Today’s Readings Podcast Description

Can a church live long without discipline? Calvin answers that doctrine is the life of the Church, but discipline is its sinews. Without private admonition, public correction, and, when necessary, exclusion from the society of believers, preaching grows lethargic and every man does what is right in his own eyes. Secret faults are to be treated by the steps of Matthew 18; open scandals are to be rebuked before all. Lighter delinquencies call for warning; flagrant crimes call for a sharper remedy. Excommunication has three ends: that the name of Christ may not be dishonored, that the good may not be corrupted by the leaven of the wicked, and that the sinner himself may be ashamed and restored. The judgment of the Church is not a human invention. When it judges by the word of God, what it b ...