ORDER AND DISCIPLINE by James Sawyer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 22, 1876

ORDER AND DISCIPLINE.

By James Sawyer

There was a great rebellion when Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness. The Lord rebuked it. Men, famous leaders in the congregation, were cut off because of their sympathy with the rebels. God showed his disapprobation of their murmuring spirit by letting the ground open and swallow them up.

They provoked the Lord by standing up against Moses and Aaron. They said to them: “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” Num. 16:3. The trouble was, the rebels had lifted themselves up. It was not a small thing then to find fault with the order God had established in his church.

Although the mighty men of Israel were cut off, yet the murmurers did not stop their mouths. “On the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” Num. 16:41. The people were so blinded that they charged the destruction of the rebels to Moses and Aaron.

Yet such as are given to murmuring read what the Lord said in regard to these murmurers: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment.” A terrible plague then broke out, in which many thousands perished.

We are not surprised to see the enemy now at work in the same way. Those who complain of church order, and strike against the very things which are calculated to produce harmony, may expect to reap the results of a fatal mistake, like those fault-finding Hebrews. The ground may not open and swallow them up, but the iniquity of the world, which abounds, draws them away, so that their doom is as certain. These murmurers are often the cold-hearted professors in the church. They are those who feed upon husks. They live upon a poor quality of food. They are sickly, because they have not nourishment from the Living Vine.

God never had a church he could signally bless unless there was order in it. Keeping order in a church implies the necessity of discipline. Wrongs must be reproved. Says Jesus, in speaking of the authority of the church, “I will give unto thee [the church] the keys of the kingdom of Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.” Christ has endowed the church with the right to correct the erring. You see him sharply rebuke Peter soon after he declared this power was to be exercised by the church. Matt. 16:19, 23.

Paul also says, “I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.” But why so? “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” 2 Tim. 4:1-5.

Paul was addressing an evangelist, one who was to exercise authority in the church. There was discipline in the church in Paul’s day. When men said they were apostles, they were proved. Apostates were not left to run loose. A mark was put on them. Paul says, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” Rom. 16:17.

The Ephesian, or primitive church, treated those who withstood them in the same way: “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not and hast found them liars.” Rev. 2:2.

When discipline ceased in the primitive church the man of sin crept in.

Complaining of the manner in which wrongs are sometimes reproved, leads persons to strike against church government, and in a little while we find them in the dark. It is a duty we owe to our erring brother to reclaim him if possible; but when he will not be influenced to turn from his evil course, then it is a duty we owe to others to have him exposed for their sakes. We incur the guilt of the erring brother if we do not look after and try to correct him. A mark was put upon them who sighed and cried for all the abominations that were done in the midst of Jerusalem. Eze. 9:4.

“He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” 1 John 2:10. “Let brotherly love continue,” even if it be necessary to secure order and discipline, whereby the influence of the evil may be avoided.

JAMES SAWYER.