MANY overlook the nature of the assembly of God down here. It is, as in 1 Cor., the house of the living God in contrast with the world (ch. v. 12, 13). It may be owing to want of intelligence, or to want of carefulness. to Use language expressive of what they do see, that some speak of one put away from among saints, i n obedience to the word, " as a brother or a sister still."' Paid never does so. If they are inside the house, they are of the household of faith, be they orderly or disorderly members thereof. If outside, he says, " that wicked person."
But then again, many think of discipline as merely external, and vindicative of a breach against orderly government, and so look at the assembly as a court of law.
If I admit that it is, in any sense, a court of law, it is the court of the law of eternal life as to those who profess to, have it, and that being therein, they and I must walk according to the divine nature and eternal life in us. How can any one walk, save according to the nature and life he has? Life within and action without go. together. I have human life, and my actions accord therewith. If I had a dog's nature, or a sow's, I suppose I should do as they do. If I have not eternal life, or if I will walk as the dog or sow, the assembly must patiently examine the case, and it is bound, if in me is too strong to bend, to put me outside as a wicked. person, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord (still remedial even this). This is a characteristic of the extreme act of the assembly, as pronouncing on a wicked person out of communion.
In Paul's day he could say more, for he had a power which we have not, though power, we have to put out or keep in if we walk with God.
Now observe-sins differ, though all be sins. At Corinth incest was defended as being in the assembly. In Galatia the foundation stone was given up. Paul tolerated neither sin, but went fully into the case. Through mercy, and his patient wisdom, success crowned his efforts. The incestuous man was put out, but the Galatian churches were not, nor was Peter, nor Barnabas, for the Lord granted restoration in Galatia, but not in Corinth without the final act, by the assembly of exclusion.
Peter, in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, sounded the case of each to the bottom, yet was not divided against himself; and when Paul could write 2 Cor. 7. 7, 12, he could not talk any more of coming down to break all up and make his power known. Nor could he have written 1 Cor. 5:3, 53For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, (1 Corinthians 5:3)
5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:5), if 2 Cor. 2:77So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. (2 Corinthians 2:7) had been the state of the one who had been an incestuous person.
Thorough self-loathing and genuine repentance, not to be repented of, with true contrition of soul, blended with looking. to, and confession of Christ's salvation as the rock, mark one whom the Holy Ghost would not call a wicked one, an enemy, one to be put outside as one at the present of Satan's kingdom of darkness.....
But the saints have to be as the mouth of the Lord, taking forth the precious from the vile. There was all this. in the judgment pronounced by Peter. Look through them in detail, they are not a few. Also by Paul, see the case of the incestuous person, kc. The case of each is unraveled first and then judgment takes its course, and the judgment varies in connection with the persons, whether deceived or deceivers. G.V.W.