Tuesday, April 11, 2006

A Member in Good Standing

Being a member in good standing does not necessarily mean that a member is doing everything right or that she is living a faithful and consistent Christ life. What it means is that the member is not under church discipline.

Most members of the church are members “in good standing.” A few might be suspended from the table for various kinds of sins. They are members not in good standing, but they are still members. The other option is to have been excommunicated and in that case they are not members at all.

Suppose a member in good standing was gossiping about her neighbors all over town, and refuses to stop. Several things (not necessarily in this order) might happen to help restore her fellowship: (1) nothing might happen, in the hopes that love will cover a multitude of sins (God will intervene and convict her of sin). (2) A friend might approach her and discuss the issue kindly and bring her to the place where she acknowledges her sin. (3) Several people will confront her about her gossip and will convince her to repent and love her neighbors. (4) The elders might suspend her from the Lord’s Supper for a time, as a preliminary action, so that she will understand the severity of her sin. (5) She might be taken before the whole church as a witness against her that she is not acting in faith like Christians are called to do. (6) And finally, if she still persists in her sin, she will be put out of the church and proclaimed to be a non-Christian. The goal is always to restore fellowship between the member and God and the member and the other members.

In all of these situations until number 4 she would be a member in good standing. After that she would be a member, not in good standing.

It is important to remember that we are all sinners and we all sin. There are many sins that a member in good standing might commit, and right in front of everybody. It might be the kind of sin that is being covered by love (where the church is waiting for God to deal with the sinner), or it might be the kind where he is being restored gently and it hasn’t gotten to the point of discipline—yet. But because fellowship is the goal, and God is longsuffering, we must be slow to act and careful to not make the situation worse in our acting.

But the assumption that a member in good standing is therefore not sinning, is a mistaken assumption. And as an observation, the one shouting, “I’m a member in good standing!” is often not really a member in good standing with regard to his actual standing before God.

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