Disorderly Church Members - 9

Today, as we are coming close to the end of our study in 2 Thessalonians, we continue this passage where the Apostle Paul gives instructions for dealing with disorderly church members. And that, in this particular case, refers to those who are unwilling to work, as Paul makes very clear. When the Apostle Paul founded the church in Thessalonica, he noticed that there were some members who were not working and he instructed them that they needed to work and support themselves.

And he also modeled that action by his own example. He and the other missionaries, who worked with their hands in order to support themselves and to pay for their own upkeep rather than receiving support from the church, which they had every right to receive, and the church had every responsibility to give. But in order to set an example for those who were not workers, Paul himself and the others worked, presumably making tents in order to support themselves in the work of the Gospel.

And so he taught them their God-given responsibility to work, but also demonstrated this by supporting himself. But even after that, there were some who failed to get the message. This might be an encouragement and a discouragement to preachers. We need to realize that things don't always take the first time or the second time. Truths have to be repeated. Instructions have to be given again. But sometimes people are so hard-headed that it takes more than repeated instructions to get them to comply, and that's what happened in this particular case. After Paul's departure from Thessalonica, he learned that there were some who had ignored his instructions, and so he repeated those instructions again in the first Thessalonian Epistle.

Surely that'll do the job, but alas, it did not. It was reported to him that some continued to ignore this teaching. And so he instructs them again in the second epistle, the one that's before us now, in verses 6 through 15. And now he becomes much more stern, much more adamant.

A much greater warning and penalty. Consequences of their failure to obey are before us in this passage. And the last time we met, we looked at the first part of these instructions, and today we will examine the last part in verses 11 through 15.

And what do we see? We see, first of all, the problem described in verse 11. Number two, the correction required in verse 12. Number three, the encouragement extended in verse 13. And number four, the instructions delivered in verses 14 and 15. The problem is described in verse 11.

For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Multiple reports had come to the Apostle Paul. We hear is in the present tense, which in the Greek means continuous action.

We are hearing continuously. We continue to hear this report. And so after having personally observed this defect among some of them when Paul was ministering in Thessalonica, he now hears no doubt from Timothy, who we're told in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 had been sent by Paul to visit the church and came back and gave Paul a report on how they were doing.

A report which we realize was for the most part a very good and encouraging report, but here's an aspect of their behavior that was not what it ought to be. Apparently, it was reported to him again by whoever it was who delivered his first epistle. After Timothy came back with a good report, Paul wrote the first Thessalonian epistle and sent it to them. Somebody delivered that epistle. It may have been Timothy again. It may have been Titus. It may have been somebody else. But whoever it was, when they came back from that delivery and gave another report on the well-being of the church, they mentioned, but there are still some who are not working. They are sponging off of others.

They are expecting other people to keep them up, and that's what you've told them not to do. And probably this report came to Paul from others as well, and so what I want you to see is that this is a well-documented problem. Paul is not acting hastily. This sternness that we read in chapter 3 isn't Paul flying off the handle in an emotional tirade, but it is after patiently instructing them first when he was with them.

Secondly, in the first epistle, again in the second epistle, and they're still not responding as they ought, Paul is not acting hastily, but it's now time to lower the boom. If you won't listen attentively and responsibly, then some additional action is required. But the problem, and what is the problem?

It's actually a two-fold problem. The problem is sloth, and the problem is meddling, as verse 11 tells us. There are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner. What do you mean by that, Paul?

I mean not working at all, but our busy bodies. Disorderly manner, we learned last time that that means out of rank, not walking as you ought to walk, not walking as the others are walking, not walking as the body of Christ is walking, not walking as Christians ought to walk. You're out of step, out of rank, you are disorderly.

It's a general term. It could apply to any number of areas of being out of step with what is expected of Christians, but Paul makes clear exactly what he has in mind in this situation. What do you mean by disorderly, Paul? I mean not working, not working at all, which defines the exact nature of disorderly as Paul is addressing it here in this passage. There are those among you who are making no attempt to support themselves.

That's what I'm talking about. That's out of step with what Christ expects from his people. So the problem number one is sloth, laziness, unwillingness to work.

But there's more. The problem is also meddling, as we learn in verse 11. Not working at all, but our busy bodies.

