By Marc Smith
This Latin phrase is a very ancient and highly honored principle. It is supposed to be the ideal of every medical doctor. “Primum non nocere,” means “first, do no harm.” This is a wise and non-intrusive attitude for doctors and especially surgeons to have whose main goal is for the patient to get better. Given that many times their only two options are putting the patient “under the knife” or doing nothing shows that the better option is caution. Overeager surgeons have been known to make the patient worse or perhaps even to kill them. Fortunate is the patient whose doctor knows when to cut and when not to!
Likewise, it seems that the duty of the elders of the church and any other Christians engaged in the performance of church discipline is that the first consideration should always be “primum non nocere” - “first do no harm.”
Those who recognize this responsibility know that duty requires discipline to achieve two goals: Instruction & Correction. Souls are in jeopardy, ...and we do well to remember James 3:17, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Only with this attitude in us can we hope to achieve the goals that God desires for the one to which we have directed our efforts. Another passage is from 1 Tim. 5:21 which in part reads, “...that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.” This reading goes on to urge the faithful one to remain pure in all of this; a necessary thing but not easy to accomplish.
In conducting discipline it can be very easy for us to have in mind, the settling of a score. In Rom. 12:19, we read, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord.” We need to remember that the Christian we are dealing with, though perhaps in sin is also troubled and misguided & is still our brother or sister in Christ. 2 Thes. 3:15, “Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” A “brother” always gets the most consideration we can give.
Armed with such compassion and the mental preparation to only do God’s will and ONLY after instruction has been given in a timely manner we are then ready for the corrective phase if necessary (desiring only to gain souls for Christ; to retrieve the errant Christian: never to spiritually harm them). This requires firstly that the principles of Matt. 18:15-17 be observed. Then to use a surgeon’s precision in application of Scripture toward those who have caused division (Rom. 16:17-18), those that are factious or teach heresy (Titus 3:10), those who are guilty of sins of the flesh (1 Cor. 5:11), are gossipers & idlers (2 Thes. 3:6-15; 1 Tim. 5:13), who are disorderly (2 Thes. 3:6). Through it all, we must first desire to do no harm. May God bless those richly who go about this very important work which never ceases throughout the life of every church.