PUTTING AWAY

PUTTING AWAY

First let me say that I cannot see that 2 Thessalonians 3 applies to the same case as 1 Corinthians 5. I do not understand the former as putting away. It is rather discipline in the house. 1 Corinthians 5 is distinctly of the positive kind — putting away; and certainly I should treat a man who would not work with his hands in a very different way from that in which I am required to treat one who is put away. I am sure you will agree with me that putting away is the most solemn act, it is like a man undergoing amputation in order to preserve his body from the poison in the diseased member; and this he submits to, though the operation costs him much suffering and loss; but there is no help for it. Now this is putting away “from among yourselves”, and we feel the pain of it, but we accede to it as required, in order to preserve ^[p. 185] from the leaven. It is a solemn, painful act and everything ought to be done to prevent the necessity of such an act; but the necessity being established, and the act done, there remains now nothing but to seek the restoration of the one put away. How that is to be sought — becomes the question between you and me. I do not think the case which you adduce of the lost sheep or the prodigal is in point. The prodigal is not the case of a backslider; for then it would be grace that he had squandered; the thing that he squandered was never restored to him, an entirely new thing was conferred on him.

I believe it quite right to seek, by prayer, the restoration of the one put away, nor do I mean to say that there should be no advance by visiting of a purely pastoral nature, where there is grace for it. One so led of the Lord would help the assembly and not act in despite of it. But I do think the advances for return to fellowship ought to begin with the one who has been put away. I think his sorrow is to indicate to the assembly these advances, and that his first advances ought to be to the assembly. I do not understand putting away by the assembly, and individuals by their advances giving the impression that they are more loving, and more tender than the assembly, thus obtaining for themselves favour in the eyes of the one put away at the expense of the assembly, and really annulling and depreciating their own most solemn and holy act; making out that they are individually less stringent than they are collectively. I believe ————’s restoration has been greatly retarded by individuals giving him this impression. He has really only to do with the assembly, and his first advances ought to be to it, and he ought to refuse advances from individuals. If he has respect to Christ’s order on earth and His discipline, his true course is in repentance to seek re-admission to the circle of His interests, and to wait on God for it; and then I, for one, should feel free to visit him because his case was before the saints, and as he had prayed them to entertain his re-admission, I, as one of them, might now, without in any way impugning their act of discipline, call on him, or see him, in order to be assured before God of his state. It would be now no longer a case under discipline, but ^[p. 186] a case for restoration; the discipline having proved sufficient, or at least there would be this hope. The beginning of repentance is the soul repudiating the nature that had exposed itself, and not the mere act of exposure. I quite feel with you and desire to mourn with you that there is ‘not more longing of heart going out unto God for the banished ones’, but until the assembly remits the discipline it would ill become me to ignore what the assembly has done; and thus make myself not of it. The act of putting away is the gravest, and if you see the gravity of it, you must see that to recall that act must be most solemn, and indeed the most blessed act for the church, for it is of grace.