other become more Christ-like.
The Steering the Church Toward Body Life Leadership Guide takes this further, looking at the one another commands of Scripture that correspond with each step.
All Posts about Church Discipline:
- Church Discipline Because of Church Purpose
- Lack of Church Discipline Against God’s Purposes
- Church Discipline Must Exemplify God’s Purposes
- Involvement of Body in Church Discipline
- Body Life Can Prevent Need for Church Discipline
- Discipleship and Church Discipline
- Discipleship Not Church Discipline
- Holiness the Objective for Church Discipline
- Lack of Holiness Affects the Whole Body
- Holiness Dictates HOW We Exercise Church Discipline
- Authority & Power Needed in Church Discipline
- Pivotal Role of Holy Spirit in Church Discipline
- Church Discipline But They Didn’t Change
- The Standard for Conduct
- The Power of Grace in Church Discipline
- If His Name is Holy Then …
- Prayer is Essential as a Preventative and When in Process
- When Christians Need Correction
- God’s Word Brings Correction
- It’s Not About Giving Up on People