Church Government and Discipline
See why Christ has given his church officers, censures, and councils, and what ends these serve in guarding the gospel and the good of souls.
Christ rules his church not only by his Word and Spirit but through an appointed government. The Confession describes the keys committed to church officers, the censures they administer, and the synods and councils by which the church takes counsel together.
The keys and church censures
The Lord Jesus, as King and Head of his church, has appointed a government in the hands of church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate. To these officers the keys of the kingdom are committed, by which they may retain and remit sins, shut the kingdom against the impenitent by the Word and censures, and open it to penitent sinners by the ministry of the gospel and the lifting of censures as occasion requires.
The ends of discipline
Church censures are necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren, for deterring others, for purging the leaven that might infect the whole lump, for vindicating the honour of Christ and his gospel, and for preventing the wrath of God upon his church. The Confession orders these censures by degrees — admonition, suspension from the sacrament, and excommunication — to be applied according to the nature of the offence and the demerit of the person, never as cruelty but as fatherly correction aimed at recovery.
Synods and councils
For the better government and edifying of the church, there ought to be assemblies commonly called synods or councils. These are to determine controversies of faith and cases of conscience, to set down rules for ordering public worship and the government of the church, and to receive complaints of maladministration. Their decrees, when agreeable to the Word, are to be received with reverence and submission. Yet councils may err, and many have erred; therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith but a help, and they are to handle nothing but what is ecclesiastical.
Study the full text, Scripture proofs, and commentary on each:
- Read WCF 30 and list the several purposes given for church censures.
- In WCF 31 note both the authority of synods and the careful limits set upon them.
- Trace the proofs for the keys of the kingdom committed to church officers.
See how this doctrine is stated across the Reformed confessions side by side.
Church Government and Discipline →