15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18: 15-20 ESV
Matthew 18: 15-20
If your brother sins against you - This is one of the most passed over passages and principles for the church. There is a doctrine not found in Scripture, that would twist the Word of God, throwing up such verses as "judge not lest ye be judged." It is imbedded in the modern evangelical church, a Christianity of politeness, of "being encouragers, loving people through their sin," ignoring sin, playing it down, and substituting feelings and experiences for repentance and the fruits of the Spirit. Any church or pastor who does not both preach and practice what Jesus says here is actually disobeying a command from God. You are more of a socialite than an active member of the body of Christ, and your are more a personality than a shepherd when you won't confront sin, lead by example and feed His sheep. So who is your brother here? He is the one who professes Christ and is part of your local church. Now how does your brother sin against you? It doesn't have to be so narrow as he directly stole from you, and think about this, if you are part of the same body, then any sin that he commits, which you know of for certain, is a sin against you. It affects the whole body; it brings shame upon the church and treats lightly the blood of Christ.
1Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed. 3In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.… 2 Peter 2: 1-3
…28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”… Hebrews 10: 28-30
Go and tell him his fault - This is a command, commands from God require obedience. Jesus has also covered the prerequisites to this, and that is that we first examine ourselves, so we can see clearly to help our brother. God demands that we not be hypocrites. I shouldn't be so bold as to confront someone else about their porn when I am watching porn, or about their adultery when I am guilty of the same, and even when it is in my heart, unseen by others, for Christ makes no distinction. My wife brought up a good point, in the churches that are founded upon making people feel comfortable, they just help each other hide. They like conservativism, liberalism, depending on the church, but they don't like being exposed. They like socializing, potlucks, greetings, the esteem of men, but they are often as shallow and naked as the emperor in the "Emperor's New Clothes", everyone is just pretending, no one is growing. At some point, sometimes, in some of these places, someone will wake up and wonder, are we preaching another gospel, have we invented a different Christ? It is interesting, as we move on through Matthew, that the premise for all that we are discussing now goes back to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.
…4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? 5You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7: 4-5
27You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.… Matthew 5: 27-29
Between you and him alone - I mentioned the one side of this that just disregards these directions and is all together disobedient, in that it will not confront sin. That is the doctrine of being liked, of popularity, of putting yourself in the place of Christ, and is measured by how many seats were filled, how many people glorify you. Be sure though that there is another way to err, and it would be a violation of this direction here. Even in the churches that don't confront for fear of offense, for fear of looking less like the world which sets their pace and tone, there is still in them and in their opposite a tendency to bypass this first instruction. Go to him first alone, a meeting between you and the offending brother. I have seen in both churches of bad doctrine and those also of sound teaching a tendency not to go to the individual but to others, to gossip, and by way of this find some moral high place where one sees themselves as righteous. We tend to enjoy hearing wicked of others more than we rejoice over good. If going to them like this, one on one, is a means of grace which God has ordained, then we have cheated them and been disobedient to God ourselves. It says in Scripture that love covers a multitude of sins, and that is not to say that it covers up, as Jesus will make clear here, but go to them with the message of repentance, not to your circles with the message of gossip. The confrontation here is always in view and hope of reconciliation.
If he listens to you, you have gained a brother - I have been in this situation a few times, and it is most grievous and painful, because it is often someone you are close to. I have been on the receiving end and it is still painful, and it is in my fallen nature to defend myself, make light of what I am being confronted with, come up with excuses for why it has to be this way. "Even though what I am doing is wrong, let me explain why it is right for me to do so." Adam's first fallen instinct was to blame the woman and ultimately the God Who made her. Sin destroyed our relationship with God and with each other, and once a Christian brother came to me, and showed me that what I was doing, staying angry and not forgiving, was keeping from growing spiritually, but was also reflecting to the unbelieving world a false type of conversion. The Bible says "if we confess our sins", so my friend was trying to get me to acknowledge it as sin, "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins", so that I could receive God's forgiveness, "and cleanse us from all unrighteousness", experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. My sin was keeping me from a right relationship with God, with my friend, and towards those whom I was unwilling to forgive.
…7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.… 1 John 1: 7-9
But if he does not listen - Now it escalates, and this is the pattern for the church, the body of Christ, this is how God wants us to deal with these things. This is where you would go to a mature Christian, an elder, and not just one in name, since a lot of churches like titles but not the responsibility that comes with it. You would go to the elders, present the case, and again, it is in the hope of reconciliation. This reflects Hebrews 10 above which looks back on the Mosaic law. The elders will not decide based solely on your word, one witness, this protects the accused, and they go with you, this helps to establish what you said and also gives the person another opportunity to repent. Sin in one member of the body affects the whole body, but no one person should have absolute rule or you have a cult like tyranny. It also becomes a way that those outside the church mock Christ, because they see no difference and sometimes the sins seem to exceed that of the pagans, which is no testimony, and what light is left is coming near to being removed.
