Church Discipline

1 Corinthians 5

    Church discipline is a difficult and yet needed Biblical practice. It is not that we are all to be the church police and spy on one another until we find cause to bring someone before the church, but on the other hand if there is no accountability among us then in the long run sin will ruin what the church is all about.
    A careful reading of this chapter will reveal some vital truths about church discipline.
1. It is always practiced out of love and not vengeance.
2. The purpose is the good of the offending person (that they might be restored to close fellowship with God and his church) and the good of the church (to protect it from an anything goes mentality.
3. It is only practiced in cases of open and unrepentant sin. We are all sinner, but when you are doing something openly, publically, with the attitude it is my life and I'll do what I want, then you have crossed the line as a church member.
4. To fail to practice discipline is a display of pride and lack of care for the church overall.
5. We only have this privilege with people we are in a church relationship with.

1 Corinthians 6

    We are not to take our brother, particularly our fellow church member to court. Such matters are to be settled with in the church. We should trust our fellow church members to help us work through such disagreements. Ultimately even if things don't work out the way we want we should be willing to suffer being wronged before we would make our savior and his kingdom look bad by parading our problems in front of the world.
    The reality that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit should be strong motivation to avoid all types of sin and especially sexual sin. He is living in us, we should not drag him into these terrible situations.