It’s a Matter of Reconciliation, or Not

 

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. ¹⁶ But 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.’ ¹⁷ If 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.

—The words of Jesus from Matthew 18:15-17

 

Has anyone among your circle of believing friends ever taken an evil action against you? By that I mean, has any single one of the people around you who profess to believe in the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ ever lied to you, or lied about you, or spoken hurtful words to you, or spoken harmful words about you, or taken some hurtful action against you? In other words, has another believer ever sinned against you?

If you answer “No!” to this question, I suggest you might well represent one of the most fortunate people on earth. Virtually all of us, at some point in our lives, have had another believer lie to us, or speak ill of us, or take action against us, or in some other way commit a sin against us.

The question: “What do you do when another believer sins against you?”

The Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post represents one of the most often-quoted and least-followed words of Jesus in all of the Bible. As usual, Jesus’ teaching seems quite clear. He offers four specific and distinct steps when another believer sins against you:

1. Go to the one who has sinned. Show that one what he or she has done. Wait to see how he or she responds. If that one asks for forgiveness and repents of the sin, extend forgiveness and treat the matter as concluded.



2. If the one who sinned against you does not ask for forgiveness nor repent, take one or two other believers with you and, once again, confront that one. If he or she repents and seeks forgiveness and repents, then extend forgiveness and treat the matter as if it never happened.



3. If the one who sinned against you still does not ask for forgiveness, then make a report to the whole body of believers. This will offer the one who sinned the opportunity to receive the wise counsel of the entire church. If he or she repents and seeks forgiveness, then extend forgiveness and treat the matter as if it never happened.



4. But, if the one who sinned against you refuses to repent and seek forgiveness, then Jesus instructs the church to excommunicate that one in the hopes that separation from the body of believers will bring that one to full and absolute repentance.

You can clearly see why very few individuals, and even fewer churches, have the courage and tenacity to actually employ this potent instruction from the King of Kings. It takes a willingness to go way out on a limb to actually confront a person when that one has sinned against you. It takes even more courage to follow through with the second, third, and fourth steps of this process.

But, whenever a believer, or body of believers, puts to use this very wise teaching of Jesus, confession, repentance, forgiveness, restitution, and full reconciliation will often come to pass. It’s clearly worth the effort.

So, if you have a Christian person or two, or maybe a long list of Christian people, who have sinned against you and have breached the brotherly and sisterly relationship we must have with each other in the Lord Jesus Christ, I would urge you to lovingly, carefully, prayerfully put Jesus’ teaching on this matter to good use. For nothing surpasses the joy that comes from true reconciliation.

Will you pray with me?

Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Thank You for giving us Your Holy Spirit to bring us to the point where we will have the courage and tenacity to put Jesus’ teaching to work in our own lives. Help us to always seek true reconciliation with those who may sin against us. And, just as importantly, help us to make every conscious effort not to sin against anyone, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. We pray in the strong and enabling Name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

_{Copyright © 2011 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

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