The Greek here has a play on words which it's impossible to translate over precisely into English, but it's something like this. You are not busy, you are busy bodies. Or, you are not busy bodies, you are busy bodies. Punctuation is important. Spaces are important.

Spelling is important. That's closely aligned, but it means exactly the opposite, doesn't it? You are either a busy body, or you are probably a busy body, a meddler, sticking your nose in other people's affairs. And how were they disturbing the church? Well, as we read, by meddling in other's affairs, which in itself would create dissension and problems. When people stick their nose where it does not belong, it creates problems. But this very act of expecting other people to support them in itself was going to create some difficulties within the church.

In what way? Well, take the people who were supporting them. They may have supposed that they had an obligation to do that. They had been taught as Christians that Christians are those who give, that Christians are generous. Christians are those who support those who are in need. Generally speaking, yes, but not those who are in need because they are lazy. That's a different category of need. That's not genuine need.

That's not the kind of need that we are supposed to encourage and support in any way. But there are some who may have supported them out of a mistaken sense of obligation. They didn't fully understand how it was they were to behave. But on the other hand, there were others who understood exactly what Paul had taught them. When he was with them, he said in verse 10, didn't he? For even when we were with you, back at the founding of the church, we commanded you this.

If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. So there were some who understood the command. And now they are critical of the members of the church who are ignoring that command.

You've got two things going on here. You've got people who are ignoring Paul's command that they are to work. And then you have some people who are ignoring Paul's command that they shouldn't be helping people who are unwilling to work. So undoubtedly, some in the church are feeling a false sense of obligation which needs to be corrected. And others in the church are no doubt critical of those who are not obeying Paul's clear instructions. And yet there may be others who criticize the ones who weren't willing to help as they were. They thought themselves superior to the others because we're willing to help those who are in need, and you're not, but we're not supposed to. Well, yes, we are.

Oh, boy. And all of this created uncertainty in an unsettled situation and ill will within the church. And setting member against member and murmuring. And all because some folks were unwilling to work and their unwillingness, their disobedience, was having more repercussions than anyone could have probably predicted, but that's exactly what was happening. And so they were disturbing the peace of the church. But Paul had made clear what should have been done from the beginning. As I already showed you in verse 10, no one who is unwilling to work should be maintained by others.

Paul taught them that. If anyone refuses to work, he shall not eat. He shall not eat.

It's not only saying that he shouldn't be able to eat, it's saying you shouldn't help him to go on in this situation. He shall not eat because you shall not help him to live without working. That's the problem described in verse 11. But look at the correction that is required in verse 12. And here Paul addresses those people who are not working, which are I'm sure just a handful, a very small number in the church considering the whole congregation, but he addresses them. They're there, this epistle is being read to the congregation. That's what Paul instructed them to do. And so they're present and he says in verse 12, Now those who are such, that is like I just described, unwilling to work and are busybodies, those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

Those who are such, the persons I described, such persons, are to work in quietness and eat their own bread. It's very clear this is apostolic instruction. We, Paul, I, command and exhort. If we were doing them in ascending order we would say exhort first, which is an appeal to do right, its instructions to be followed, and then to come along with a stronger word and say I command.

This is not a suggestion, this is not a good idea, this is not so that you will have a better life and feel better about yourself and be more successful in life. This is an apostolic command. This is to be obeyed. This is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ commanding you how you ought to live.

Work! But it's not only apostolic instruction, but as Paul makes clear, it is divine requirement because he says, we command and exhort you how? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is making it doubly clear, in case they didn't already understand it, that a command by an apostle is a command by the Lord Jesus Christ. That apostles speak for Christ.

That apostles receive their instructions from Christ. And so Paul is commanding it, yes, and that should be sufficient, but please don't overlook the fact that Christ is commanding this as well. Once again, and we've seen this again and again in this epistle, once again we see that there's no question in Paul's mind, but that when he speaks apostolically, he is speaking the words of Christ.

He is carrying the same authority as the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't say, well, I believe the words of Jesus, I like those, but I'm not so sure that I like what Paul said. Listen, folks, there are some things in the New Testament that Paul said that are not easy. Peter himself said so, remember that? He said there are some difficult things that Paul talked about and they're not always easy to understand, but they are the words of Scripture, said Peter.

