8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.
Here are two things we don’t do very well in the church today. The first is church discipline. When someone is involved in a sin and someone becomes aware of it, the Scriptures give a clear step-by-step guide about how it should be handled. Go privately, take two or three others, bring before the church, and then treat them as an unbeliever. Our culture has invaded our thinking to the point that we are hesitant to talk with someone about their sinful behavior. And if we do, they probably just hop to the church down the street and stay in their sin. The second failure is the way we kill our wounded and leave their carcasses for the vultures. We generally do a terrible job of restoration after someone has fallen. We are to validate the Gospel message of grace when someone wants to return. Remember the log in our own eye! Treating someone as an unbeliever means we reach out to them from a posture of grace and love, wanting them to become part of the believing community. When they return, we are to open our arms and our hearts. Restoration is a difficult issue for many of us. If we allow unbelievers to repent and be received, why not those who have fallen and are now repenting and wanting restoration? Are we the elder brother in the Prodigal story? So how do we go about reaffirming our love for someone who has been disciplined? First, we have to be honest with how we remain faithful, it is by grace. If we ever forget that, we have denied the foundation of the Gospel. Not reaffirming those who return is a sign of pride. Second, we need to treat them as new believers. They need support, training, and accountability, just like new believers, just like each one of us. Probably the reason they fell in the first place was a lack of these basic elements. Third, keep both yourself and them accountable for living repentant lives. So reach out to those who are weak, to those who have stumbled. Extend grace to them while recognizing your own need, provide life support as you would a new believer, and expect repentance in word and deed.
The Arnold Journey 