Scripture – ““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.”
Matthew 18:15-17 NIV
Observation – Jesus commands us to confront people when they have sinned against us, just between the two of you. He then provides a step by step process on how to handle the situation if they don’t admit to their sin. Believers refusal to do this may be the biggest sin in the church and the leading cause of why the church is weak and not living with the type of power that God says is available to us. Here’s what we do instead of obeying Jesus. We will quote Proverbs 19:11 “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.” We become self-righteous and act like whatever the person said or did doesn’t bother us even though it does. If it doesn’t bother you and you can overlook it, that’s great, but if your mind keeps going back to what happened, like a tongue keeps going back to a chipped tooth, you know you haven’t been able to overlook this particular offense. After we try and overlook it, but can’t, followers of Christ will then talk to everyone else about the situation except the person they are supposed to talk to, they will again become self righteous and point to all the negative aspects of the person’s life that contributed to them sinning against you and then you’ll ask the people you are talking to the pray for the poor sinner. God says that when you do this you are a liar and a fool, “Whoever conceals hatred with lying lips and spreads slander is a fool.”
Proverbs 10:18 NIV.
Application – When someone sins against you try and overlook it. If you can’t forgive that person from your heart, and you keep thinking about it, obey Jesus and talk to the person directly, one on one, and tell them they hurt your feelings and try and work it out. When we don’t do this we create distance in our relationship with the person that sinned against us and separation between ourselves and God because we have chosen our own way instead of his. This is a fear based approach to life as opposed to a faith and trust based approach to life. God tells us how to restore the relationship and help the person, but we fear it will destroy the relationship. We are more concerned about what a person, who sinned against us thinks, than the creator of the entire universe. Holding people accountable to a high standard of behavior and conduct is important to creating and sustaining meaningful and lasting relationships.
Prayer – Dear Jesus, strengthen your followers with your strength and the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out your commands with confidence so that your Church is powerful and not weak. Amen.
What are you doing? Do it better 