And that's what we need to understand. Now, we may not understand every meaning of everything Paul said. There are some things that are difficult to understand, and so we may wrestle with them, but let us never, never, never entertain the thought that Paul is saying something that is different from what Christ said or what Christ commanded him to say. What Paul said is what God has said.

Paul said, if a man will not work, neither shall he eat, because Christ said, if a man will not work, neither shall he eat. And if you haven't figured that out by now, it should be pretty obvious, but it's amazing how obvious things can fly right over people's heads. But if you haven't figured it out by now, you should realize that this is God's customary way of speaking to people. It is through Scripture. It is through the apostles.

It is through chosen messengers. Why doesn't God just speak to everybody directly and individually from heaven? He could.

Well, He could, but He's chosen not to. Instead, He gave us a Bible. Instead, He sent messengers, said, listen to them. Remember the rich man who went to hell and was in torment, and He said, Father Abraham, send my brother back, or send rather Lazarus back, the beggar. Send Lazarus back to warn my brothers so that they won't come to this place. And Father Abraham, speaking for God, of course, said, no, they don't need Lazarus. They've got Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.

Oh, no, said the rich man. They don't pay the Bible any attention. They don't listen to the Bible.

They don't pay any attention to Moses. But if somebody rose from the dead, now that would get their attention. If somebody spoke to them directly who rose from the dead, they'd listen to that.

No, no, you think so, but you're wrong. If they will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they hear, though somebody should rise from the dead. If you won't listen to Scripture, if you won't listen to a messenger that God has sent with His word, you wouldn't listen any better if Jesus Christ Himself were standing and talking to you this morning, because the defect is not with who the message is being communicated through.

The defect is in your heart and your willingness to receive it. I command you, said Paul, because Christ commands you through me. And what is this requirement? It is to work.

It is to refrain from meddling. It is to earn their own living. Everyone who can work should work.

I command that they work. Everyone who can work should work. Everyone should work according to his ability and opportunity. And we know those differ from person to person. No two people have the same ability and opportunity.

We know that. But everyone should work according to their ability and opportunity. Everyone should do what they can, as much as they can, to support themselves. Even if they can't do it fully, they should be doing as much as they can before they look to others for help.

If a person can't work full-time because of circumstances, then let them work part-time. But let's not have any that are unwilling to work. Paul said the problem is there are some who are not working at all. They are not working at all.

Even when we were with you, we commanded you this. If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who are walking among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all. Not even a little bit.

They're doing nothing to try to support themselves. That's a problem. They must work. Number two, they must refrain from meddling. They must work not being busybodies, but they must work in quietness. That's the opposite. Working in quietness, that is, minding your own business, is the opposite of being a busybody. Working in quietness, that could be translated literally to be working with quietude. What does that mean?

Settle down and mind your own business. That's what it means. Some believe that what had happened to those who were not working is that they had gotten excited about the second coming of Christ, a major theme of Paul to the Thessalonian church, and you find large sections about that in both First and Second Thessalonians and some think by that close connection that the problem was that some got so excited about the second coming of Christ, they just quit their jobs and, as it were, stood around waiting for the Lord to return. He's coming so soon. He's coming so quickly. I don't need to worry about this. He'll come before I get into any trouble not working. Wrong attitude.

But I don't think that's probably what's going on here. There's nothing in the text itself that connects the doctrine of the second coming with this unwillingness to work, and the fact that Paul traces this problem way back to the beginning, to the founding of the church, indicates to me that this was something that some of these people were doing before they even converted, and that fits with what we know about Greek culture. I explained that to you about this patronage system that some people got locked into, and so probably some of those people got saved and wanted to continue sponging off of others, and Paul said, no, that's not the way Christians behave. There are certain things that God expects of Christians and the way they live, and one of them is He expects them to work, and to work in quietness, not meddling with others, and to earn their own living, to eat their own bread.

To eat their own bread is a figure of speech, an idiom, that means earn their own living, earn their own upkeep, take care of their own maintenance. There was a similar, though not identical, problem in the Ephesian church, and you remember Paul said to the Ephesians in chapter 4, verse 26, Let him who stole steal no more. Those of you who maintained your living by stealing before you were saved, there were some of those in the Ephesian church.

