Jesus instituted church discipline both to maintain the holiness of the church and to remind his people that he forgives them as they repent of their sins and submit to his lordship.
We often focus on the first aspect—admonishment over sin that could end in excommunication. While this should get our attention and produce holy sobriety within us, it’s not the whole story.
At each step, the goal of church discipline is clearly restoration. The burden of the faithful church members in the process is to persuade their sinning brother to forsake sin and submit to Jesus. Just as excommunication pivots on the truth that Christ is holy, so too restoration hinges on the truth that he is forgiving. He delights to forgive his people of their sins.
To see this emphasis, consider the literary context of Matthew 18.
THE CONTEXT OF MATTHEW 18
In the verses just before Jesus’s instruction on discipline in Matthew 18:15–20, he taught that the Father is like a shepherd who pursues the sheep that wander away (18:12). Then in the passage immediately following, Peter asked how many times they need to forgive people when they sin. Surprisingly, Jesus told Peter that he should forgive
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