Would you comment on the practical ramifications of church discipline when it concerns a family member? Let’s say a woman is divorcing her husband for unbiblical reasons.  She has been urged to repent by the elders, her family, and the church.  But she refuses to repent.  What would you say to the parents, or other family members concerning their relationship to her?  Are they to not associate with her as well?  For example, if your son or daughter would not repent, would you still have her over for holidays, etc.?

Good question. The several stages in the process are often confused. During church discipline every effort of the entire church, including family members, is turned toward urging the person to repent. This is the “tell it to the church” stage. After that, when he is put out of the church, he is to be treated “as a heathen man and a publican” i.e. as an unbeliever.

So, how do you treat an unbeliever? You evangelize him! You have him over for a barbecue, you go golfing with him, you love him and seek opportunities to talk to him about his need for the Lord. It is during the “tell it to the church” stage that you tell him that you can’t go to the game with him.

Bill, I would love to go to the game with you. We used to enjoy great times tailgating together. But now, you have chosen to break that fellowship we once enjoyed because of your sin. Instead of going to the game, let’s spend the time talking about getting this thing resolved.

After he refuses to respond to these admonitions of the entire church, the church makes a formal judgment that the person is not a believer (since he does not act like one) and is therefore to be treated as an unbeliever. So treat him like one!

Books related to Reconciliation:

1. From Forgiven to Forgiving  by Jay Adams
2. Handbook of Church Discipline by Jay Adams
3. How to Handle Trouble by Jay Adams

Check out our online course, Church Discipline/Forgiveness taught by Jay Adams!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
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The post Church Discipline appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

“Care for the people? Preach interesting sermons? Baptize, marry and bury people?”

Can you think of anything else?

“Not really.”

How about what Paul said in Ephesians 4:12, where he outlined the principal reason for the gift of the officers of the church as equipping the saints for their work of service to build up His body?

“Somehow, that just didn‘t come to mind.”

Well, it it’s true—and you know it is, Christian—shouldn’t it be happening?

“Guess so.”

Two things stand out:

1. You are to be equipped by your pastor
2. You have a work of service to do that will benefit the church.

Are these things happening?

“Uh . . . Not sure”

Well, either your pastor is remiss, you are remiss, or both of you are remiss. Which is it?

“I’d hate to say.”

Well, it’s time you determined to be built up in your faith to the point where you contribute to the welfare of the whole church. If you aren’t aware of this important function of your pastor-teacher in equipping you, then you need to become aware of it. One way is to ask your pastor how you need to be equipped, and what you should do to enable you to become equipped to help the body. That, perhaps, is the very best way to begin. Start with yourself. Then, you can handle any other aspects of the problem that may arise. But until you have dealt with your side of the matter, it isn’t time to consider any other.

Books dealing with Preaching:

1.  Preaching with Purpose by Jay Adams
2.  A Consumer’s Guide to Preaching by Jay Adams
3. Authority in the Church by Jay Adams

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
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The post You and Your Pastor appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

