The Need For Discipline and Restoration

Martin Luther had much disagreement with the Anabaptists of his day. However, when analyzing his theology of church discipline and comparing it to figures such as Menno Simons and Balthasar Hubmaier, one can see the seriousness with which the ban was taken. Below, Luther is cited speaking of the serious meaning of being put under the ban.

In this way he who is put under the ban should acknowledge that he himself has delivered his soul up to the devil through his own transgression and sin, and that he has deprived himself of the fellowship of all the saints with Christ. For his mother, the church, wants to show her dear son this unbearable damage of sin, by way of the punishment of the ban, and thereby wants to bring him back from the devil to God again. It is just the same as when a natural physical mother threatens and punishes her son when he does evil. She does not deliver him to the hangman or to the wolves, nor does she make a knave of him, but rather she restrains him and shows him by way of this same punishment how he could end up with the hangman. . . . In the same way, when a spiritual authority puts someone under the ban it should keep this in mind: ‘Look, you have done this and that whereby you have delivered your soul up to the devil, earned God’s wrath, deprived yourself of the fellowship of all Christians, and fallen under the inward, spiritual ban before God, and you neither want to stop it nor to return. Well then, I therefore put you too under the outward ban before men. In order to shame you I am depriving you of the sacrament and the fellowship of people until you come to your senses and bring back your poor soul.’

Luther seeks to ensure that his people are aware of the serious implications of a sinful, unrepentant heart. Luther’s goal, like the Anabaptists, was not to simply remove someone from the church, but to do so with the hopes that they would turn away from their sins, recognize the beauty and glory of Christ as seen in the gospel, and together with their church family pursue a persevering faith. May we in our churches today be about rigorous membership, discipleship, discipline, and perseverance.

Jeremy Kimble (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Cedarville University. He is an editor for Credo Magazine as well as the author of That His Spirit May Be Saved: Church Discipline as a Means to Repentance and Perseverance and numerous book reviews. He is married to Rachel and has two children, Hannah and Jonathan.