Church Discipline, Church attendance and Koinonia

In Matthew 18, Jesus sets forth a process for church discipline that is for unrepentant "brothers" in the church that is later played out in 1 Corinthians through Paul.

My question centers on this. It seems that the brother who does not repent is cast out of the fellowship and not allowed to be present which seems consistent with Paul's admonition in Corinthians that the church is not to fellowship with those walking in the darkness. Part of the purpose of excommunication is for the unrepentant to come to his senses and be restored. But also, part of the Spirit expressed purpose is for the church not to be "infected" with the leaven.
And it seems from Paul's admonition that another purpose is to maintain the koinonia.

Given this, my question is, if the presence of unrepentant sinners is a danger to the body, how can we at the same time make most of our fellowship gatherings a place of outreach to unrepentant sinners? Won't that by necessity be a mixture of light and darkness that is harmful to the "koininia' or spiritual intimacy of Spirit and body in our gatherings?

I know that Paul in Corinthians says that sometimes or occasionally the unbeliever will come into the meeting and be convicted of his sins because of prophetic utterance but, that seems to be the exception to the normal meeting in the context and not as it is today with all being welcome even if that means the majority of those present are not born again.

Don't get me wrong please. I'm all for outreach and friendship evangelism, workplace and marketplace evangelism and home Bible studies, and even Alpha type outreaches. What I'm getting at is the core issue of the koinonia of the body, the manifest presence of God in a gathering and the spiritual intimacy and spiritual growth that arises from that. The early church in Acts 2 was devoted to this "fellowship" or spiritual intimacy of the saints. Given that Sundays are the main days of supposed fellowship and worship by saints then haven't we veered off course?

If God is expressly and deeply concerned about the harm that the presence of an unrepentant sinner can do to the body and to Koinonia in our gatherings, shouldn't we be?

I believe you are quoting this scripture -

15 "Now if your brother sins[k], go and [l]show him his fault [m]in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that on the [n]testimony of two or three witnesses every [o]matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as [p]a Gentile and [q]a tax collector.

The whole point is about a brother who is sinning or living in sin. It is not about unbelievers. So unbelievers should always be welcome to our meetings unless it is something like communion that is very intimate only for committed believers.

But a person who is fellowshipping with us for quite sometime and is also a fellow brother with us, but is unwilling to repent then he has to be dealth in this manner. In 1 Cor 5, the man who lived with his father's wife is also such a brother in Corinthian Church.

We need to be especially hard on those who are unwilling to submit to the authority in the Church. Jesus here is telling that if the brother is rebelling against the authority of the Church then remove them from the Church.

I believe you are correct Sree.

Jesus might have a problem with a "no sinners allowed” sign on the church door.

But I can understand Robert’s concern.

I believe the fear is that the believers (Church) might be influenced by and brought down to the level of the sinner(s) in the midst. This may be true in a worldly environment.

But if the Church is functioning on all cylinders, the opposite should be true; ie the sinners should be convicted, repent and be saved and thereby be brought up to the level of the believers.

From a positive standpoint, please consider Acts 2:42 where the early church of new believers who were very devoted to Jesus as not only the Lord of their lives but also to fellowshipping with Him corporately were, as a result, 1) devoted to the Apostle's teaching ( learning to know Him intimately together and learning how to please Him ), 2) devoted to corporate prayer through Him, 3) devoted to the koinonia or fellowship of the body and Spirit and 4) devoted to hospitality and having common meals.

It was in this devotion to Jesus, devotion to gathering and devotion to each other that they experienced and enjoyed the manifest presence of God in their meetings in intimacy, joy, power, holiness and sacrificial love.

Without labeling this thought or me for that matter, please consider if the early church's devotion to gathering as a true body of Christ and being thusly devoted to Jesus and each other and to these spiritual pursuits together was the cause or at least environment for the rich and full experience of the work and presence of the Spirit in their gatherings for upbuilding and maturity of the body.

I know this has been contemplated, spoken of and even pursued in some circles in the past, but with the shaking of the church that has been experienced in many different ways, could it be that one purpose is to spur us back to the beginning, to the love and devotion to Jesus, to each other and to the things the church did at first?