You're a Christian now, don't do that anymore. Let him who stole steal no more, but do what in its place? But rather let him labor, working with his hands, so that he may have to give to those who are in need. Those who are genuinely in need ought to be supported by people who have been blessed by God with the strength and ability to work, and therefore everyone should work and work hard enough that he doesn't just earn enough to support himself and barely get by, but he actually creates a surplus with which he can support others. But here you've got people who are not making their living by stealing, as some of the Ephesians had before they were saved, but by sponging, taking from others who evidently were willing. That's not stealing, but it's still not honoring to the Lord. That's not what God requires.

If you are able to work, work, and work quietly, get your nose out of other people's business, and earn your own living, support yourself, because that's what God expects of you. Now Paul inserts a word of encouragement for the obedient. Verse 13, but as for you brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. So Paul addresses different segments of the church.

First of all, he addresses everybody. Then he zeroes in on those of you who are such, those of you who are idlers in not working, here's my word to you, and then to the rest of you who are being obedient in this area, here's my word to you, don't get weary in doing good. We're more familiar with a similar phrase in Ephesians chapter 6, where Paul said, do not become weary in well-doing, but in due season you shall reap if you faint not, if you don't conk out, if you don't grow slack, if you don't grow too weary. Well, the same thing here, don't grow weary in well-doing.

Now the question is, what was the concern that was in Paul's mind when he made this statement, this word of encouragement? Some think that what he's saying is, don't get tired of helping those who are truly in need. I'm telling you, stop helping the lazy, but I'm not telling you, stop helping the sick, stop helping the infirm, stop helping those who are unable to work.

That's exactly what you ought to be doing. Don't become weary in that kind of doing good, but stop this kind of doing good that is not helping, but rather hindering someone else from being what they should be before the Lord. But it's more likely that this is a more general encouragement, just basically don't become weary in doing what's right, whatever that may be. It is right to help the needy, the poor, so don't become weary in doing that.

It is right to keep working your job as long as you are able, so don't become weary in doing that. It is right to do dozens and scores of things that the Bible tells us to do, and sometimes we grow weary. And Paul says don't allow yourself to become weary.

Don't do that. Don't yield to the temptation to coast, which is a common human tendency. We all have to admit that at times we would just rather quit or at least take a big break, a long extended break. Short breaks are all part of God's plan. But don't grow weary in doing well. Don't stop altogether doing what you know you ought to do.

It is very likely that what was going on in Paul's mind, what Paul was thinking about when he said this, was that there are probably some in the Thessalonian church who are being discouraged by the ones who are sponging off of others. And they're saying, why can't I do that? Here I am working hard to support myself, and look at old Joe down there.

He's living the life of Riley, sponging off of others. Why can't I figure out a way to do that? No, do not grow weary in doing good. Don't coast. Why? Why can't I do that? Because what they're doing is wrong.

That's why you can't do it. So keep on doing what is right. Keep on doing what you know to do good. Never tire of doing right. Keep it up.

And thus we know that it takes intentional perseverance in order to maintain strong spirituality, to maintain a good, strong Christian life. Keep on keeping on. How long until the Lord comes? Keep on keeping on. How long until the Lord calls you home? Keep on keeping on. How long? Well, as long as you are able, and when you're not able to do what you're doing now, find something else that you can do.

You can always do something to serve the Lord, even those who are completely incapacitated can become wonderful prayer warriors to advance the cause of Christ by their fervent prayers. Whatever you're able to do, do it. Keep it up.

Do it because it's the right thing to do. New challenges are constantly arising to tempt us to be sidetracked from doing right. Politics can do that. Aren't we in a day of interesting politics?

That is a mild way of putting it. I doubt that there's anybody in the church more interested in politics and what's going on than I am, but I have to keep reminding myself, I'm not here to be a politician. I'm not here to get involved in politics. There's a proper place for Christians to be involved at a certain level, but listen, I've got something that's far more important. I'm here to preach the word of God.

I'm here to proclaim the gospel to the world. I'm here to tell people what will really make a difference. I want to tell you, folks, as we should know now, it really doesn't make a lot of difference in the general welfare of our nation, whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat.

