David Poirier, on the Loving Act of Church Discipline

“If love is expressed in discipline, then we can see that our failure to discipline our members is a failure to love, or as Scripture more boldly states, a sign of hate. For Scripture warns, “Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt” (Lev. 19:17), and “He who spares the rod hates his son” (Prov. 13:24; see also Prov. 5:23). So the question for us as church leaders should not be, “Do we discipline or not?” Rather, we must ask, “Do we love our people enough to discipline them?” And when people argue that discipline is unloving, we should counter by contending that it is just the contrary – to fail to disciple our people is to hate them.” (The Peacemaking Pastor, pgs. 253-254)