Lord’s Day 31, Chapter 4: The Key Power of Christian Discipline (1)

In the eighty-fifth question of the Heidelberg Cat­echism the key-power of Christian discipline is explained. The answer has the following elements. 1) It teaches us that personal admonition is not a certain right or a certain privilege of which the believer may make use or which he may neglect, but it is a com­mand of Christ. When anyone in the church sins, his brother has the obligation to admonish him. 2) It describes the objects of discipline as those who, under the name of Christians,...