9I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. 10I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.…
…11But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12 What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”… 1 Corinthians 5: 9-13
Then later in their repentance and reconciliation:
5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9 Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2: 5-11
Tell it to the church - The splinter in the toe would by pain eventually make itself known to the whole body. If an individual in the church is unrepentant they are to be treated as outside of the body, a case for witnessing to, for trying to rescue, and though it has become a custom to hide things in many groups, like politicians do, this is not to be the way of the church. I have been at churches where the head deacon was a very ungodly man, but he liked the title, liked being looked up to and just like he did in business he played the game at church as well. He had a church face, a face I got to see when I stayed at their house, a work face and so on. His car trunk was full of porn, and there was no interest in God at home, he never taught his kids, that always fell upon the school or the so called church. As a boy I found it confusing since my mom did teach us, pray with us, and we weren't aloud to look at such things. I thought, what is the point, maybe my mom has it all wrong, apparently you can repeat a prayer that someone teaches you and then go about being no different from the world. The design of the church in scripture was not to make people comfortable in the very thing that God hates, that for which only the sacrifice of the infinite Son could suffice. I fear we have taught the world to hold Him in low esteem, we have seen the cross and had an emotional experience, but our lives remained unchanged. This is why Jesus tells Nicodemus, "you must be born again," we need to have new hearts with new desires, longing for the glory of our Lord.
1If any of you has a grievance against another, how dare he go to law before the unrighteous instead of before the saints! 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!… 1 Corinthians 6: 1-3
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven - People often preach sermons that remove this from the context of church discipline, and to their shame. This isn't a verse on agreeing for a Mercedes Benz or to lock the devil up. This is in reference to the obedience called for in this passage, that you have followed what Christ says, and trusted Him for the result of whether the one returns in repentance or continues on towards judgment. In some cases they prove themselves tares, they go out as those that were among you, but were never really part of you. We tell it to the church so that the body knows and can act appropriately, praying for the sinner, calling to the lost sheep, but separating itself from the sin. To condone sin in the church is to try to supplant God with yourself.
5May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. 6Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who leads an undisciplined life that is not in keeping with the tradition you received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not undisciplined among you,… 2 Thessalonians 3: 5-7
…13But as for you, brothers, do not grow weary in well-doing. 14 Take note of anyone who does not obey the instructions we have given in this letter. Do not associate with him, so that he may be ashamed. 15Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.… 2 Thessalonians 3: 13-15
But it’s nonetheless the word of Christ to His church. And it’s a word which the church has found difficult to accept for a long time. I was reading this week the writings of Jonathan Edwards. He preached a sermon in the 1700s and in it he said this. “If you tolerate visible wickedness in your members, you will greatly dishonor God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the religion which you profess, the church in general, and yourselves in particular. As those members of the church who practice wickedness bring dishonor upon the whole body, so do those who tolerate them in it.”
And then he went on to say this. “If strict discipline and thereby strict moral laws were maintained in the church, it would be one of the most powerful means of conviction and conversion towards those who are without.” And then he asked this ultimate question, “How can you be the true disciples of Christ if you live in the neglect of these plain, positive commands?” So this is not a new word for the church.
The great man of the church in the 1700s, Jonathan Edwards, faced the same neglect as we face today. It is an essential ministry to be about ministering to the Lord’s church on the behalf of its purity and its holiness. - J Mac
I remember Sam Erickson, when he was here before he went to the Christian Legal Society in Washington said to me one day, “I just had a shocking experience.” He said, “I invited an attorney down in the city of Los Angeles, a fellow attorney, to come with me to church.” And he said, “Well, what church do you go to?” He said, “I go to Grace Community Church.” He said, “Oh,” he said, “I know that church. The most crooked attorney in the city goes there. I wouldn’t go to that place.”
Now sin was not directly sinned against Sam by that attorney, but it affected him, and it affected me, and it affected our whole church. It affected everybody because we had some attorney who was living an ungodly life and saying he went to Grace Community Church. All of us were affected by that. Christ’s body was stained. I remember the next Sunday, I got up and told that story and said I don’t know who you are out there, but I wish you’d either get your life straightened up or leave because you’re not making a very good witness for our church. - J Mac
