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OUR DISCIPLINE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 24, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 49, No. 21.

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OUR DISCIPLINE.

By Chas. B. Reynolds

A good brother who had but very recently embraced the truth, to whom we had been speaking of the need of living up to our discipline, remarked, “I supposed I had got done with disciplines and creeds. I am surprised to learn Seventh-day Adventists have a discipline. I never have seen it. Where can I find a copy of it?” We answered, “Where Seventh-day Adventists obtain all their rules of faith and practice, in God’s Holy Bible. Our discipline is that given by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for the government of his true church. You will find it recorded in Matt. 18:15-20.”
Dear brethren and sisters, are we who are older in the way, all living up to our discipline? Do we clearly understand it? Would not a little more of prayerful meditation on its imperative requirements help us better to understand and to obey?
“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” Here we have the plain, positive commandment of Christ to his followers: it is not left optional—not, you may go, perhaps you had better go, or even, you really ought to go—the requirement is imperative. Go!
“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Luke 6:46. “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:14. If, then, we are Christians, and we believe any brother to be in fault or sin, we must go to him about it, for Jesus so commands us. No language can be more positive or imperative. Go, tell him of his fault, convince him of his error, reprove him. Go, but go alone, not run to this one and that one, pretending to mourn over his wrong doing, thus prejudicing others against him—circulating the report with—“Well, I don’t want you to say a word to any one about it, but—” or, “Well, I hope it may not be true, but I’m afraid it is, for they say”—thus bearing reproach against your neighbor.
“Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment.” Ex. 23:1, 2. “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” “He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.” Ps. 15:1, 3.
We may not even speak to him of his wrong doing in the presence of others, lest we give publicity to his real, or perchance only imagined, wrong doing; but go to him alone. How? With flashing eyes, voice tremulous with rage, heart filled with bitterness and vindictive hate? No! Before we can go, in compliance with the requirements of our discipline, first, we must calmly think over the evidence we have of our brother’s really having done aught amiss. If convinced he is in fault, then what? What would we do if our dearest loved one on earth was in terrible peril, sick unto death? Would not the first, most earnest desire of our heart be that he should have help, rescue? Would we not agonize in prayer to God in his behalf, and be desirous to do anything, everything in our power, with the hope that it might help or save him? If then our brother in Christ, whom we have covenanted to love, help, watch over, is in peril, sick with sin, in danger of eternal death, should we not first beseech God in his behalf?
This, then, is the very first duty taught us in our discipline; for against those for whom we truly and earnestly pray, we cannot long harbor hate or resentment. As we pray for the erring one, let us examine our own hearts, and see if we are in a condition that God can answer our supplications. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16.
“And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” 1 John 3:22. Let us be sure we are not ourselves guilty of the very offense about which we are so much troubled on account of our brother. Are we quite free of such sin? Then what grateful tribute of praise should we offer to God that we have been mercifully spared the same temptations! Let us examine very closely, to see if we are not even more guilty in some other direction, and let the remembrance of our own sins and weaknesses make us very pitiful toward our erring brother. Let us pray the prayer the Master taught us, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Pray it. Mean it. Prayer is the heart’s desire. Do we pray this? Sometimes we say, “I forgive, but I never can forget;” or, “I forgive, but I will never have anything more to do with him.” If this is according to our real desire, then let us pray, “Lord, forgive us our sins against thee, but do not forget them;” or, “Lord, forgive, but do not ever again have anything to do with me.”
