I am up to date with my 2024 Bible Reading Plan but I am a bit behind on posting my devotional from those readings. I read these to my family and give my commentary to them. I try to encourage questions but with a 1 year old and a pregnant wife, I don’t stress out too much if there are no questions.
You can find these devotional on my other blog but I post them here as well to serve you as well. So here it is:
Matthew 18:15-20 is a very popular passage among evangelicals. But some evangelicals like to interpret this out of context. They claim that “where to or three are gather, I [Jesus] am there in there midst” means that Jesus is there when Christians are gathered. But the context explains why they are gathered. These believers are not gathered because they are socializing or in fellowship with one another. These believers are gathered because one of them is sinning and doesn’t want to turn away from their sin.
This passage is about church discipline, not fellowship. This passage is about accountability, not comradery. You can’t fellowship with one another if one is sinning. That is the whole effect of sin: it separates. It separates one from God. It separates from other people. I am to confident to say that sin even separates sinners from other sinners (eventually).
This passage also implies that churches have membership. Jesus commands them to remove the sinning believer from among them because he/she does not want to turn away from their sinful behavior. Jesus teaches them to give this sinning professing Christian multiple confrontations with multiple members so that there is a clear case. Remember you can’t remove someone from a group, if you can’t define the group. Companies fire employee who do not do their job. Teams remove players who are not playing. Churches remove members if they are not obeying God.
This is done by committee and doesn’t require a leader. The whole congregation must agree with the testimony of the 2-3 members who confront the sinning member. So this is not a 1 vs 1 match up. This is a group of people, believers, Christians, recognizing that an individual’s sin behavior will have a bad impact one there community. The cancer must be severed. They have tried to treat him/her with loving accountability but he/she refuses to repent.
If the principles of these passage are faithfully followed, Jesus confirms their decision on removing that individual. Remember this passage in Matthew comes after the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus as a shepherd is wants to save sheep. But these are the steps to saving a wayward sheep. If the wayward sheep doesn’t want to follow and tempt other sheep to go astray, don’t let him follow.
This passage also follow after the passage of severing things from your life that would lead you to sin. Following these commands will keep you from being a hypocrite if you find yourself needing to confront a sinning member within your local congregation.
In light of those who continue to interpret this passage as a gathering of Christians that want to celebrate Jesus, please remember: you can’t celebrate Him if their are Christians that don’t want to Him to be celebrated.
For those who are tempted to interpret this in a legalistic way, remember to cut off any body part that leads you to sin prior to confronting another sinning believer.
But I do want to end with hope and not despair. The goal of church discipline is to win him/her over. The goal of church discipline is to repent the believer from continuing in his/her sinful behavior and return to obeying and following Christ. It is a sad day if the professing Christian no longer is living as a Christian but Jesus is in your midst to comfort and encourage you. Jesus’s will is to not for mankind to perish. Every individual will only understand this when he has faith in Christ. Faith in Christ will build trust in his church. Faith in Christ will bring forth humility when sin is addressed. Faith in Christ will lead you to experience the joy when Christ returns the lost sheep even if it is through church discipline.
https://rawreverie4.wordpress.com/2024/02/24/duties-of-heavenly-neighbors/
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