The Third Mark of the Church

John Calvin was not a detached theologian; he was a pastor at heart, and one who refused to drive a wedge between theology and practical ecclesiology. In 1539, during a time of temporary exile in Strasbourg, the pastor from the church at Geneva clearly defended the Reformed doctrine of the church in a letter to Cardinal Sadolet. He writes that ‘there are three things on which the safety of the church is founded, namely, doctrine, discipline and the sacraments’(1) and also that ‘the body of the church, to cohere well, must be bound together by discipline as with sinews’(2). This concern for a well ordered church highlights discipline as a third strand of Reformed ecclesiology.

This third mark is widely accepted among Reformed scholars and Berkhof explains that the faithful exercise of discipline is ‘absolutely essential to the purity of the church’(3) a notion also clearly upheld by Clowney (4). The Scottish Reformation unashamedly walked in Calvin’s footsteps and modelled itself on Geneva and it is no coincidence that John Knox and Andrew Melville prepared books of discipline. Donald Macleod explains that their intention was that ‘the church must have proper biblical organisation’ if things were to be done decently and in order, to which end ‘functionaries and officers are to be appointed to facilitate the life and mission of the church’(5). However, Macleod has a clear and important goal in sight in that he asserts that ‘the church must organise itself in such a way, that it can serve the gospel with maximum efficiency’(6). This third mark is arguably a vital component for the maintenance of the first two, which may well stand or fall by the effective upholding of church discipline as part of the exercise of the ministry in the congregations.

1. John Calvin, ‘Reply by John Calvin to the Letter by Cardinal Sadolet to the Senate and the People of Geneva’ in Calvin’s Tracts Relating to the Reformation, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1844), p 38.

2. John Calvin, ‘Reply by John Calvin to the Letter by Cardinal Sadolet to the Senate and the People of Geneva’ in Calvin’s Tracts Relating to the Reformation, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1844), p 55.

3. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1958, repr. 2005), pp 576-8.

4. Edmund P. Clowney, Living in Christ’s Church (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1986), pp 130-6, offers helpful discussion of these three marks.

5. Donald Macleod, A Faith to Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine (Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1998), pp 259-60.

6. Donald Macleod, A Faith to Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine (Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1998), pp 259-60.