From Matthew 18:15-20 / Sin and Forgiveness.

There is a perceptible shift in Jesus’ teaching at this point. His topic is still sin, but it moves to the personal and away from the general. In the process, we enter into some concepts which have been greatly debated in every generation, and particularly ours.

Note first: Jesus’ opening reference here is to private sin, personal sin, not public.

When Paul rebukes Peter in Antioch (Acts 15 & Gal. 2), he does not go to him privately because the sin was done publicly. It wasn’t a personal offense but one that was broader, against the Gospel and the Church. Being such, its effect needed immediate attention – its harmfulness to the observers right then compelled an immediate and public response.

It is often heard today, when preachers or teachers say or do sinful and outrageous things, that they ought to be approached privately first. Not so. Public sin requires immediate, open and public rebuke – especially when it is on the part of those in leadership. So Paul by the Spirit will tell us, when dealing with the sins of those in the Eldership – “as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.” (1 Tim. 5:17)

Jesus’ here is addressing when someone sins against YOU. Personally. Individually. And from what appears in the process He outlines – privately. We’ll see this more in Peter’s follow-up inquiry in 21-22 and Jesus’ subsequent parable.

Note second: This is an issue of real sin, not just hurt feelings.

Scripture elsewhere enjoins us to overlook slights and minor offenses. Prov. 10:12 “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” 1 Pet. 4:8 “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

What Jesus is addressing here is more serious. It is not a disagreement over taste, opinions, or everyday knocks and bumps. As 1 Cor. will tell us, we are not to be litigious. Either inside or outside the Church. But especially among the brethren.

If you find yourself constantly offended, embroiled regularly in conflict with others and needing to press your case over and over – perhaps the problem isn’t “them”.

Not long ago I watched an interview with a person who had been married four times. Their lament was that there are just too few good women out there. My thought was, the common denominator in these four failed marriages is – you. Maybe that should be considered?

That said, when we are sinned against, truly sinned against privately, and we cannot just let it go in grace or it proves to be a harmful pattern in the other’s life – we first needs be loving and concerned to cover the sin from other’s eyes, unless necessity forces us to at last bring it to the Church.

Note third: The grand object in Jesus’ approach is recovery, not vengeance.

As Spurgeon preached: “Whenever there is a child of God who has any defilement upon him, and you are able to point it out and rid him of it, submit to any degradation, put yourself in any position, sooner than that child of God should be the subject of sin.” (Spurgeon, C. H. 1865. “Jesus Washing His Disciples’ Feet.” In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 11:72. London: Passmore & Alabaster.)

And that, is to be our first motivation in all of this. Not prosecuting a case so that they get their comeuppance. Not for revenge. But for restoration. Restoration of the relationship and recovery from a fall. So in vs. 15 – Jesus’ says this with the hope that you will gain back your brother.

Note fourth: Not all our efforts in this regard will be successful.

We have it in spades in the life of Christ Himself. He comes and tells He creations their sin against Him. And they refuse to be reconciled. So it may be with us.

But the object in vs. 16 is NOT, please hear this – NOT, to take two or three witnesses to back you up. No. We take others to hear the whole matter objectively from BOTH sides. So that those unacquainted with the issue might hear both parties unprejudiced.

In other words, this is to be done in a spirit of humility, owning that we might be wrong in bringing this charge. We must be willing to be reversed if the evidence should not substantiate our perspective. We may have seen wrongly, heard wrongly, concluded wrongly, and need to be corrected in our perceptions. We do not enter into such a process like charging bulls, but like humble supplicants, wanting to get things right between us once more.

Note fifth: It is only after a number of efforts at reconciliation are exhausted, and it is truly a serious matter, that we must bring the matter to the Church. Only after several others have weighed the matter, and called upon the offender to repent, and they have refused to do so. Only then is it brought before the assembly.

The picture is one of patient pleading with the sinner over time, followed by obstinate refusal.

The mechanism then, is to bring the matter before the Congregation.

And only then – if in the view of the gathered saints, the person still refuses to repent, then and only then, they are to be treated as a “Gentile and a tax collector.”

And what does that mean? Does it mean we wash our hands of them? No!

It means we take a bold refusal to repent of sin as an indicator that they are not manifesting the most foundational aspect of being a true Believer – repentance – and thus treat them as unconverted until they do. In other words, they become the object of our efforts to bring them to Gospel salvation. They are not enemies to be prosecuted, but unbelievers who need to be evangelized.

Note sixth: It is in this context that the grossly misused idea of binding and loosing comes into play.

The simple and straightforward idea here is: One who refuses to listen to the Church when reproved by the majority as to their sin – and thus will not repent – is to be “loosed” from the Church. Those who repent, remain “bound” together in love. And Heaven ratifies this action.

Jesus is telling them that when they deal rightly with those who will not hear and repent as unconverted – they will not be making a mistake. They can act with confidence. Heaven had reached the same conclusion even before they did.

And since such judgments are not matters of personal execution, but before a council of “two or three” and then the congregation who are gathered together to adjudicate the matter, they can be confident they act with Jesus’ authority in the matter. As though He were personally attending.

Note lastly: How far we are to go in dealing with one another’s sins.

For in this, we are made to reconsider the history of mankind, and especially God’s dealing with the Jewish nation throughout the ages, and how He sent prophet after prophet after prophet, and disciplines of all kinds – for hundreds of years – before the decimation of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and the centuries following before the last destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

If God is so patient with His people over such great spans of time and concerning grave and damnable sins – then how patient are we to be with one another when personally sinned against?

May we truly be filled with His Spirit.