Discussions about Discipline – What is “the church” in Matthew 18:17? - Lee Shelnutt

Often times, in our increasingly anti-ecclesiastical culture, people who still hold a place for church in their lives, nevertheless, question the authority of church leadership, the nature of the church, and their own relationship within church authority structures. Some believe that all spiritual authority for their own lives, rests solely in themselves. Others will go to the court of public opinion, held today in all manner of social media forums, and there try fellow believers. In either case, there is little or no appreciation for or patience with responsible church leaders seeking to exercise God-given spiritual authority for those under their care. When you add all of that to long standing debates between those committed to Presbyterian polity and those committed to Congregational polity, it is helpful to revisit a classic passage on what we call church discipline. And as we do, we need to ask ourselves, what is “the church” in Matthew 18:17?

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[f] in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

As Presbyterians, our short answer, would be that “the church,” as used by our Lord here in this passage, is the covenant community of God’s people as represented by its’ chosen leaders. It is to those leaders (first the Apostles and then to her ministers and elders thereafter), as we read in some parallel statements of our Lord, that He has entrusted the keys of the kingdom. Consider the following:

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”​​​​Matthew 16:13-19

19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews,[c] Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”​​​John 20:19-23

When we move from the Gospels to the Pastoral Epistles of the New Testament, we see as James Bannerman, a minister and professor in the Free Church of Scotland in the 1800s, in his magisterial, The Church of Christ, published by The Banner of Truth Trust (2015), so well points out, that:

…the administration of government and discipline formed part of the ordinary work of the former (leaders) as office-bearers, and was peculiar to their order, and not common to them with all. To office-bearers, and not to members in general, were such directions given as these: ‘Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.’ ‘Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.’ ‘Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.’ ‘A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject.’ ‘These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority.’ (2 Tim. 4:2; 1 Tim. 5:19 f.; Tit. 2:15; 3:10) To office-bearers, and not to private members, was the commission given, to bind and to loose, to retain and remit sin, to hold and use the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And the Scripture examples of the actual administration of government and discipline in the apostolic Church are all spoken of with reference to the office-bearers as distinct from the members of the Church. (834)

Looking at the New Testament teaching as a whole, we see that the faithful and humble exercise of church discipline is entrusted to and is to be one of the duties of the appropriate, and chosen office-bearers of the Church, as they represent the Church, and as they are under the only Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ. These leaders work directly with individual members in question, applying censures and announcing them publicly when needed. In the ARP Church, the leaders of our congregations (ministers and elders) are to exercise the duty of church discipline in keeping with the Standards of the denomination. Chapter XXX of the Confession of Faith lays this matter out quite clearly:

I. The Lord Jesus, as king and head of his church, hath therein appointed a government in the hand of church-officers, distinct from the civil magistrate. 

II. To these officers the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed, by virtue whereof they have power respectively to retain and remit sins, to shut that kingdom against the impenitent, both by the word and censures; and to open it unto penitent sinners, by the ministry of the gospel, and by absolution from censures, as occasion shall require. 

III. Church censures are necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren; for deterring of others from the like offenses; for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump; for vindicating the honor of Christ, and the holy profession of the gospel; and for preventing the wrath of God, which might justly fall upon the church, if they should suffer his covenant, and the seals thereof, to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders. 

IV. For the better attaining of these ends, the officers of the church are to proceed by admonition, suspension from the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for a season, and by excommunication from the church, according to the nature of the crime, and demerit of the person.

Our Book of Discipline, another part of our Standards, is then our further explanation of how such discipline is to proceed along biblical and confessional lines.

Now, if we return to Matthew 18 in the light of the broader teaching of the New Testament, it is helpful to note the following. First, Jesus was not speaking to the multitudes collectively, but rather He was conversing with and addressing the disciples. Verse 1,

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Second, realize that “the church” (Verse 17), in its New Testament fullness, had not yet arrived when Jesus spoke these words. Quite obviously, He spoke them before his crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at Pentecost. So, how would have his disciples have heard, “…tell it to the church?” Bannerman is helpful again at this point:

…the Christian Church not being in existence at this moment when our Lord so spoke, He must have referred, in the expression that He used, to some existing mode of ecclesiastical procedure known to his disciples, if He was to speak intelligibly to them at all. That He did allude, in the expression, ‘tell the Church,’ to the Jewish Synagogue, seems to be quite undoubted, -- intimating that the procedure with respect to offenders among His disciples was to be similar to what took place among the Jews in their Church courts. The practice of the Synagogue must have been the practiced suggested to the disciples by the peculiar language of our Lord; and that practice involved the invariable custom of the Church dealing with offenders through her office-bearers, and not in the meetings of her members generally. The argument from this passage in Matthew, so far from being in favour of Independency (Congregationalism), is, on the contrary, conclusive in support of the Presbyterian theory. (835)

While we might quibble with the word “conclusive,” it is definitely clear that the Presbyterian view of this text is very strong per these points and the overall teaching of the Scripture. Here, Bannerman is representative of men like George Gillespie from the Puritan era and John Calvin from the Reformation. Yet,the view goes much deeper in the history of the Church. One church father from the 4th Century, Chrysostom in a sermon on Matthew 18, put it this way:

But if he shall neglect to hear them also, tell it to the church, that is, to the rulers of it; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican. For after this such a one is incurably diseased.

Homily LX on the Gospel According to St. Matthew

Lastly, Matthew 18:19-20 is very comforting to any Session – to any group of chosen office-bearers entrusted with this weighty duty of exercising church discipline. Even if that group of leaders be small, as they humbly deliberate and seek the Lord’s wisdom in shepherding the flock, they have these words of assurance:

19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

We recognize that other Christians, hold to differing interpretations of this text and the Biblical teaching in general on Church polity. For some, the Church to which Jesus refers must be all the members of the local congregation as they gather and deliberate collectively. While we note that there will be points in disciplinary procedure where pronouncements will have to be made to the congregation and where communication between the leadership of different congregations will be necessary (and these are delineated well in our Book of Discipline), we nevertheless believe that the best way to interpret “the Church” in Matthew 18:17 is as outlined above.

We also recognize that men err, and that is a reason to be thankful for our Presbyterian form of government. It puts mechanisms of appeal in place, to protect those who feel that spiritual authority is being abused by others. However, the Lord has given the task to ministers and elders to watch over and care for us. 

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. - Hebrews 13:17