We've got problems that go a whole lot deeper than that. If you think changing the political party, the person who's your representative is going to make things right, you are... Oh, I've got to be careful here. I don't want to say you are an idiot, so I won't say that. You are naive.

That's nicer, isn't it? You are naive. You are so naive. But I see Christians who get so caught up in the political vortex of what's going on that they're willing to do most anything.

They're willing to storm the Capitol and create a riot in Washington and do all kinds of things that are unseemly, unchristian, unbefitting a child of God. And what do I say to you? I say to you the same thing that the apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians. Keep on doing right. Don't get weary in doing right. Keep on the Christian path. Keep on the narrow way. Don't get diverted by something that the devil is throwing our way because he's clever and he knows how to get us off track. Don't get off track.

Don't allow that to happen. COVID is something else that's gotten a lot of people off track. Well, some people are so afraid of COVID, you'd think that it's the first time that any disease came along that threatened life and limb. Life, anyway.

The ice will threaten your limbs, but life. And they become hermits out of fear. Now, folks, there's a place to take appropriate precautions, but God didn't call us to live as hermits. God didn't call us to live in isolation. So trust Him and don't get sidetracked. God has called us to do certain things, including to assemble ourselves together as believers.

Now, some truly are unable to do that, but if some are unwilling to do that out of fear of COVID, I think you've been thrown a curve by the devil. I think you've been sidetracked, and you need to realize, get back to doing what is right. Don't grow weary in doing right.

Keep on keeping on. Keep on doing what you know to be right until the Lord releases you from that responsibility. But now we come to the instructions delivered in verses 14 and 15. And these two verses help explain what first was commanded in verse 6, and now we get a little more detail. In verse 6, Paul said, But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition, that is, the teaching, which he received from us. Verse 14, And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person, and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed, yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. What are the instructions toward these disorderly brethren?

Now what the church is supposed to do. What are you to do? Number one, identify him clearly. Number two, withdraw from him significantly.

And number three, communicate with him selectively. Number one, identify him clearly. Note that person. Note him. Mark him. Identify him. And place him in a distinct category.

That I'm convinced by official designation, as I'll show you in a moment. But number one, identify him clearly. Number two, withdraw from him significantly. Do not keep company with him. Curtail normal social interaction with him.

Why? He tells us why. So that he may be ashamed.

What's that supposed to do? Well, we know that that is for the purpose of leading him to repentance. Let him be ashamed that he will feel the sting of his disobedience more sharply. Because up until this time, the word of scripture, the word of an apostle, the word of the Lord Jesus Christ has not penetrated his thinking sufficiently to cause him to acknowledge his sin and to correct it. So, tighten the screws.

Do not keep company with him. That he may be ashamed and we trust may come to repentance. And this, of course, as I mentioned before, has a stronger impact in a culture that we could describe accurately as a shame and honor culture like they had in that day.

Like they are to be found mostly in Eastern, Middle Eastern and Eastern countries today. Shame and honor culture. Where people are extremely sensitive to what others think, particularly in their family and in their community, to the extent that, as we know in some cultures, they will even kill somebody out of honor. What a mistaken idea of honor. But our daughter has brought disgrace, dishonor upon the family. So the only way to make that right is to kill her, to murder her. Well, what a horrible thing, what distorted thinking. But that's the kind of strength that dishonor, that shame can bring in a shame and honor culture. It doesn't have that same punch in Western culture today, but that doesn't mean that these instructions have no place in our society today.

This is something that the Church is to do. Identify him clearly. Withdraw from him significantly, but not totally, but significantly. And number three, communicate with him selectively.

Don't cut him off completely. Don't count him as an enemy. Don't treat him like a heathen Republican.

This is not a Matthew 18 situation. Don't regard him as an enemy. Maintain enough contact to be able to continue to communicate with him and keep calling him to obedience. Admonish him as a brother, dear brother.

This is what you need to do. This is what Christians are called upon to do. You are a Christian, or at least you claim to be. You call yourself a Christian. Therefore, you need to correct your behavior to line up with what God requires from you. Now, there are some that have thought this command, mark him and don't associate with him, is a command simply to individuals.

This is for individual Christians to make this decision and do this, and it is not something that the Church is called upon to do as a whole. I can't accept that for a number of reasons, and let me try to explain some of them. There are some grammatical reasons why I think that's the wrong understanding. That word mark, mark him, is a word that normally indicates public identification. It's not something that one individual does.

