CHURCH, DISCIPLINE IN

If someone has cancer, an operation is usually performed to cut out the malignancy. The reason is simple: if left alone, it will metastasize; that is, it will spread. No one wants a cancer to spread, so it is cut out or otherwise removed from the body so that the patient can be healthy again. And, of course, when the doctors tell the patient, “We got it all,” everyone is encouraged and rejoices.

The same thing should be true in the church. The reason to excommunicate the one refusing to be disciplined is to protect the rest of the body from being infected with that disease. Sin, like cancer, needs to be cut out so it will not spread.173

Discipline in the church is kind of like a vaccination. You get a little dose of the disease and then you fight against it. And that builds immunity, whether it be against germs or sinning.174

If our physical bodies were like the body of Christ—the church—we would be in intensive care twenty-four hours a day.175