Thursday, 09 October 2008
Have you ever heard the verse, "When two or more are gathered there in my name, I am there." Have you ever heard a preacher or someone say, "When you get alone with a brother or sister in Christ, and you two are encouraging, loving, and sharing stories with one another, God is right there with you." Or possibly have you heard it said in another context? This, in my opinion, is one of the most misunderstood, yet appealing, verses in the Bible. (Do not get me wrong, I did say ONE of the most, but surely not the only). Is it true when two Christians get together God is present? Sure it is! Is it true God is present when we meet and encourage one another? You bet He is! However, is this the truth that is in this verse? Nope! So what is this verse talking about? Let's look at this verse in it's context. Matthew 18: 15-20 says, "15If 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. 16But 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. 17If 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. 18Truly, 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. 19Again 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. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." Couple things we need to point out about this: First, Jesus shows us the need for biblical confrontation. How much of confrontation is done this way? Before we even get to the subject of confrontation read Matthew 7:1-6 where Jesus gives us the grounds of confronting others (first dealing with our own sin before confronting others about theirs). On a side note, if you never thought Jesus to be a humorous person, look at his way of illustrating this point. He says while you have a giant log sticking out of your own eye, you are trying to take the toothpick out of your brothers. His point is you have a ton of your own sin, deal with your sin before you try and confront others about theirs. Back to Matthew 18. Jesus tells us we need to confront one another. Why? Because none of us our perfect and we are dependent upon one another to see our sin. So here is the three-step model of biblical confrontation:
1. Approach the person who has sinned against you on a one-on-one basis. Notice Jesus did not say, "If a brother sins against, run and tell your friends about how much of a horrible person they are." You must first approach this person "to show him his fault." This portrays the fact that this person may be oblivious to how they have sinned against you. Have you ever done this before? Have you ever sinned against someone and had no idea that you had done it? We all have. If this persons listens to you, then you have won him over. If he does not listen, move to step two.
2. Approach the person who sinned against you with two or three others. Now the purpose of this is not to ganged up on the person. You are not going as a posse to beat up on this other person. The goal of all three steps is to restore him back with gentleness (Galatians 6:1). Why are you taking two others then? So "...that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." You are taking others to establish evidence that this person has sinned against you and has not repented of this sin. This is the basis of our misunderstood verse. When we know the truth, God is truth. When a person rejects TRUTH, they are truly rejecting CHRIST. If they repent, then you have won your brother or sister over. If they fail to listen to those you brought along, then you must move to the third step.
3. Tell the church publicly about how this person is unrepentant and how they have sinned. At this point, a true believer will be restored into fellowship. No one publicly wants this humiliation. However, this is not the reason for publicly announcing this person's sin. The last few verses make Jesus' point clear (including our famously misunderstood verse). Read verses 17-20 again. Jesus says if this person refuses to listen to the church (remember a body of believers and not a building). We are called to treat this person as a Gentile and a tax collector. Immediately you may be thinking, "YES! I'm gonna slam that Pagan!" Aha, again we misunderstand what Jesus is saying. How did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors? Jesus had fellowship with tax collectors, and he said he came to love them and save them (Matthew 9:10-13).
The entire focus of biblical confrontation is restoration. Let us never lose focus of that when we find ourselves hungry with revenge. Are you practicing biblical confrontation? Or are you on a frenzy of being a judgmental person? Listen to Paul's words in Ephesians 4:
"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work" (Ephesians 4:15-16).
