Proper Church Discipline

Gal 6:1-5

On it’s surface, this text should be straight forward and easy to apply today. I found out this week that isn’t so. I meet with a group of ministers every Thursday and told them I was going to be preaching from this text. I asked them how they looked at church discipline. It started 30 minutes of strong debate about the right way to handle discipline.

So what is proper church discipline? Hopefully today we can get at least a basic understanding of what this passage and others mean to Christians today.

PRAYER

I. Dealing With The Sinner

A. Implications of brothers

1. It’s important to understand who is being addressed here.

2. Paul begins the passage by defining the group as brothers.

3. The logical conclusion is that we are dealing with other brothers and sisters in sin not the worldly person.

4. This is important because it shows this is dealing with church discipline not judgment of the world.

B. Caught in a sin

1. Doing a little bit of word study brought some very interesting revelations.

a) The idea of being caught in a sin, is actually better defined by saying “caught by a sin” or “overtaken by a sin”

b) What the picture here is a person who is running from sin, but sin catches up to them and overtakes them.

c) So this scripture is dealing with a member of the church, not a worldly person and also someone who gets embroiled in sin, not willfully trying to sin.

2. That’s why Paul says to restore them gently.

a) Maybe a good example of this would be someone who is a new Christian.

b) A while back a new Christian committed some sins. Now the church had two options, tear the member apart for doing these sins or trying to restore them gently and help them learn. The church did the right thing in helping to restore that person gently.

c) New Christians and immature Christians are going to do things we would never dream of doing. They do some things that we think everyone should know are wrong.

d) Most of the time they probably DO know it was wrong, but haven’t built a strong enough faith yet to overcome that sin, it overcame them.

e) We forget that sometimes and expect them to live as perfectly as we do.

f) A secular correlation would be expecting someone who has been on the job for a week to perform at the same level as someone who has been at that job for 20 years. It’s just isn’t going to happen and you know you will have to teach them through their mistakes and help them become more productive.

g) Remember that, with new and immature Christians who are trying, but not always succeeding.

C. Mend your broken member

1. If you were a Greek doctor you would use the same word “restore” Paul did to talk about setting a bone that had been broken.

a) restoring that bone would require something painful for the person, and he would try to do it as gently as possible.

b) pain would happen but only because of the great good that would come from the bone healing properly.

2. If you were a fisherman you would use the same word to talk about mending your nets.

a) Imagine using a net with a big hole in it. For the most part that net would be useless.

b) A fisherman would bind the net back together to make it useful again.

3. When dealing with the Christian who has been caught in sin, their brothers and sisters need to practice restoration gently.

a) They need to be mended so they can heal properly.

b) They need to be mended so they can be useful to the kingdom again.

c) We need to do it gently to show them we love them and want what’s best for them.

D. Don’t Think Too Highly Of Yourself

1. However 2000 years ago and today man quickly starts to think themselves superior to others when he hasn’t done their sin.

a) I am better than that person because I only cheat on my taxes not my spouse.

b) I am better than that person because I only gossip, I don’t abuse alcohol.

2. Paul says just look at yourself. How well do you match up to the will of Christ?

a) If I compare myself to Christ, rather than someone else, I quickly see I am nothing.

b) However I can take pride in seeing my own spiritual growth.

c) There are sins that I struggled with mightily when I was a younger Christian that I don’t struggle with today. With the power of God and a growing spiritual maturity I have been able to overcome those sins. I feel good about that. However, I know I have a long way to go on other sins. So rather than be too condemning on someone else, I focus on my own growth.

d) I help others when I can, to be stronger in their faith and righteousness.

3. Pride sets us up for a fall

a) When I lived in Alaska I remember as a teenager a man in his late 20’s who really believed he was God’s gift to the church. He had been to preaching school and believed he was more righteous and knowledgeable than just about anyone else at the church. It was his duty to chastise the sinners as they should be chastised since the elders wouldn’t do their job right. Then one Sunday, his fiancée came forward and repented to the church because they had become intimate recently and she got pregnant. It was hard not to feel smug at his fall.

b) He was so sure that he couldn’t do anything wrong that he put himself in the very situation he always condemned others for.

c) READ vs 1-2

II. The Difference Between Burden and Load

A. These words have different meaning and connotations in this text.

1. I have read this passage several times and have always been stuck as to why Paul would say in one verse to carry each others burdens and then a couple verses later say we are supposed to carry our own loads.

2. Isn’t that contradicting himself?

3. That’s why it is good to study the original language or have a commentary of someone who has studied the language.

4. When you read the Greek you realized Paul is dealing with 2 very different issues here. It’s as if he is combining 2 thoughts in one.

B. Burdens

1. verse 2 is related to verse 1 showing that it is not only important, but scriptural to help those struggling with sin.

2. The Greek word here means heavy burden.

a) A burden that is impossible for one person to deal with by themselves.

b) Paul uses that imagery to tell Christians that it is a spiritual law to carry the burden of a struggling fellow Christian.

C. Load

1. It was a Roman law that said a Roman soldier could stop any non Roman and compel them to carry his gear for 1 mile.

a) Paul uses the word for a soldier’s pack in vs. 5 to indicate that we need to be responsible for carrying our own loads rather than forcing someone else to do the work for us.

2. I have 2 children. They are a burden, but also a privilege and responsibility that are for me to deal with.

3. I shouldn’t expect someone else to be the father for my children when I am able to be their father.

4. We are all supposed to do our own work.

III. Conclusion

A. Paul deals with how to discipline a weak Christian

1. It is very different than dealing with one who is supposed to be more mature in their faith.

2. It is meant to restore, to heal, them and make them healthy again in their relationship with God.

B. He reminds us to watch our attitudes

1. Don’t think you are better than your weaker brother.

2. You’re simply more mature. More is expected from you.