Some topics have become almost taboo within the church over the years. One of these is judgment. The moment someone quotes “Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” it seems the conversation ends there. As if Jesus had forbidden any form of discernment, correction, or discipline.<\/p>\n
The problem is that the church has absorbed much more from the surrounding culture than it realizes. We’ve begun to call love what Scripture never did. A love that never confronts, never corrects, never calls to repentance. A love that only embraces. But this is not biblical love. God’s love is never irresponsible. It is patient, merciful, and full of grace. But precisely because He loves, He also corrects.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the question is not whether the church can judge. The question is: whom should the church judge?<\/strong><\/p>\n Paul answers in a surprising way. “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?” And before anyone jumps to conclusions, he explains himself. When he wrote not to associate with sexually immoral, greedy, idolaters, slanderers, drunkards, or swindlers, he wasn’t talking about those who belong to the world. Because if that were the case, he says, “you would have to leave this world.”<\/p>\n This observation completely changes the discussion.<\/p>\n The problem was never living among sinners. If that were the problem, Jesus would never have sat at the table with tax collectors and prostitutes. The church was not sent to flee the world but to proclaim Christ to the world.<\/p>\n So whom is Paul talking about?<\/p>\n The one who calls himself a brother.<\/p>\n The one who wishes to be recognized as a member of the body of Christ, participates in the church’s fellowship, but has decided to remain in rebellion against Christ without any repentance.<\/p>\n The difference is not in the gravity of the sin. It is in the truth of the fellowship.<\/p>\n Because the lost usually know they are lost.<\/p>\n The self-deceived believe they have found Christ while continuing to walk in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n It is precisely this self-deception that the church cannot confirm.<\/p>\n But to understand this, we need to go back a bit.<\/p>\n In Matthew 18, Jesus presents the path of discipline. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. Alone. If he listens, you have won your brother. If he does not listen, take witnesses. If he still refuses to listen, tell it to the church. Only after this entire process does Jesus say to treat him as a pagan or a tax collector.<\/p>\n Notice that from the beginning, the goal was never to expel someone.<\/p>\n The goal was always to win the brother.<\/p>\n Discipline is the last resort when all attempts at restoration have failed.<\/p>\n At first glance, it seems like a personal problem. One brother sinned against another brother. But only at first glance.<\/p>\n Because the New Testament reveals that no sin within the church is merely a problem between two people.<\/p>\n When Saul persecuted Christians, Jesus did not ask, “Why do you persecute my church?”<\/p>\n He asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”<\/p>\n The attack against the body was treated as an attack against the head itself.<\/p>\n Later, Paul himself would develop this truth. The church is the body of Christ. If one member suffers, all suffer. If one member is sick, the whole body is sick. “Who is weak, and I do not feel weak?” And to the Corinthians, he writes as one who feels “the pains of childbirth” for those brothers.<\/p>\n So discipline ceases to be a conflict between two people.<\/p>\n It becomes a matter of the body of Christ itself.<\/p>\n When one member is sick, the rest of the body cannot pretend nothing happened. Nor can it amputate it for convenience. The body mobilizes everything it has to restore it.<\/p>\n This is exactly what happens in 1 Corinthians 5.<\/p>\n The church was proud of a tolerance that Paul considers incompatible with the gospel. A man was living publicly in sin, refusing to repent, and the church continued to treat it as if it were merely an expression of grace.<\/p>\n Paul reacts.<\/p>\n Not because that man was beyond grace.<\/p>\n But because the church was using grace to confirm a lie.<\/p>\n So he orders that the man be removed from fellowship.<\/p>\n This may be one of the harshest texts in the New Testament.<\/p>\n But only until we read the reason.<\/p>\n The goal is not to destroy him.<\/p>\n It is not to preserve the church’s image.<\/p>\n It is not to demonstrate moral superiority.<\/p>\n It is so that he may awaken.<\/p>\n It is so that he may stop living in the worst possible spiritual state: believing himself united to Christ while deliberately rejecting the lordship of Christ.<\/p>\n Discipline does not break fellowship.<\/p>\n It merely makes visible a rupture that has already occurred in the heart.<\/p>\n But the story doesn’t end there.<\/p>\n Years later, writing again to the Corinthians, Paul instructs them to do the opposite. Now is the time to comfort. It is time to reaffirm love. It is time to receive that brother again, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.<\/p>\n Whether it was the same person or another case, the principle remains the same.<\/p>\n The same apostle who commanded separation now commands restoration.<\/p>\n Because the goal was never to lose someone.<\/p>\n It was always to recover them.<\/p>\n That is why Hebrews states that God disciplines those He loves.<\/p>\n He does not correct because He stopped loving.<\/p>\n He corrects precisely because He loves.<\/p>\n Perhaps the greatest mistake of the contemporary church is separating these two things.<\/p>\n There are churches that speak so much of grace that they have abandoned discipline.<\/p>\n There are churches that speak so much of discipline that they have forgotten grace.<\/p>\n The gospel allows for neither of these extremes.<\/p>\n The church does not discipline because it considers itself better.<\/p>\n It disciplines because it understands that a sick member compromises the whole body.<\/p>\n And it restores because it understands that the same member remains the target of Christ’s love.<\/p>\n In the end, the mark of a Christian has never been perfection.<\/p>\n Nor is it biblical knowledge, spiritual gifts, or reputation.<\/p>\n The mark of a Christian is repentance.<\/p>\n As long as there is repentance, there is fellowship.<\/p>\n When it disappears, the church loves enough to correct.<\/p>\n And when it reappears, it loves enough to restore.<\/p>\n This is how Christ treats His body. And this is how the body of Christ must learn to care for itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some topics have become almost taboo within the church over the years. One of these is judgment. The moment someone quotes “Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” it seems the conversation ends there. As if Jesus had forbidden any form of discernment, correction, or discipline. The problem is that the church has … Continue lendo Whom Should the Church Judge?<\/span>