Chapter 27: Discipline - Its Nature, Subjects and Ends

27-1. Discipline is the exercise of authority given the Church by the Lord
Jesus Christ to instruct and guide its members and to promote its
purity and welfare.
The term has two senses:
a. the one referring to the whole government, inspection, training,
guardianship and control which the church maintains over its
members, its officers and its courts;
b. the other a restricted and technical sense, signifying judicial process.

27-2. All baptized persons, being members of the Church are subject to its
discipline and entitled to the benefits thereof.

27-3. The exercise of discipline is highly important and necessary. In its
proper usage discipline maintains:
a. the glory of God,
b. the purity of His Church,
c. the keeping and reclaiming of disobedient sinners. Discipline is
for the purpose of godliness (1 Timothy 4:7); therefore, it demands
a self-examination under Scripture.
Its ends, so far as it involves judicial action, are the rebuke of offenses, the
removal of scandal, the vindication of the honor of Christ, the promotion of the
purity and general edification of the Church, and the spiritual good of offenders
themselves.

27-4. The power which Christ has given the Church is for building up, and not
for destruction. It is to be exercised as under a dispensation of mercy and not of
wrath. As in the preaching of the Word the wicked are doctrinally separated from
the good, so by discipline the Church authoritatively separates between the holy and
the profane. In this it acts the part of a tender mother, correcting her children for
their good, that every one of them may be presented faultless in the day of the Lord
Jesus. Discipline is systematic training under the authority of God’s Scripture. No
communing or non-communing member of the Church should be allowed to stray
from the Scripture’s discipline. Therefore, teaching elders must:
a. instruct the officers in discipline,
b. instruct the congregation in discipline,
c. jointly practice it in the context of the congregation and church
courts.