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When Should We Exercise Corrective Discipline?
Timing Is Everything
When the sin is private and the sinner is unrepentant.
- For private sins committed against private individuals, the
steps of Matt 18 should be followed. Private warning, rebuke, admonition,
or correction would be appropriate here, depending on the nature of the sin.
- If repentance is expressed at either of the first two levels
of confrontation, the next level is unnecessary.
- Only if the sinner is unrepentant after the visitation of two
or more brothers is it legitimate to bring a privately offending brother before
the church for public rebuke or excommunication.
When the sin is serious and public, and the sinner is unrepentant.
This is perhaps the most urgent situation, because the church's public
witness is most visibly at stake.
When the sin is public even if the sinner is repentant.
Sometimes sins are committed by Christians in public that are so heinous that
even if the offender is repentant, some disciplinary action must be taken
by the church to vindicate her corporate witness by showing that Christians
do not condone such behavior or sweep it under the rug.
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