12.19.2006

A Brother Who Sins Against You

So I was reading Matthew 18 today (still following the rabbi) and I came across this part of it:

15"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.
16But 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.'
17If 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.

This jumped out at me because when we were at the youth conference a speaker brought this passage up. He mentioned how when we see our brother or sister sinning we usually think to this verse but we don't follow it exactly. As we can see you handle a problem by you alone talking to the person first. If that doesn't work then you bring some witnesses. If that doesn't work you tell the church. And if that doesn't work you treat them like a pagan. What I had always thought of the verse at the end was to kind of kick the person out of church or something because who wants a pagan messing up the church....BUT this speaker brought new light to the verse for me. The question is, "How did Jesus treat the pagans and tax collectors?"

Well this verse helps us answer that:
10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples.
11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

13But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

So from the passage it seems that Jesus wouldn't kick the sinning brother or sister out. Instead he would be having dinner with him. He would act like they did not know God and love them and have compassion on them. He would act like a doctor who cares for the sick. So even when our brother or sister sins against us and even when we go through the whole process to correct them if they still don't listen to us we treat them with love and we begin to show them the love of Jesus Christ like we would do to a non-Christian.

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