When faced with a task that might make us feel uncomfortable, we often try to avoid doing it if at all possible, just sweeping it under the rug, so to speak. It might be something important, but if it is something we dread doing, and we can get away with not doing it, we will. In our passage of Scripture today from the Gospel of Matthew, we read about church discipline for erring members, which is something that is not a popular topic, and something that many churches avoid doing. Yet this is something that our Lord spoke about, and is part of His Holy Word, so it is something that we should look into.
Jesus knew that within the Church there were going to be times when believers were going to have differences among themselves which might develop into larger, unresolved conflicts, or a fellow believer might fall into unrepentant sinful behavior. These issues would need to be resolved in a proper manner if the Church was going to grow and thrive, so the Lord gave us a proper process to follow. This passage is referring to Christians, those in our personal church fellowship, not to unbelievers. This passage gives us the way God wishes us to resolve any significant conflict or issue between fellow believers, or the one who has fallen into major sin.
There are certain steps which the Lord Jesus gave us to follow. If, within the church fellowship, there develops a conflict between two members, Jesus tells us that the one who has been sinned against is to go to the one who wronged them and try to resolve the conflict between the two of them. Sometimes that is all it takes, two people calmly talking it out together, and any misunderstanding or grievance is peacefully worked out. However, if that doesn’t work, if the other person won’t listen and wants to hold on to their grievance, then the Lord instructed that the one go and get someone else, someone godly and wise, to come with and talk with them (vs. 16). This person could perhaps be a deacon, elder, or pastor of the church. That person can act as an impartial mediator, and help to work out the differences.
What if that won’t work, either? Jesus then instructed that this problem be brought before the whole church body (vs. 17). Hopefully, with godly and loving counsel from fellow believers, the erring one might repent of their ways. However, if they continue to be obstinate, the Lord instructs that this one be removed from the church fellowship, hopefully only temporarily until they repent.
This is where many Christians and churches tend to back away. People don’t mind the first step. That’s quite acceptable. They might not even mind the second step. The other two, and especially the last one, are most often avoided. The Apostle Paul, though, spoke of several instances when he had to follow these steps all the way to the end. In the church in Corinth, a member had fallen into terribly immoral behavior, and had to be removed from fellowship (I Corinthians 5:4-5). He instructed Timothy to remove both Hymenaeus and Alexander from Christian fellowship (I Timothy 1:20). And in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church, he tells them to cast out any who do not obey God’s Word (II Thessalonians 3:14). This removes these unrepentant ones as a detrimental influence to the other believers.
Some people may feel that this contradicts Matthew 7:1-4, which tells us not to judge, a favorite verse people like to toss around a lot. Those verses do not tell us to never judge. It teaches against hypocritical judgment. God tells us to judge bad companions (I Corinthians 15:33), false teachers (Matthew 7:15-20), and the works of evil unbelievers (Ephesians 5:11). We must check ourselves and our motives first, and then judge sin and sinners with the goal to rescue and restore them.
The church which ignores its members who are marinating in sin is not acting in love. The church that truly wants to treat its members in a loving way will confront sin, praying that the wandering sheep will return to the fold.
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