Why is discipline necessary? 1. To maintain (as far as possible) the purity of the church (1 Cor. 3:17; Eph. 5:25-27). 2. Because Scripture requires it (Mt. 18; 1 Cor. 5; etc.). 3. In order to maintain a proper witness to the world; the church corporately, as with the elder individually, is 'to have a good reputation with those outside the church' (1 Tim. 3:7). 4. To facilitate growth and to preserve unity in the body (Eph. 4:1-16). 5. To expose unbelievers (1 John 2:19). 6. To restore the erring brother/sister to obedience and fellowship (1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 2:6,7,10; Gal. 6:1; 2 Thes. 3:14-15). 7. To deter others (1 Tim. 5:20). 8. To avert corporate discipline (Rev. 2:14-25). 9. Because sin is rarely if ever an individual issue: it almost always has corporate ramifications (2 Cor. 2:5); the whole of the body (or at least a large segment of it) is adversely affected by the misdeeds of one member. 10. Evidently Paul believed that the willingness to embrace the task of discipline was a mark of maturity in a church's corporate life (2 Cor. 2:9).