It is a real mystery that God grants to the Church: to be able to corporately discern errors and apply judgement with the promise that it will so be done in heaven!

This is not a license for authoritarianism, but rather for corporate love in seeking restoration of those within the flock who stray. Yet every act of discipline must have an ultimate sanction. For the Church this is exclusion, and the application of this must be done by the Church as a whole, not one person, but the body.

This is why Jesus says ‘when two or three are gathered in my name’ – gathered implies Church and that is when Jesus as head is there with us by his Spirit; when we are gathered in his name and act in his name with his love then Jesus sanctions that act for his honour and the honour of his Church.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 11th, 2003 at 12:00 am and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.