Matthew 18:15-17 If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they 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 they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
We see these words of Jesus chronicled in the Bible after his comments about abusing little ones. Jesus tells us that if we detect sinful actions in another person’s life, we should confront that person about his or her sins. We should go to our brothers or sisters and point out their fault. These kinds of faults are obvious sins, not just a difference of views or opinions between two parties. These faults probably land in the broad categories of evil listed in Galatians 5: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. (19-21) Of course, Paul ends this list with, and the like, revealing many more areas where a person can be invested in evil. Jesus tells us that when we recognize such wrongful behavior in an individual, we should seek to correct it by going to the wayward person and pointing out the importance of changing his or her ways. This is to be done one-to-one, face-to-face; no others need to know about the sin in this person’s life. But if the individual fails to heed to the correcting advice, then others must be told. If they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that “every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." This permits others to know about the sin of the person and allows them to evaluate the nature of the sin and whether it is real or just the perception of the accuser. Is the sin egregious enough to demand the perpetrator to change his or her ways. If the accused will not correct the behavior when confronted by the group, then the people must bring the situation to the whole church. If the person still refuses to listen to the recommendation of the body of believers, knowing he or she is bringing a reproach on the church, then the individual must be treated as an abject sinner: pagan or a tax collector. All of this activity to correct one individual is to save that soul from perdition, to salvage his or her soul for the kingdom of God. My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20) In the beginning of this action, the sinner is a brother or sister of the accuser and of the community of believers, but at the end of the action, the individual is considered a pagan without the understanding of how to please the Lord. Jesus gives a serious account of the awfulness of manifested sin within a community of believers. Jesus is saying that for the church to be above reproach, people with unrepented evil actions in their lives should not be assimilated into the community of believers. They must be excised from the church.
Paul faced this condition within the Corinthian church. The community of believers was allowing a situation of incest in the church. This condition was well-known by believers in their fellowship. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? (1 Corinthians 5:1-2) Paul is upset with the Corinthian church for being proud of their magnanimity. Rather than being angry about such a sin in their midst, they were benevolent towards the violators, accepting this aberrant behavior that even the secular world would not accept. This behavior of the couple was known to all, inside and outside of the church. Because of that knowledge about the couple in the larger community, they were bringing a reproach on the Corinthian church. The Corinthians were supposedly exercising their freedom in the Lord, that all activity is open to them if they are believers who claim their salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ’s righteousness. They knew of the teaching about freedom IN CHRIST. I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24) This couple was not seeking the good of the community of believers but the tantalizing of their own flesh. They knew they were sinning against God, but they chose their fleshly indulgence over God’s way of living. They were a thorn in the side of the church, bringing pain to the church, not goodness and wholesomeness. Paul is not only concerned about the reputation of the church in Corinth, he is also concerned about the souls of these two people who are living in incest. In talking about the man, Paul tells the church to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthian 5:5) Otherwise, discipline him by removing him from the body of believers so his soul will find repentance and be saved. The Corinthian church did exactly that, and Paul is thankful that the man came back into the fold. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. (2 Corinthians 2:6-8) This sin of immorality was excised from the church; the purity of the church was upheld by the action of the community of believers. Outright fleshly indulgence must be addressed by believers, for such sin can contaminate the whole body. Paul tells the Corinthians not to boast about leaven in their community, rather to judge sin for what it is. For such leaven can permeate the foundation of their community and cause chaos and destruction. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. (1 Corinthians 5:6-7) We are righteous; therefore, we should act righteously in everything we do is Paul’s recommendation to the church of Corinth.
In today’s focus, Jesus points out the danger of manifested sin within any community of believers, but He is not pointing out a difference of opinion about attitudes and actions within the church. Paul addresses this kind of freedom that all people possess in the body of Christ. Believers can have different opinions on how they should act and live, opinions that are not evil, just differing ideas that come from their own lifestyles and desires. In Romans 10 he addresses what people sometimes think is spiritual or not spiritual, right or wrong, good or evil. He uses food and special days as his platform for discussing the freedom that people have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Opinions reflect a lot about people and their background, but they should not be classified as separators from the grace of God and from the community of believers. Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. … One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. (Romans 14:1-3:5,6) Sadly, we find this phenomenon of separating people into good and bad categories on mere opinions prevalent in today’s church. Churches are caught in the midst of this storm. People criticize others for lifestyle choices that have nothing to do with evil or sin. People leave churches where they are loved by brothers and sisters in Christ and accepted in the body because of opinions about whether to wear a mask or not, or whether one should be vaccinated or not. People have the audacity to judge others for such lifestyle decisions. We should be able to accommodate other people’s ideas about what is good and evil in these areas. If you think others are weak and you are strong with the correct opinion about life, good; but that does not give you the privilege to tear up the body of Christ, leaving holes in its fabric. We are to accept people as fellow brothers and sisters even though we might think they are weak in faith. A stubborn will is not going to garner God’s favor. We are to be meek, kind and gentle. We are to be open to correction, but willing to submit the best we can for the good of the community. For it is not for us to say whether we should accept others with different views about lifestyle—it is God’s privilege to judge his own servants. We do not forsake the field where God has planted us when there is a problem. It is our job by faith to help solve the situation in Christ’s love. Titus reminds us as Peter and Paul also reminded us to be servants to others for the good of the Christian community. Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. (Titus 3:1-2) Servants are not people with their own rights and privileges outside of serving others. People should know us by our love. They should know us by how we accept others readily who might disagree with us. They should know us by our righteousness. When people sin within the community, living lives of impurity and gross sinfulness, they should be confronted; but when people are living lives for God the best they can, we should accept them whether weak in the flesh or strong in the flesh. This is our brotherly duty, respecting and following our Lord Jesus Christ by reflecting him to the world and in the church where He has called us to serve.
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