But though Christ taught his apostles all this, we do not find it written, that the ordinance was used in Christ’s time by any disciple, with regard to those who having transgressed or apostatized, caused offenses; and this because of the law, which came to an end in the death of Christ, and because the body was not yet perfect, and the temple of the Lord not yet complete, since they were yet very ignorant, and in many matters not fully instructed, as Christ says to them: I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth. Which spirit they must receive, before they could bind or release any one with the key (which is the word and Spirit of God), as Christ also indicates with these words, when he breathed on them, and said: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Not that Christ gave the apostles authority, to forgive or to retain any one’s sins contrary to his word, and thus to govern the church according to their will: No; God forbid! They had to act without respect to persons, even though it had been their right hand--retain the sins of those who according to the word of God were under the wrath of God, and proclaim grace and peace to the penitent, who according to the same word were under the grace of God; and thus Christ appointed unto them the kingdom as his Father had appointed it unto him. Rom. 10:4; John 16:12,13; 20:22,23; Luke 22:29.
But I repeat it, though Christ had so appointed and taught it to them, yet, according to my view, they had then neither a command nor authority to use the same, as already said, before Christ had ascended up to heaven, having sent them forth, to preach the Gospel in all the world, to every creature, teaching to observe whatsoever he had commanded them. They also had to tarry in Jerusalem, until they were endued with power from on high, and had received the promise of the Father, which was the Holy Ghost, who was their teacher and power, whereby they proceeded in this practice. And when the body was perfect, and the temple of the living God complete, in which God dwelt with his Spirit, the apostle effectually taught Christ’s institution and ordinance of excommunication, and also used it, as we may read, how the apostle delivered Hymeneus and Alexander unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. And so he also punished the Corinthian fornicator, concerning whom he had determined, when they were gathered together, and his spirit, with the power of Christ, to deliver him unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved. Since the Corinthian church was very slack in regard to using this excommunication in the case of him that had done that deed, therefore he reproved them with severe words, as we may read in the second epistle to the Corinthians, chapters 12 and 13. As he also wrote to them, that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, therefore he says: “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump.” And thus Paul used excommunication, and also would have it used, even as he writes to the Thessalonians, saying: We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. For in this epistle he had written to the Corinthians, not to company with fornicators, and since they did not observe it, or perhaps not well understand it, he explained it to them more fully, and said: “Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must we needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no not to eat.” And thus I confess that such carnal men, who thus sin against God, are, according to the ordinance of Christ, with the word of God, as Paul has explained this thus, to be excommunicated and excluded from the church, and that we are also not to company with them, as the apostle says: “If any man obey not our word, signify that man by an epistle, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed” or think with himself, that for his presumptuousness and transgression he is delivered unto Satan (whom he obediently served according to his will, and also hearkened to for the sake of sin,) for the destruction of the flesh, which before the fall lived and desired to live in sin; that he may be ashamed, may humble himself, repent truly, and thus die unto sin, and the spirit be saved in the day of our Lord. For as the word of God has power to excommunicate the presumptuous transgressor, so it has also power to teach and to avoid the excommunicated person, since excommunication is ineffectual without avoidance. And as excommunication and avoidance are thoroughly taught in the Scriptures, I confess both, since also Paul excommunicated, and also taught, to put away him that doeth evil, and says: “Keep not company with them; with such (as he there specifies) ye shall not eat. Even as he also says concerning a man that is a heretic: When ye have once or twice admonished him, reject him, knowing that he that is such, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself. For such cause contention and offenses, and their words eat as doth a canker; hence the church is to avoid them, lest she be leavened or corrupted by them. Matt. 28:20; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; 1 Tim. 1:20; 1 Cor. 5; Gal. 5:9; 2 Thess. 3:6,14; Tit. 3:10,11; Rom. 16:17; 1 Timothy 2:17.