I fully appreciate the concern about the no sinners allowed idea which I'm not suggesting. But, if we focus on these things in Acts and 1 Corinthians and 1 John 1 ( ie., the koinonia and the fellowship and the intimacy in the light and not with darkness) in our gatherings, then perhaps the church will mature, be more active in outreach outside the gatherings, and the unbelievers, as in Acts, will perhaps even fear coming in light of the holy presence of God in the gatherings and declare as in Corinthians, surely God is in this place.

My concern is also that if we make our gatherings significantly about outreach and catering to seekers, then there is a potential "break" in the spiritual connection with the Spirit that gatherings are meant to engender. The Spirit works in us individually, however, a main place the Spirit works very powerfully is through the "intimate" love feast fellowship of true believers gathering together as one body. That was the whole point of Acts 2 and 1 and 2 Corinthians which are the passages that most clearly set forth a type of spiritual house and gathering that the Lord is pleased to manifestly dwell and reveal Himself in.

I don't think we should be quick to say the new church can't teach the old church a thing or two.

The fundamental goal of the gatherings in Scripture was to create an environment where God was pleased to dwell with His people and the result was an empowerment and a maturity in the body that made the body strong and healthy and able to do the work outside the gatherings that the Lord has called us to.

You will not find a record in the NT where anyone was excluded from fellowship by forbidding them come to the meeting.

There was only one church in the early day, so exclusion from fellowship would have equalled being cut off from God altogether.

There were 2 forms of excommunication practised:

1) Shunning - after the 3 stages of escalation outlined in Mat 18 the elders would make a public statement that a brother or sister is sinning and not willing to amend their behaviour. They would ask the fellowship not to talk and not to eat with them (1 Corinthians 5:11) They would probably also strongly recommend the person not to partake in the breaking of bread (1 Cor 11:29-30) lest it would cause them sickness or even death.
Ideally the majority would shun that person (2 Cor 2:6), though some still may be sympathetic with that person and become passive (1 Timothy 5:22) partakers of their sin, if not active partakers (Rev 2:20). Those not following the churches guidelines of the elders would run into severe danger of becoming contaminated and seduced Revelation 2:20,

They could still hear the word of God preached, even sing and pray, but they would be treated like air. The shunning would send a strong message of disapproval while maintaining the possibility that the person concerned would be ministered to by God and repent and be restored ”“ like the man who committed adultery with his stepmother.

2) Handing over to Satan - in severe cases of sexual immorality or blasphemy (1 Timothy 1:20), the person would be handed over to Satan so that the person’s body may be hit but still his soul could still be saved in the end. In the case of the adulterer in Corinth, repentance took place and the person received forgiveness and was restored to fellowship. Though it is not recorded in scripture, I believe he caught a deadly disease and died not soon after.

The letter of Jude addresses the issue of ungodly people in godly fellowships. Most fellowship have a least a few who are backslidden, ungodly, unrepentant, pretenders and reprobates. Jesus even chose Juda to be among the twelve though he was the son of perdition. God permits this to be so for several reasons:
1. To extend all possible means of grace to those, because some still may be saved out of their error (Jude 22).
2. To test us if we trust more in God himself or just hang on to others. (1 Corinthians 11:19)

3. To qualify for leadership. Phinehas qualified himself for priesthood because he was a God’s side and executed proper judgement even against his own kindred.
4. To show God’s longsuffering (Romans 9:22)
5. To give the church the opportunity to show themselves approved (2 Corinthians 7:11)

Church discipline means proper hygiene of the body of Christ. If no impurities came in and the church would only consist of exemplary

I think I'm merely and primarily suggesting that there is a causal connection between the pursuits, devotions and activities of the gatherings of early Christians and the fullness of the Spirit in ways and spiritual effects described in Acts and 1 Corinthians. The Spirit included a specific reference to their gathering activities as a primer for us and not just an historic reference or anamoly.

I think also that Paul in the Corinthian letters and John in 1 John warn that fellowship with each other and with the Father and Son through the Spirit is adversely affected when light attempts to have fellowship with darkness. It's called being unequally yoked in the body by Paul. John at the very least implies it is an impossibility for two like that to walk together. I presume "walking" would include at a minimum worshipping together in Spirit and truth. That isn't really even arguable as that is what the relevant passages in those books say.