Spiritual Surgery
Dr. John K. Mathew
In the New Testament, one of the most common ways of referring to a church community is as a body - where all the parts need one another and no one part can carry out all the tasks on its own.
We have different gifts with which to serve each other. God has designed it so that we are interdependent. One of the strongest emphases of the body metaphor is that of the unity of the many members of the Church.
The Church, the body of Christ is not merely a collection of individuals who subscribe to its philosophy; the Church is an organism, of which the members are interrelated parts. Apostle Paul describes the unity of the church in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. “But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is there are many parts, but one body" (1 Cor.12:18-20). The body is subject to oxidation and it needs periodic care and treatment.
If someone has cancer, an operation is usually performed to cut out the malignancy. The reason is simple: if left alone, it will metastasize; that is, it will spread. No one wants cancer to spread, so it is cut out or otherwise removed from the body so that the patient can be healthy again. And of course when the doctors tell the patient, 'We got it all', everyone is encouraged and rejoices. The same thing should be true in the church. The reason to excommunicate the one refusing to be disciplined is to protect the rest of the body from being infected with that disease. Sin, like cancer, needs to be cut out so it will not spread.
Discipline in the church is kind of vaccination. You get a little dose of the disease and then you fight against it. And that builds immunity, whether it be against germs or sin. The Holy Spirit does periodic spiritual surgery in the Church. It's all about God.
