Handbook of Church Discipline

Chapter 1What Is Church Discipline?The terms "disciple" and "discipline" obviously have a common Latin source. The source is a word family that has to do with education. Discipline is inextricably linked to education.But the kind of education of which the Bible speaks, and from which church discipline takes its impetus, is very different from the sort of education with which we are now familiar in America. The educational model from which the idea of church discipline stems once was known in our country, but it became extinct as the result of the successful spread of the permissive, self-expression practices advocated by John Dewey and others in an earlier generation. Biblical education, from which ideas of church discipline flow, is education with teeth; it is education that sees to it that the job gets done.The Old Testament word musar and the New Testament word paideia set forth this idea of education backed by force. As Hebrews 12:5-11 makes clear (here the New Testament writer uses paideia to translate the Hebrew musar into Greek), such education is not always pleasant and at the time can be quite painful:Of course, all discipline [paideia] seems painful rather than pleasant for the moment, but later on it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11).But notice the purpose of discipline: it functions in the educational process to produce righteousness as its fruit, a fruit which, when you bite into it, tastes like peace.Righteousness (rightness; conformity to Christ''s standard of conduct) has the flavor of peace because, wherever it is found, it produces harmony and order. Where there is conformity to God''s will, there is structure; where there is biblical structure the prime condition for learning is present: peace.Without peace, learning is impossible. Education depends on order. That is one of the major reasons why in the recent past, and even up to the present, there has been such poor learning in our schools-peace, a chief factor in the learning situation, has been missing. Where there is no peace, there is no learning; where there is no discipline, there is no order; where there is no order there is no peace. Discipline is, at its heart and core, good order.But why should we be thinking about education? How is it that church discipline connects with education? Because the very term that Christ uses concerning the church indicates that He conceives of it as an educational institution. When Jesus beckons to us, inviting us to find refreshment in Him, He does so in educational language:Come to Me, all who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will refresh you [the word in the original is a verb, not a noun, as the KJV has it].Put My yoke on you and learn from Me; I am meek and humble in heart, and you will discover refreshment for your souls.My yoke is easy to wear and My burden is light.(Matthew 11:28-30)Here the great Teacher describes conversion as the experience of enrolling in His school and learning how to live from Him. Conversion involves becoming a disciple (student) of Christ. One does not take some six-week course to qualify for entrance into the church, graduate from the course, and cease being a student. No, there is nothing like that in the Bible. Rather, the entire course of one''s Christian life is described as a learning experience in the school of Christ.Notice the educational language in Christ''s invitation: "learn from Me," "Put My yoke on you." The latter expression was used by the Jews to describe one''s submission to a teacher as he became his disciple (Lamentations 3:27; Sirach 51:23-26; 6:24). In Sirach 51:23, 26, for instance, we read, "Draw near to me, you who are untaught, and lodge in my school.... Put your neck under the yoke, and let your sons receive instruction...." (Apocrypha, RSV).Moreover, when Jesus gave what is called the "Great Commission," He really issued a command to recruit students for His school. Again, we meet educational lanAdams, Jay Edward is the author of 'Handbook of Church Discipline' with ISBN 9780310511915 and ISBN 0310511917.