DUTY OF THE CHURCH TO DISORDERLY MEMBERS
By George I. Butler
Thoughts on Church Government.—No. 8.
DUTY OF THE CHURCH TO DISORDERLY MEMBERS.
In this closing article, I desire to express some thoughts on this most important branch of the subject. Perhaps there is nothing so difficult in the administration of the church as this, nothing from which there is so much shrinking, nothing that is so neglected, as dealing with disorderly members. But the Bible has given us much instruction upon it, and there are duties to be done as plain and as important as any connected with the subject of church management. Proper dealing with disorderly members is the only thing that will keep the church pure. Constituted as men are, and sinful as we are, and surrounded by circumstances calculated to develop our bad traits, it must be expected that disorder and many kinds of evil will be found connected with church members. They are human, with the natural passions of men and women to contend with. All may desire to do right, but human infirmity will be stamped on everything they do. There has never yet been found a process which would take a sinful person, unregenerated by divine grace, and make him perfectly pure and holy in a moment of time. The purifying influence of truth may, and often does, powerfully affect persons when they start out in the service of God. A great change is seen in their course of life and experienced in their hearts. This is called conversion. Its importance can hardly be overestimated. But after this, every such individual will realize that there is an evil nature to struggle against. The Christian course will ever be a battle and a march—a battle with our evil traits of character and a march from one victory to another, in the work of overcoming. This very fact shows that evil lurks within us, and we cannot, in this world, fully escape its effect upon us, though we can gain the victory over it. In the most eminent examples of piety in the Bible there are marks of infirmity and sin growing out of this fact. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and Peter, are familiar examples. So also, the Bible, in its comparisons and instructions concerning the Christian course, intimates plainly the same fact. It speaks of the Christian church as a building composed of gold, silver, and precious stones, and also of hay, wood, and stubble, entering into its composition. The latter, however, is to be burned at last. It speaks of wayside hearers, stony-ground hearers, and those in which thorns were choking out the seed, as well as of those who bore plenty of fruit. The gospel net also brings in good and bad fishes, the bad were to be cast aside. The race in which all are to run for a glorious prize is one in which we are very liable to lose it. Even Paul feared being a castaway. John recognizes the fact that Christians may sin, therefore we need an advocate. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, showing plainly that Christians are liable to sin. Even the apostolic churches were found to be very imperfect. That age was doubtless the purest of all, but there was much that was wrong there. The twelve which Christ himself chose were imperfect men; one was a traitor, another denied his Lord. The letters of Paul show great imperfection in the church of Corinth, and of Galatia, and others. Some gave up God’s truth anciently. All Asia forsook Paul. Demas loved this present world, and so we might go on. What does all of this prove? Simply that man is a poor, weak, imperfect, sinful being, with whom God has to bear with much patience, and that human nature is the same in all ages. It shows that trials will come, and people will need correction, instruction, admonition, and reproof. The church is God’s school of morality and religion, in which to train these imperfect creatures. Like any other school, such should be taken in for instruction as give some reasonable prospect of being benefited. If they will conform to right principles, if they will submit to reasonable discipline, let us take them in and benefit them all we can—give them a fair and patient trial. The trouble with churches generally is that a loose, do-nothing system is pursued. Every one goes on as he pleases, no standard of righteousness is erected to which all must conform, and people go along thinking they are about right, and no one is developed or benefited. It is important that points come in every experience where every individual is tested, or given an opportunity to show whether he loves right or wrong most. Such times will come with every one. Decisions will then be made which will have an important bearing upon the eternal destiny of the one in question. There should be wisdom in the church at such a time to make such crises work for the benefit of the individual, the same as every judicious parent watches for points in his child’s experience where a deep impression for good may be made upon his heart. If, then, we admit that the church is God’s school for teaching persons religion and morality, we must admit also that some corrective discipline must be administered to those who will not conform to principles which God’s word teaches are sacred. Something must be done with them. In almost every church, wrong is prevalent more or less, because of the evil in men’s hearts. We have seen that it is the elder’s duty to reprove and exhort, to counsel and admonish, and give such instruction in private and public as will lead the flock in the direction of purity and virtue. The members are each to uphold him in this, and set the right example, and manifest love and justice in all they do. But there are those who persist in pursuing a wrong course, who will not heed these counsels. There are those who slander others, who get into trial and difficulty with others, who refuse to live in peace, who show no proper respect to God’s institutions, who are covetous, and defraud their neighbors. What shall be done with such? If this course continues, and no notice is taken of it, evil is communicated from one to another. Others similarly inclined are emboldened to do the same things. The truly good are grieved and disheartened. Evil increases. These sinners themselves are left unwarned, to go to ruin, and, in short, the very objects for which the church was instituted are perverted. It was designed to lead its members upward to God, but is lowering them down to death by showing that the authority of the church sanctions wrong by its silence. All wrong asks is silent consent to its work. Then it can run riot. But the church is God’s institution to teach morality and virtue. Its work is ever aggressive against evil. It must, therefore, if it be true to itself, the object of its institution, and the highest interests of humanity, make war on evil in its own bosom. A church that does not do this is a dead carcass, and the sooner it goes under the sod, the better it is for morality. The church therefore must exercise a watch-care over its members, and deal with those who walk contrary to sound doctrine; and if they will not submit to right, they must be turned out, or the church is false to its high trust. In no other way can it be true to its mission. The church will make a grand mistake to let grievous sins pass unnoticed. It then ceases to do what it was designed to do. It will commit another error equally great if it refuses to expel those who will not submit to correction. Then it allows its disorderly members to triumph over its authority. In either case, it is unfaithful to its high trust. It sins against the cause of morality. It sins especially against the sinner himself, just as the parent sins against the child whom he allows to grow up disobedient and rebellious. The world justly holds a church responsible for those sins which it tolerates in its members. The church then becomes a body of darkness instead of light. I regard the church management of the present day as terribly lax, and contrary to right principles and the Scriptures of truth.