The church is not a fellowship of sinless people. We are a fellowship of forgiven sinners who, by God’s grace, are pursuing a life of holiness and obedience to the Lordship of Jesus. When a church has a member who persists in sin, steps must be taken to address the state of that person’s soul as well as protect the church body from being corrupted by unchallenged sin in its membership. It is written in *1 Corinthians 5:9 I wrote you in my [previous] letter not to associate with [sexually] immoral people— 10 not meaning the immoral people of this world, or the greedy ones and swindlers, or idolaters, for then you would have to get out of the world and human society altogether! 11 But actually, I have written to you not to associate with any so-called [Christian] brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater [devoted to anything that takes the place of God], or is a reviler [who insults or slanders or otherwise verbally abuses others], or is a drunkard or a swindler—you must not so much as eat with such a person. 12 For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders (non-believers)? Do you not judge those who are within the church [to protect the church as the situation requires]? 13 God alone sits in judgment on those who are outside [the faith]. Remove the wicked one from among you [expel him from your church].* The goal of church discipline is not to throw people out of the church or to feed the self-righteous pride of those in authority who administer Church Discipline, it is not to embarrass people because we are all sinners. The purpose is to restore a sinning believer to holiness and bring him back into a pure relationship within the Body of Christ. The body of Christ is in the business of recovery (Gal. 6:1), and such is the purpose of church discipline. As far as the welfare of the church is concerned, the purpose of putting the brother out is to protect the purity of all those in the fellowship (1 Corinthians 5:6), to warn the assembly of the seriousness of sin (1 Timothy 5:20), and to give a testimony of righteousness to a world that is watching and waiting for hypocrisy in the church. But as far as the welfare of the brother himself is concerned, the purpose of the ostracism is not to punish but to awaken, and it must therefore be done in humble love and never in a spirit of self-righteous superiority (2 Thessalonians 3:15). When a church has done everything it can to bring a sinning member back to purity of life but is unsuccessful, that individual is to be left to his sin and his shame. If he is truly a Christian, God will not cast him away, but He may allow him to sink still deeper before he becomes desperate enough to turn from his sin.