Church members should respond humbly to pastoral rebuke and admonishment. The leaders are to labour—so you are to support and benefit from that labour. They are to rule—you are to follow that rule. But thirdly, if they are to rebuke, then you are to humble yourself when that rebuke comes to you. Sometimes it will come to the whole church from the pulpit. Sometimes it will be in private, with a pastor or with a group of elders—maybe before the entire session, the elders together. And Christians should place themselves, therefore, again under spiritual authority they trust. And when you are in a church where you can trust them, well then, when those elders bring matters of sin or of a neglected duty to your attention, that should have your most urgent attention. It should receive your prayerful attention and consideration. Now, whether men are reproved by the elders for failure to provide for their families or to provide spiritual leadership—that has certainly happened in this church—or whether wives are being reproved for rebelling against their husbands, or children are being reproved for disrespect to their parents—just speaking of the family, among other things—well, in that way, you see how the Christian family is bolstered and blessed by the admonishing ministry of the elders.
Sometimes church members will fall into open sin, and as Hebrews 3:1–19 says, they have been deceived by sin, and they are not thinking right. And the elders call them in, and they call them to account. Let me say, if any of us are called before the elders and an open sin is brought before us, we should repent as readily as we can of that. Sometimes there will be reproof for failing to attend worship or support the church’s work. It should all be taken most attentively and seriously—especially when formal church discipline is exercised. Let me say, there is no doubt, in my years as a minister, that there is nothing more daunting, discouraging, and exhausting than church discipline. But when it should come to any unrepentant Christian, that member should tremble at the thought of being barred from the sacraments of Christ—or worse yet, to be excommunicated from the body of Christ’s people—when faithful shepherds are acting and speaking in accordance with Christ’s Word and in his own name.1
Richard D. Phillips
12 Nous vous prions, frères, d'avoir de la considération pour ceux qui travaillent parmi vous, qui vous dirigent dans le Seigneur, et qui vous exhortent.