When we ask God to forgive us, do we not desire to be regarded by him as though we never had sinned? “Forgive us, as we forgive.” Then we must so regard those who have sinned against us. “Oh!” replies one, “I think the Bible teaches me that if he repents I am to forgive him;” and he quotes Luke 17:3,—“Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him.” And so they say, “Not till he repents, and then comes to me and asks me, then I’ll have to forgive him, not before.” But the Master says, you shall go to him, not wait for him to come to you. Go, tell him of his fault alone; then, if he repent, forgive him. If a dear, loved one were sick unto death, would you say, “If he comes to me I’ll nurse him, and minister unto him?” Why, his very sickness prevents his coming to you; so the very wrong, the sin of which he is guilty, keeps your erring brother from coming to you. He will not come to you; our discipline demands that you go to him. This is the proof of our Christianity, for the Master commands us to love one another, even as he loved us, even to the laying down of our lives for the brethren.
“Oh! but this is hard; it seems impossible to do.” To the unregenerated, yes. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Rom. 8:7, 9.
With hearts humbled at remembrance of our own weakness and sinfulness, having earnestly besought God in Jesus’ name to give the needed wisdom and the gentle, compassionate, loving Spirit of the Master, we must go to our brother alone, speak to him of the blessed hope, our mutual dependence, our great need of each other’s love and help while traveling the perilous pilgrimage of life, seek to have him understand our appreciation of the good he has manifested, then, in gentle, loving tones, tell him frankly and fully his fault. Listen in gentle patience to his explanation or defense, then point out the consequences of his sin, show him how it dishonors God, grieves Jesus, causes sorrow to the good and holy angels, and pains the hearts of his brethren. Let him fully realize it is not for your sake, but in love to him and the cause of Christ, that you have come to him, come in accordance with your covenant and the requirements of our discipline, with genuine, unselfish love in your heart, to ask, to entreat, him to join with you in prayer to our ever-merciful heavenly Father. Pray with him, not at him. Confess to God your own weakness and proneness to err, not his sins: leave him to do that. Beseech the outpouring of God’s Spirit on you both, that you may enjoy the blessed privilege of going in unison and love, heart to heart and hand in hand, through the perilous pilgrimage of this world’s sorrows and temptations, aiding, cheering, counseling each other, and at last together share the soon-coming glorious reward. Then, “If he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy brother.”
From that hour a more holy, a dearer, stronger love and sympathy shall exist between you than ever before. Oh! it must be a hard heart indeed that could resist such gentle, unselfish, loving appeals—the gentle Jesus’ own appointed way to win the erring wanderer back to his love and favor. “But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” But how should we do this? Look around and try to find some one who has a real or fancied cause of pique against the erring one, seek out one whom we suspect he dislikes or has resentment against? Would this be in accordance with our discipline? No! But again and still more earnestly praying for promised wisdom, seek for the one or two whom of all the church he most loves and respects, who entertain most affection for him, tell them—and remember it is them alone our discipline permits to be told. Ask their prayers alike for yourself and your erring brother; then, having all unitedly implored God’s blessing on your mission, go with them to the erring brother, that they may entreat him, remembering ever “that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
“And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.” Then, and not till then, tell it to the church. Its officers being first requested to summon the members together, and the erring one being by the clerk of the church duly notified, then tell your cause of grief or complaint to the church. “But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” Turn your back upon him? Let him see you have no more care or thought for him? that you despise him? Is that the way the Master teaches us to regard sinners? No. Still in compassion, lovingly seek his good. We may not love sin, either in ourself or our neighbor; but we are commanded to love our neighbor even though a sinner. Hate sin we must. Hate the sinner we must not. If by stooping we can lift him up to something like moral dignity, incite him to strive to attain again to virtue, we are ourselves guilty if we do not do it.
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” It seems incredible if this course be pursued, but that the stoniest heart must melt, and be won back by repentance to virtue. But should any one reject every effort and loving entreaty, the church must expel him; and that expulsion, our Lord declares, shall stand against him in Heaven. Such a one may repent, but the wrong must be made right before that church, or it will bar him from the kingdom of Heaven.
Are we obeying the plain commands of Jesus? Are we living up to our discipline, this lovely rule of love, this heaven-devised method to preserve peace, unity, love, and harmony among the little flock to whom Christ has promised the kingdom? May the dear Lord give to each and every one the needed grace and strength to obey, to live up to our “Discipline.”
CHAS. B. REYNOLDS.