I know that I’m
not alone. In the mid 90’s, David Hocking, a prominent pastor with a popular
radio program, was caught in an adulterous relationship. When his ministry
sought to carry out church discipline in order to win him over and eventually
restore him to ministry, another ministry said, “enough of that,” and invited
the man to immediately join their staff as a pastor without any accountability
for his sin.
When I read
the classic, Watch Your Walk, by Richard Baxter,[1] I
had to keep reminding myself that the book was written 350 years ago. His
description of pastors failing to carry out church discipline out of fear of
losing their paycheck sounded like it had been written in the twenty-first
century, not the 1600’s.
Jesus and the
apostles taught church discipline as a healthy way of dealing with sin-problems
in the church. We are the children of God. We misbehave. Sometimes our conduct
gets out of hand and it is the church’s responsibility to “win us over”[2], and
make every effort to “restore us”.[3]
God disciplines those he loves,[4]
and his church does the same.[5]
Today God gave
me great comfort and help in how he wants me to think of these situations that
tend to leave lasting pain in the hearts of the people who go through them (on
both sides of the divide, I should add). At the end of Jesus’ instructions
about how to carry out the discipline of an unrepentant child of God, he added
this encouragement:
18 Truly, I say to you, whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say to you, if
two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by
my Father in heaven. 20 For
where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”[6]
What
encouraged me so much this morning was how these words of Jesus fit all the
things we are learning about the throne-room of God in heaven. Jesus said that,
whatever even two or three people “bound” on earth by carrying out church
discipline against an unrepentant child of God, that is the way God considered
it in heaven. And, when the disciplined child of God came to repentance, and
was “loosed” from their discipline through forgiveness,[7] these people could count on the situation being viewed the same way
in heaven. In both cases, it didn’t matter what things looked like on earth. It
mattered that there was agreement between the two or three witnesses praying in
Jesus’ name, and the throne-room of heaven where such prayers were heard and
answered.
The
conclusion for me was that, as God had earlier convicted me to pray the Great
Commission[8] in faith that he will answer such a prayer because it is his own
revealed will, I could now pray that God would carry out church discipline
against unrepentant children of God even if the two or three witnesses need to
gather together and pray that God would do what other churches refuse.
The
bottom line is that my journey through Revelation 4, the picture of the
throne-room of heaven, tells me to look at the way things are in heaven, not
the way they will appear on earth. Even when it looks like unrepentant people are
able to go find other churches that will take them in as if nothing has
happened (as with David Hocking), or the ones who should be disciplined are
able to get the pastor removed instead (as with Jonathan Edwards), Jesus promises
that things in heaven match the justice and righteousness of the throne of God,
even when beasts, antichrists, false prophets, deceivers, and apostate churches
seem to be “getting away” with whatever they are doing wrong.
The
throne-room of God says things are very different than what our eyes can see.
Even two or three people praying in Jesus’ name for God’s will in church discipline
to be carried out, will be heard, and answered.
From
my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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