• In the Gospels, Jesus warns against false teachers, and speaks of wolves in sheep’s clothing and the “leaven of the Pharisees.” The record of His ministry is one of conflict with those who refused to accept the teaching He set forth.
• Acts contains the record of the church’s first major controversy over whether or not a person must become a Jew before he could qualify as a Christian. A church council was called to settle the matter. Paul goes to lengths to warn the Ephesian elders about wolves who would devour the flock and schismatically draw away disciples to themselves.
• Romans is an entire doctrinal treatise about justification by faith alone in contrast to salvation by works, and how sanctification follows thereafter. In it, Paul also takes up the rejection of the Jewish church.
• I Corinthians is loaded with problems; schism, misuse of gifts, church discipline, marriage and divorce, and on, and on, on.
• II Corinthians takes on false apostles who had invaded the church and charged him with pretending to be an apostle. The place of apostolic authority is set forth, along with the qualifications of an apostle.
• Galatians is a sterling defense of Justification by faith alone over against those who taught otherwise and were upsetting the church by Judaistic legalism.
• Ephesians is less controversial, being a universal epistle rather than directed to the adverse circumstances of an individual or a congregation
• Philippians deals with a split in an otherwise good church. But it has to do with self-centeredness and sets forth a key Christological passage.
• Colossians is consumed with fighting Judaistic Gnosticism.
• I & II Thessalonians take up false teaching about the Lord’s coming and eschatology.
• I & II Timothy & Titus teach “healthy” doctrine over against many false ideas. And, in them, Paul doesn’t hesitate to name specific heretical individuals.
• Philemon is a welcome exception
• Hebrews, in its entirety, combats all influences that would cause Jewish Christians to revert to Judaism.
• James utterly destroys the idea that one can have genuine faith that does not result in good works.
• I Peter explains how the New Testament church is no longer a physical political entity, but that the church is now the spiritual people of God, the new Israel.
• II Peter warns against scoffers and libertines unsettling the church and reveals the true picture of final things.
• I John argues quite effectively throughout the book against Gnosticism of a Cerenthian sort.
• II John warns against hospitality for heretics
• III John deals with church discipline gone so far astray as to virtually destroy a church.
• Jude throughout its entirety is an exhortation to contend against the libertines who invaded the church that failed to listen to the warnings in II Peter.
• Revelation speaks of the warfare of God against apostate Judaism, the first persecutor of the church, and Rome, the second persecutor, and predicts the fall. It also mentions cults like the Nicolatians.

Now, in light of the above, if you can, tell me why we should not be prepared to detect and refute falsehood in the Church?

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. The Use of Scripture in Counseling by Jay Adams
5. Sanctification and Counseling by Jay Adams
6. Critical Stages in Biblical Counseling by Jay Adams
7. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

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So, to be effective, you have to have all opposition removed?

“Certainly would help.”

Do you think that Paul was effective?

“Sure was. Nobody more so!”

Did you ever read what he said about being effective?

“Not sure.”

Listen to this: “A wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose” (I Corinthians 16:9).

“Hmmmm. . . . “

Looks like opposition goes with the territory, doesn’t it?

“Guess so.”

The more effective one is in the Lord’s work, the more he can expect opposition. If you’re really doing something effective, as Paul said he was, then you should count on the evil one—or one of his henchmen—to oppose. Of course, we’re not talking about ineffective people causing trouble for themselves, you understand.

“Yeaaaah. Well, thanks.”

Welcome.

Books dealing with Preaching:

1.  Preaching with Purpose by Jay Adams
2.  A Consumer’s Guide to Preaching by Jay Adams
3. Whole Counsel by Donn R. Arms, et. al.

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

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Their names might easily have been Odious and Soon-touchy, if they were anything like what we find in churches today. Their actual names are found in Philippians 4:2.

Before Paul mentions any names, he makes clear two principles that must be at work when bringing unity to a divided church. In Philippians 2:3, 4, he sets these forth:

1. Get rid of selfishness or vane thinking about your own worth, while at the same time considering others better than your self.
2. Instead of being all—fired concerned with your own interests, for once in your life begin to put the interests of other before your own!

You can always find some way in which others are better than you—if you’re willing to prayerfully take an honest look (of course, as his words indicate, Paul would have you to look away from yourself in order to do so).

And, if you are concerned about furthering others’ concerns rather than your own, again, you’ll find ways of doing so.

The two principles are not hard to understand-just hard for quarreling people to follow. Repentance may be in order to be able to do so.

On those two points, he goes further in the verses that follow to show how that’s exactly what Jesus did for us. He selflessly put us first, going so far as to put our interests (salvation) before His manifested glory as the second Person of the Trinity. He was willing to stoop to becoming a man, to becoming a slave, to becoming a criminal who died on the cross—all for our sakes.

Think of His condescension the next time your foot gets stepped on, the next time someone disagrees with you, the next time you’ve been insulted, the next time . . . simply the next time! It isn’t a matter of who is right. The point is—how are you handling the relationship? Follow these two principles, and you will certainly be doing much to bring about unity. In unity, you can work out the differences!

