This is the third, and final, installment of our series of lessons on the command of 2 Thessalonians 3:6. In this installment, let us consider the issue of growth. Some refuse to follow the command to withdraw because of their undue emphasis on numbers. They may say, “If you do this, you’ll scare people off.” Consider the case of discipline in Acts 5, where Ananias and Sapphira were not only expelled from the church, but from this life. Yet notice the result, “So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things” (Acts 5:11). On page 255 of his book of sermons, McGarvey in his sermon on the Jerusalem church stated, “Well, it was intended to scare somebody away from the church, and I suppose it did. I will venture, that if any liars or hypocrites in Jerusalem had any thought of joining the church soon, it kept them away. They would conclude that such a church was not a healthy place for men of their stripe. But if there were any yet outside the church who were in dead earnest about trying to get to heaven, and felt the need of good company on the way, it must have had a very different effect on them. They now knew that this church was a body in which liars and hypocrites could not be tolerated and this is the very kind of church which they intended to join if they ever joined any.” This is evidently true, for three short verses later we read that, “believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women” (Acts 5:14). The congregation of the Lord’s people that will withdrawal from disorderly members may gain respect from the surrounding community and even grow as a result. How many times do we hear the argument that the reason someone will not attend church is due to the hypocrites that are a part of it? This is not a legitimate excuse; it will not work on the day of judgment, but it is used today as an argument that motivates many to never want to be part of the Lord’s church. Withdrawal helps us to squelch that argument by showing that known hypocrites are not tolerated among God’s people.
New converts who are added to the church must understand the seriousness of their commitment and the disciplinary measures that will be taken if they should turn their backs on said commitment; they should want that kind of accountability because they know it will help them get to heaven. Withdrawal may cut down the church’s numerical greatness, but what is important is its spiritual greatness. The health of the church cannot be measured merely by the number of individuals who attend; Jesus desires a few faithful followers rather than half-converted masses (John 6).
2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 is one of the most explicit passages on withdrawal of fellowship in the entire New Testament. Coupled with the case of the Corinthian fornicator (1 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 2) and other passages in the New Testament where disassociation occurred for the sake of spiritual wellbeing, it becomes abundantly clear that this is a vital practice. Sadly, it is also a very neglected practice. May the past abuses of withdrawal and the unfounded conclusions that relegate it to merely a cultural paradigm not induce the Lord’s church to continue to abandon it. Instead, let us seek to apply discipline appropriately with all the love we came muster from our loving, heavenly Father who disciplines His children (Heb. 12:1-14; 1 John 4:16; 5:3).
