If we would consider drunkeness sinful enough for disfellowship, why would not smoking be considered for such also? ~ Rayford
The querist poses the above question after quoting from an article about discipline in the pages of Gospel Gazette Online: “This terminology is not meant to suggest that some sin isn’t serious; it just acknowledges that not all sin requires discipline” and “a member of a church sins in some serious or obvious way.”
It is true that all sins, regardless of what specifically the deeds may be, have the potential of condemning souls to spiritual death or: “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). For instance, lying is in the same list with the sins of murder and adultery, for which the impenitent doers of these things “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8).
However, there are a number of factors that must be considered before biblical withdrawal of fellowship occurs. One, only sins for which sinners refuse to repent are subject to church discipline. Many brethren repent of their sins immediately upon realization that they have sinned, often before others are aware of those sins. Still others repent of their sins once those sins are brought to their attention. Any Christian who sins and penitently prays to God for forgiveness (Acts 8:22; 1 John 1:9) is not a candidate for withdrawal of fellowship.
Two, church discipline takes many forms and withdrawal of fellowship is the last and harshest aspect of church discipline. Repeated efforts to recover the fallen precede such a drastic measure (Titus 3:10). We need to make bona fide efforts to restore erring Christians (James 5:19-20) before ‘delivering such a one to Satan’ (1 Corinthians 5:5). “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 22-23).
Three, we are on the safest ground, biblically, when we consider exercising withdrawal of fellowship from impenitent persons whose sins are listed in the various catalogs of sins found upon the pages of the New Testament (Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5-9; Revelation 21:8; etc.). For instance, Scripture definitively declares that some activities are sinful, such as, adultery, fornication, idolatry, witchcraft, murder, drunkenness, homosexuality, stealing and lying. On the other hand, we may suppose that some deeds not specifically mentioned in the Bible, owing to principles and a measure of subjectivity, are also sins. Using tobacco may fall into this latter category.
We must use caution that we sufficiently endeavor to recover fallen brethren from their sins; one of the objects of church discipline is the restoration of a fallen brother or sister (1 Corinthians 5:5). We must use equal caution that we refrain from going beyond what is written (1 Corinthians 4:6) and becoming judges above the law (James 4:11), adding our own traditions (Matthew 15:1-6; Colossians 2:8; Revelation 22:18-19). Commonly, congregations miserably fail to exercise the obligatory church discipline about which we read upon the pages of the New Testament. Others, though, have abused the biblical doctrine of church discipline sometimes with haste and sometimes by proposing to eject brethren from the church for biblically indefensible reasons (3 John 9-10). We must pursue a biblical balance that rests solidly upon the Holy Word of God and leans neither to the left nor to the right — in all things — including church discipline.
