How is the fear of God present when a member of the church undergoes church discipline? When biblical church discipline of a believer living in sin takes place, there is a fear of God that comes upon the church as a result. Once that believer is ultimately restored, the church body is blessed by seeing the restoration of that wayward church member. Ultimately, the church body better understands the judgment of God while witnessing the grace of God upon the repentant individual. This, Paul Thompson explains, is a blessing and encouragement to the church. Galatians 6:1 (NKJV) – “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”

When a church conducts proper and biblical discipline for a believer who is behaving sinfully and especially in a slowness of coming back to repentance, the fear of God and the blessing upon a church in a time such as that, especially as reconciliation gets completely brought back into the picture of that born-again believer who's been made right with God, And the church body has been able to witness that waywardness of the individual and then the compelling work of repentance upon that believer. And it's a blessing to the church to watch an individual come through that journey with the Lord of realizing that if they remain in their sin, the judgment of God gets more severe the longer they remain in disobedience to the Lord. And as the Lord begins to work in that individual's life and bringing his judgment upon their life, the church body is witnessing this and is aware of this carefully and cautiously. But in seeing this, now the Church is in a position to see the grace of God as it gets poured out upon this individual, and his response is that of repentance. And it's a blessing to the Church.

It encourages the Church that Everything we believe about the Bible that tells us about God, being a gracious and a loving God, is showing itself in the fear of God in that individual's life as they repent and turn back to Christ. You