Guthrie on Church Discipline

In preparation for my sermon on 1 Timothy 1:18-20, I ran across this good paragraph by Donald Guthrie, The Pastoral Epistles in the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, p. 69.

The concluding clause 'that they may learn not to blaspheme' shows clearly that the purpose [of the disciplinary process] was remedial and not punitive. However stringent the process the motive was mercy, and whenever ecclesiastical discpline has departed from this purpose of restoration, its harshness has proved a barrier to progress. But this is no reason for dispensing with discipline entirely, a failing which frequently characterizes our modern churches.