The Due Spirit of Discipline

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“Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee” (Deut. 8:55Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. (Deuteronomy 8:5)). This blessed word holds good at all times and under all circumstances, whether the discipline is individually or corporately applied. It applies on New Testament ground, whether in 1 Corinthians 5 or Hebrews 125And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: (Hebrews 12:5). Our Father never departs from this principle, never uses the rod, save under the prompting of perfect love. Holiness is the end and love the motive. Moreover, true discipline is but one of the forms of the activity of true love. It is good to keep this in mind. Correctness of judgment and tenderness of heart should be blended in us, as they are in our God. All that is right must be learned from His ways, and ourselves in subjection, so that we may not neutralize that which is of Him by the addition of that which is our own. Even “neutralize” is not an adequate expression, for positive harm may be produced by doing right things in a wrong way.
The Manner of Discipline
The manner in which discipline is to be exercised in the assembly is plainly laid down in 1 Corinthians 5, but we must place ourselves behind the scene to see the spirit that suits such an act. Not until we come to 2 Corinthians 2 do we learn what it cost the Apostle to write 1 Corinthians 5, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Not until the saints were themselves broken under the sorrow could he make them understand how much he himself had suffered. It is not merely a question of the Corinthians humbling themselves for the gross evil immediately connected with them. There is a deeper and wider truth — that those who are right should teach the wrong ones their proper place by taking that place themselves. Paul — the right one — is the first to enter into the sorrow, with a broken heart, that he might draw the Corinthians where he was, and that they might, in their turn, draw the guilty one into the same. Paul interacted with the Corinthian saints; it was for them to act toward the offender himself, in order that their grief, more than anything else, might teach his conscience and win his heart back to the Lord. It can never be only an act of putting away, although there must be that, as due to the holiness of the Lord, but in that act is involved a question of eating the sin offering in the holy place, confessing the sin in self-judgment, and ever keeping in view the ultimate restoration of the soul. If we sever 2 Corinthians 2 and 7 from 1 Corinthians 5, a great deal of mischief will arise. Saints will form themselves into a court of justice, to pass sentences right and left, without the consciousness that each sentence strikes back upon them and brings them into the punishment. These are the words of the Apostle, as to what he felt at the time when he wrote the first epistle: “Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you, with many tears” (2 Cor. 2:44For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. (2 Corinthians 2:4)). This is the record of the effect produced upon the saints by the spirit of his letter: “Behold, this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you; yea, what clearing of yourselves; yea, what indignation; yea, what fear; yea, what vehement desire; yea, what zeal; yea, what revenge!” (2 Cor. 7:1111For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2 Corinthians 7:11)). The only way to a godly clearing of ourselves is by godly sorrow.
Carefulness
This is an unchangeable principle with God. When Israel had crossed the Jordan and seen in the fall of Jericho how Jehovah dealt with the enemy, they came afterwards to Ai, where they were broken down. They, like the Corinthians later, had lacked “carefulness,” and by their indifference to evil within, room was left for Achan to lay hold of the accursed thing. Notice that it does not say, “Achan,” but, “the children of Israel committed a trespass.” All were involved in the deed, and the people were judged before the guilty one himself. This was not easily accepted nor entered into, even by Joshua. Sad indeed were his words on the occasion: “Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!” (Josh. 7:77And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! (Joshua 7:7)). We do not like the principle of discipline that strikes the many even before the guilty one is reached.
Right in His Own Eyes
Also at the end of Judges, “there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:2525In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)). This is a principle which leads to fearful wrong. A molten image in the house of Micah and, worse yet, the connivance of a Levite with idol worship were sad enough. However, it was not until the downright evil of apostasy, the sin of Sodom, and that which brought the flood upon the earth (Gen. 6:1212And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. (Genesis 6:12)) had been confronted that the moral sense of Israel was roused. Then they “gathered together as one man  ... unto the Lord in Mizpeh” (Judg. 20:11Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the Lord in Mizpeh. (Judges 20:1)). And now that Jehovah has gotten them together once more, He must carry out the principle of old — strike the many before the few, at the cost of 40,000 of their own. Only then did they learn their connection with the iniquity of Benjamin, for “all the people went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord” (Judg. 20:2626Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. (Judges 20:26)). Only after this painful but necessary ordeal could God side with them and fit them to deal in righteousness with “Benjamin, my brother.”
Christians on the wilderness side of Jordan cannot see nor acknowledge this principle; they are not in the place where it is carried out. But when we stand on Ephesian truth, whether or not the church has been faithful to its calling, we must keep in mind that God will act with us according to what He is and also to what we ought to be.
Bible Treasury, Vol. 12 (adapted)