Matthew 18:15-20 (NIVUK)
Church: St Stephens 10 September
Minister: Brent
Dealing with sin in the church
15 ‘If your brother or sister[a] sins,[b] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.16 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.”[c] 17 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.
18 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.
19 ‘Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’
(P) Most of us, at some point in our lives will experience conflict with another person. That’s inevitable. In my teenage years I got bullied at the Gore ice skating rink by this guy, about my age, who accused me of calling him a bad name (which I didn’t). As I was leaving he came up and shoved me against the wall and told me to get out in very unpolite terms. I realized afterwards that I could have given him a decent shove back and then ran like anything. You see, he still had his skates on and would never have caught me! But I didn’t think that fast. The whole incident left me shaken and traumatized. Conflict is horrible!
Sometimes conflict happens with random people like that and we can usually get over it pretty quickly. But when it happens closer to home- in families, among friends or work mates- it’s much more difficult to get over. And conflict can be very destructive- from tearing apart of families to whole nations.
In our Matthew passage today, we see this issue addressed and we are given an action plan for tackling conflict, especially in the church. It’s both practical- giving us certain steps to follow- and idealistic. If you’ve ever been involved in conflict resolution you will know what I mean by that. Real conflicts never seem to fit this pattern as neatly as the idealism would suggest!
Before we get into this let me make some technical comments about this text:(P)
“If you brother or sister sins..” The word here is adelphos which refers to a fellow disciple, regardless of gender. This is addressed to Christ followers.
“…sins against you”. This is a variant reading that is omitted from many manuscripts. Using this reading places the aggrieved person at the centre. The alternative reading is a more general discussion around dealing with people who sin.
Do you like conflict? Not many people do. We do everything to avoid it. We don’t like the feelings that rise in us during conflict (fear, anxiety, uncertainty, anger, rage, revenge…). We see conflict as a major fail, especially when it happens in church. Church is supposed to be a place where people love one another and sit around holding hands, singing kumbyjah! Sometimes when visiting another church you can sense there is conflict among them. There is something in the air and its quite troubling and off putting.
But Jesus, in his wisdom, tackles the issue directly. He knows that even his closest, most devoted followers will at some point fail to live out his command to love one another. In 1965 Bruce Tuckman identified 4 stages of group development which he applied to the business world but also apply to any group. These are:(P) Forming>> Storming>> Norming>> Performing. (a fifth was added 10 years later called Adjouning)
The first stage is when a group first comes together and is characterized by anxiety and uncertainty as members don’t know each other very well. Also the values and purpose of the group are still forming. At this stage members of the group are cautious with their behaivour, desiring to be accepted by the group. Conflict is avoided at this stage.
This is followed by the storming stage, where conflict and competition are at its greatest. By this stage the group know each other better and have a good understanding of their tasks or purpose and dominant members start to flex their muscle. Questions arise around leadership, authority, rules, responsibilities etc. This stage can be very uncomfortable but must be passed through if the group is to move onto the more productive stages ahead.
The bible never tries to hide the reality of this storming process. Read the book of Acts and you will discover several occasions when conflict broke out among the early followers of Jesus. Likewise, Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is all about sorting out conflict.
The first step Jesus outlines when someone sins is to go to the person privately and try to sort it out. There is a concern here to preserve the dignity of the person and the unity and fellowship of the congregation. Obviously, this is the ideal but as we all know when someone points out our sin or if we wrong someone in some way we tend to rise up and defend ourselves, deny the problem and simply avoid the situation.
Welcome to stage 2! Time to bring in some witnesses. It’s not entirely clear if these witnesses are there to verify the offence (like in a court of law) or to verify what each party in the dispute has said (to avoid fruitless disputes about what each party said). In any case, having 2 or 3 witnesses is an effective way to clarify the facts and curtail escalation of the conflict. The dignity and privacy of the people involved is still maintained at this stage.
But what if the offender is still unrepentant? Time to take it publicly before the entire church. I’m not sure if this is to further test the evidence for the charges and give the defendant opportunity to call more witnesses or whether this is when the church will be informed of the consequences for the offender- excommunication.
Intriguingly, Jesus says to treat the unrepentant member like you would treat a pagan and tax collector. Some are puzzled by this and question if these words were spoken by Jesus as they seem out of character. Perhaps they were added in by the leadership of Matthew’s church to validate their approach to church discipline.
Another possibility is that Jesus is stressing the need for tireless effort to be made in reconciling the wayward. So rather than wiping our hands of the offender we are called to treat them like a pagan and tax collector, in the same way Jesus treated these people; with grace and hospitality with a view to winning them!
(Note: the early church did practice discipline in this way eg Roms 16:17 a warning to keep away from those who cause division)
As I said before, this is a very idealistic approach. What tends to happen in our day is this; (P)
Step 1: avoid the person you have an issue with if at all possible.
Step 2: deny the charges, defame your accusers, gather some supporters.
Step 3: go to the media to let the world know how mistreated you are by that awful church.
That’s not the best way to preserve the unity and dignity of the body of Christ! But we mustn’t be too pessimistic. I once co-led a team of young people on an outreach to Indonesia. One of the members of our team was a very difficult person to get along with. He was always falling out with other team members over petty issues. Hardly a day would go by when he wasn’t coming to me with some new issue with a team-mate. After pulling my hair out a bit I went to the other leaders and we decided to confront him on his negative behaivour. Happily, we were able to show him how he was the real issue and the change had to come from him. He agreed and became a valuable member of the team.
(P) What do we make of the next statement Jesus makes about binding and losing in verse 18? ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.
My commentary has 5 pages written on this verse! It’s very technical and to be honest I don’t really understand it. I do know this: it has nothing to do with binding evil spirits and setting lose God’s blessings (as I was once taught). But it does have to do with setting the boundaries around doctrine, belief and behaivour which the apostles played a key role in.
The passage finishes with a couple of wonderful promises;(P) ‘Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’
This sounds like a blank cheque prayer promise. As long as we agree we can have anything we want! Some people do apply it this way but I don’t think that’s the intention. The context is maintaining church unity and discipline so it’s more likely this is to do with the resolutions made in such cases. If there is agreement to remove someone from the church, it will happen.
The final statement is both promise and warning. It’s sometimes used as encouragement when there is poor church attendance- at least there are more than 3 of us here this morning! Christ is with us! More than that it is the promise of his abiding presence where ever we gather; be that on church on Sunday, in small organised groups or in informal encounters. He is with us.
Which is also a warning to handle with care these issues of conflict resolution. We are not to be cavalier or heavy handed (especially those charged with leadership responsibilities). Nor are we to be negligent and sweep things under the carpet. We need to have the courage to call people out when their actions are disrupting the peace of the church. We are to treat our fellow Christians with the respect and dignity we are all given as members of Christ.
May the peace of Christ be upon us.