Books related to Reconciliation:

1. From Forgiven to Forgiving  by Jay Adams
2. Handbook of Church Discipline by Jay Adams
3. How to Handle Trouble by Jay Adams

Check out our online course, Church Discipline/Forgiveness taught by Jay Adams!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Women at Each Other’s Throats? appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

It isn’t entertainment carried on to attract numbers. It isn’t marketing tactics taking over instead of evangelism. As serious as these and other problems are—and they are—the spirit of compromise is an even more basic one. Indeed, why does one depend upon entertainment instead of truth to attract the lost? A willingness to compromise truth for numbers. Why do people rely on marketing principles rather than Scripture to draw men to Christ? You’ve got it—they are willing to compromise truth for success. Compromise is a significant issue, indeed, we might say, the basic issue today.

But compromise also may be found in the ministry of counseling. People who are willing to become certified by the state simply in order to receive third-party insurance funds compromise themselves for money. People, who are unwilling to stand for the sufficiency of the Scriptures in order to receive the approval of others who scoff at those who do, compromise. These and endless other compromises of the truth of God are made by those who seek to find ways of amalgamating Scripture with the unbelieving systems of counseling set forth by people who know nothing of the saving power of Jesus Christ. Some even compromise the integrity of the Scriptures when they knowingly misuse passages in order to support teachings and methods of counseling that are unbiblical. At its heart, counseling eclecticism is compromise. Some preachers even avoid counseling altogether, justifying their failure to properly shepherd the flock by echoing the statements of those who erroneously speak of “The Primacy of Preaching.”

Compromise is rife in the pulpit itself. Men who preach nice, soft-as-cream-puff essays, or who present truth in cardboard-like form with little or no application—not to speak of specific application—often do so out of a spirit of compromise. “It’s truth,” they (inwardly) reason, so God may use it without the necessity of driving it home to people who might become offended if I do. And, to think of presenting God’s Word in red-hot second-person form . . . “unthinkable! That’s utterly taboo! You just can’t get that personal with people! You might drive some away.” Avoiding passages of Scripture and difficult doctrines, with which it is known that members of the congregation disagree, is another form of pulpit compromise.

Thank God compromise isn’t universal in Bible-believing circles! Here and there, standing out from the crowd, are those stalwart leaders who will not compromise truth for reasons of popularity, success or anything else. It is they who hold God’s truth and God’s Name to be of greater importance than anything else. They seek not popular acclaim—and often get the opposite from the majority—but the future “well done” from God.

Check out our online course, The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

1. What to do on Thursday
2. The Christian’s Guide to Guidance 
3. A Call for Discernment

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

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“It’s too sensitive,” they say (when their wives tell them they ought to ask for a raise).  “I don’t want them to think that I am complaining,” is another common response.  And, one more: “I’ll pray about it; God will have to provide an answer.”  But such responses will not do.  Basic instruction (and exhortation) is necessary.

Many members (even some board members) may be perplexed, confused about the standard for payment.  It is time to proclaim the biblical standard from pulpits rather than whisper about it behind closed doors.  “But God didn’t speak on that subject,” you say.  Oh?  Do you think that He would have left so important a matter to sinners to determine?  No.  In the Scriptures He has very clearly set forth His standard for the payment of ministerial services.  Indeed, He reveals the basic requirement as well as that which is appropriate in exceptional cases.  Let’s take a look at both.

First, listen to Paul as he sets for the base salary for a minister: “Now let him who is instructed in the Word share everything good that he has with the one who instructs him” (Galatians 6: 6).  In that command (note, it is not optional for congregations to do or not do so) you find the fundamental principle of payment – the minister of the Word is to receive a salary commensurate with that of the members of his congregation.  He is not to live on less than they do.  Put positively, as Paul does, he is to enjoy all the good things that they do. While, as we shall see, he may be paid more than the average of his members’ earnings, congregations must not pay him less — without sin.  And, until they consider this question as an issue of sin, some Christians will go on disobeying God’s command.

Now, I will not go into the matter deeply but notice the two verses that follow Galatians 6:6: “Don’t be deceived, God isn’t snubbed; whatever a person sows, that is exactly what he will reap” (Galatians 6:7).  There are congregations who try to snub God in the matter; they think that they can get by without living up to the base salary that God has set.  But it can’t be done.  He will not be turned off so easily.  He declares that He will respond negatively to their negative response to Him.  If they give sparingly, He says, they will receive sparingly.

