“If your brother sins against you, go and
show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your
brother over. But if he will not listen,
take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the
testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If
he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to
listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax
collector. I tell you the truth,
whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:15-18)
The primary focus of this passage is not
really about church discipline. The
primary focus is the importance of relationships and a commitment to help other
people -- even when you have to do hard things in order to help them.
Jesus is challenging us not to let problems
between fellow Christians go on, but to do all that can be done to repair the
breech in the relationship. The first
step is a loving and gentle confrontation.
If that doesn’t resolve the relational problem, then bring in a couple
of other mature Christians to help. The
next step is to involve the church -- probably referring to its
leadership. Those are serious steps to
take and they show how important relationships between people are to the Lord.
I’m probably more confrontational than most
people. It’s something I’ve had to learn
over the years. But even though I’m more
confrontational than many, I still know that I’m more likely to just let things
go and do nothing than I am to confront.
If something goes wrong in a relationship it’s hard to take the initiative
to do something to try to repair it.
But, it’s worth it! The way we
relate with other people is one of only two things on earth that will last into
eternity (the other is our relationship with God and His Word).
The challenge of Jesus is to take our
relationships with others seriously and do all that we can to keep them
right. Paul told the Romans, “If it is
possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans
12:18)
His, by Grace,
Steve
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