It's something that the Church does. It marks him. It identifies him.

It labels him. Number two, however, is the repeated use of the plural pronoun you, not the singular pronoun you. And this we don't tend to see in most of our English versions, though you can see it in the old King James that made a distinction between you and ye, ye being the plural. But Paul, there's one singular you at the beginning of this command, but we command you, brethren. There he's zeroing in on them individually, but from there on out, it's you all.

It's you all. In verse 6, that you all withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly. Verse 7, for you all know. You yourselves would also be another way of indicating the plural. You all know how you ought to follow us and so forth and so on. Verse 13, but as for you all, brethren, not you, brother, but you all, brethren, are brothers, plural. Do not grow weary in well-doing. And with that background, it's clear that these instructions apply to the whole church. It's a corporate matter, a plural situation.

And furthermore, there's a very obvious practical reason for this. If there's somebody in the church who's walking disorderly and one member decides on his own that he's going to mark that person and withdraw from him, but nobody else does, how is that disobedient person going to interpret what was done? Is he going to recognize it as a legitimate action commanded by Christ to bring him to shame? Or is he going to think that that person is acting in an ungodly way toward him? Why will so-and-so not speak? Why will so-and-so not have anything to do with me?

What's going on here? But when the whole church does it, it carries a strong weight. It signals a strong message, and that's clearly what Paul has in mind here.

Then there will be no misunderstanding. Now I recognize that what this passage requires is difficult for us today because this is by and large a forsaken practice among Christians in our day. Any kind of church discipline is almost unheard of in most churches today. I grew up in Bible-believing, independent, fundamental Baptist churches all my life and never, never heard of or witnessed an occasion of church discipline, even though there were certainly many occasions that biblically should have warranted it. It's been forsaken, even by people who call themselves Bible-believing people.

So it is difficult, but because it's difficult does not mean that we should ignore it. I actually have talked to a couple of pastors in the past about this. Why don't we do this?

What's happened here? Oh, if we did that, people would leave our church. They'd go someplace else. They wouldn't attend a church that did this. Pragmatic reason. You can't build a church to do that. You'll scare people off.

You aren't going to bring them in. Well, is that the most important thing, or is being obedient to the Word of God the most important thing? What this passage reminds us is that we have strayed a long ways from biblical Christianity in the 21st century and don't even know it in many cases. Churches that think of themselves as being biblical, obedient to scripture, we follow the Bible. When it gets right down to it, we follow the Bible in those areas that we agree with and don't follow the Bible in those areas we don't agree with. Well, how much does that differ from that liberal church down the street that does the same thing? There may be more things that they disagree with, but you're doing exactly the same thing that they are. They do what the Bible says that they agree with and don't do the things they don't agree with. And we who call ourselves Bible believers are doing the same thing.

Don't you see that something is seriously wrong? We need to get serious about biblical Christianity. We need to get serious about biblical church membership. We should recognize by this that good churches will have faulty members at times, all of them.

And there are things that we can do to correct that. We should also be reminded that if we're not busy at our assigned task, we will doubtless become involved in sinful practices. Was it Benjamin Franklin that said an idle mind is the devil's workshop?

I don't know who first said that. But in a sense, that's what Paul is saying here. These people who weren't doing what they should have done, they weren't taking their assigned task, which was to work and earn a living, had all this extra time on their hands, so what were they doing?

They were meddling, they were interfering, they were gossiping, they were slandering. And if we don't do what we're supposed to be doing, then with the time we aren't doing what we should be doing, we end up doing what we shouldn't be doing. But we learn here that the church has a God-given responsibility to correct disorderly members. And we can't be put off by those who would say, How dare you?

How dare you do that? But rather, we must say, How do we dare not do this when Christ commands it? And thus in this passage, we learn of a level of church discipline that is not excommunication, but is serious enough to require church action and enforced obedience. Like all forms of church discipline, it should be employed sparingly, reluctantly, sorrowfully, but when necessary, obediently, because our Commander-in-Chief, the head of the church, has commanded us to do this. Shall we pray? Father, help us by your grace to receive your word with faith, with obedience, with loving devotion. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.