Now, what does that mean?  Paul goes on: “The one who sows for his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows for the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (v. 8).  If one spends the money that he owes his pastor on fleshly things, that is what he will reap rather than the things at pertain to eternal life – just like those unbelievers who ignore God and ultimately receive eternal death rather than eternal life.  In other words, the fundamental principle of sowing that has to do with salvation is mentioned here to demonstrate how this principle also relates to accepting or rejecting God’s standard for one’s giving.  Congregations that will not obey Galatians 6:6 will lose the spiritual blessings that they might otherwise have had.  How this will happen in each case is hard to say.  Perhaps the way in which the reaping takes place will differ from place to place.  God may call a fine minister of the Word away from a congregation to a place where his work will be recompensed properly.  Thus, the congregation will be impoverished spiritually.  He may harden hearts so that people fail to appropriate the spiritual blessings that they might otherwise receive from their minister.  There is any number of ways in which God may do so.  If a congregation can’t – or won’t – pay a minister a good living wage according to God’s scale for giving, it should not call a minister until it is able to.

So, pastor, what can you do?  Well, you must instruct your congregation about this matter.  If you fail to do so both you and they will suffer.

But there is also more to be learned about payment.  In I Timothy 5: 17 Paul wrote: “The elders who manage well should be considered worthy of double pay, especially those who are laboring at preaching and teaching.”  Now, in that verse another problem appears: all elders (not just the preachers) should be paid.  I’ll leave that discussion to another time because it might take us too far afield.  “Whoa!” someone says.  “It says ‘honor’ in my version.”  Well, that’s a shame; there is no excuse for obscuring Paul’s meaning.  The original Greek word, time can mean both “honor” and “pay.**”  That the second rendering must be given to the term in this context is clear from verse 18, in which Paul buttresses his command (note, again, this is not an optional matter) with a quotation that has to do with earning one’s living by his work (just as the ox earns his food).

Now, all elders manage the congregation, but some, in addition to this task, also preach and teach.  They are the ministers of the church.  Note what Paul commands.  The elders who manage well ought to be given double pay, starting with those who minister God’s Word.

From time to time, I have asked groups of ministers what the Bible says about the salary that they ought to receive only to get blank stares in return.  Evidently, teaching about this is not widespread.  It is about time, then, that we begin remedying the situation.  How?  Well, it must begin with you, pastor.  Are you afraid to tackle the matter?  That’s unworthy of you!  How best to do it?  That’s a worthy question.  Let me give you three or four suggestions:

1. Preach through Galatians and when you come to the sixth chapter nail the subject emphatically! “That would take too long,” you say, “I’d probably starve by the fifth chapter!” Well, then, preach chapters 5 and 6, which form a very practical unit.
2. Another suggestion. Sit down with your board (authority bunch) and instruct them in the matter. Try to enlist them in beginning to see and follow God’s provision for His servants. If they come along, then have them request you to preach on Galatians 6 and I Timothy 5 (and make that fact known in the church bulletin).
3. If, after all sorts of efforts have been made over a sufficient period of time you are able to effect no change (notice I didn’t say right away), consider changing pastorates. When you decide to do so, explain to the congregation the reason why you are leaving. Perhaps God will use that to awaken them to their sin. But, on the other hand, make sure that the congregation to which you move isn’t also as ignorant of (or resistant to) the matter as the previous one. In candidating, therefore, make a point of discussing the question with the elders.
4. You may find it helpful to hand a copy of this editorial to your board of elders to get the discussion going. You may find that this is a good way to break the ice.

Well, blessings to you.  If more of you would preach the whole counsel of God – which includes his provisions for His servants — then the church would be greatly edified.  Consider becoming one who will do so and enjoy the blessings.

**Traveling on a plane in Europe, the flight attendant offered me a choice of newspapers in various languages.  I chose the Greek one.  There, hitting me right in the face on the masthead was the word Time, which was followed by a specified number of drachmas.  Even today, then, the word carries the idea of payment or cost.

Check out our online course, Theology and Counseling taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to dealing with problems:

1. A Theology of Christian Counseling by Jay Adams
2. Sanctification and Counseling by Jay Adams
3. A Call for Discernment by Jay Adams

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

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