Is there any justification for excommunicating a church member?

Answer 1

Some exclusive sects, where members normally have only limited contact with people outside their own Church, use excommunication as a powerful means of maintaining the involvement of their members. Once excommunicated or disfellowed, the former member can have no further involvement with former friends within the Church community and may face a difficult period of adjustment in the outside world. Thus, the justification for excommunication is the warning it sends other followers, not to follow in the path of the excommunicated member.

The justification for excommunication depends entirely on the particular offence involved and if there are any extenuating circumstances. The New Testament sets out the criteria for excommunication, but these, along with many other biblical directives, are rarely followed today. This, along with a general departure from scriptural truth among people who would claim to believe and follow The Bible, is one reason for the great decline in true spiritual power among those who would claim to be God's people.

What tends to happen today is that, instead of the erring member being lovingly corrected ad then if necessary, excommunicated, with the aim of both correction,and maintaining a pure church, the very things that scripture warns against are tolerated within the body of believers as a whole. Thus, in the end, those who wish to follow the Bible are in a minority and may effectively exercise 'self-excommunication' by leaving.

The justification for excommunication, if there is any, is purely obedience to the Lord who has bought and called out His people to be a Holy people. Thus, it is not any invention of man, and can never be undertaken lightly or vindictively but purely in obedience to God's command to maintain a pure church. The fact that it is so rarely practiced today, is not an indication of health but of grave illness among God's people. A dieing person often loses certain senses.

The two reasons given in scripture relate to either doctrine or to personal behavior. There are a great many differences among God's people and these are to be appreciated and welcomed as God 'gifts' His people. Departure from the living God, is an entirely different thing. And although God sees the heart, and no person is exempt from sin, believers are called to high standards of personal conduct.

So, depending on circumstance there may be justification for what is termed excommunication. Some call it 'church discipline', the ultimate aim, as scripture teaches, is the restoration of the erring brother or sister. In scripture, as in real life, it appears this was sometimes successful and at other times not.

Another way of looking at it, without resorting to the Bible, is that every organization has rules. Although there are many differences between a church and other organizations there are also some similarities. One similarity in many organizations would be a requirement to demonstrate loyalty to the organization. Where this is lacking people may be expelled or their membership of that organization terminated. So the excommunication of a church member, when considered in this light is not so unusual. What is probably unusual is that so many churches which purport to have the Bible as their guide allow so much of what the Bible clearly disapproves, and so excommunication is probably much rarer than it could or ought to be. This would be akin to a company allowing a chief executive, or just an ordinary worker to remain on the payroll when they were known to be guilty of industrial espionage on behalf of a rival company.