Church discipline is one of those subjects no one really wants to talk about. This keeps pastors and elders up at night and can create unease and tension in a congregation, For one thing, church members fear that such discipline entails church officers snooping around in someone’s private business and then outing their private sins to others in the church. For another, church members don’t wish to perceived as being judgmental toward others. If snooping is what biblical church discipline entails, then people would be right to be worried. Fortunately, this is not the case.

The prime example where church discipline is applied in the New Testament is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In chapter 5, Paul describes a situation in which a member of the church (presumably a prominent member) has “taken his father’s wife.” Paul seems utterly perplexed that someone could do such a thing. “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans” (1 Corinthians 5:1). Not only was this man’s behavior a violation of biblical morality, apparently his act was considered scandalous to pagans outside the church. Paul’s remedy for this was to excommunicate this man– “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (v. 5).

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