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Transcript 582B — Matthew 18:15-20 Explained
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello. I'd like you to explain to me Matthew 18:15-20, please. And I'll listen on the air.
HC: All right. The question is concerning the discipline set forth in Matthew 18, beginning with verse 15: "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone." Now let me stop right here and let us focus our eyes on what God is saying here, because frequently we read this superficially and come away with a conclusion that is not in accordance with the Bible.
We read this and we say, "Oh. If we see somebody sinning in the congregation then it is our beholden duty, our bound duty, to go to that person privately and tell him his sin between the two of us. And then if he doesn't listen to me, then to follow the prescription that follows." But that isn't what God is saying here. God is saying, "If thy brother shall trespass against thee." If someone else is sinning in the church, and we're just a regular church member, not an officer in the church, an elder or a deacon or a pastor, then it's not our business if somebody else is sinning in the congregation; it's not for us to make judgment. We don't have all the information concerning it. We'd better keep our eyes on our own sins and our own Christian walk.
But if a situation arises that someone in the congregation is sinning against me personally, and I feel injured by this, now God gives a prescription. First of all, I am to talk about this to my brother, privately. I'm not to talk about it to all of my friends, "Oh, Brother Jones – he did this to me and he's a 'so and so,'" and make a scandal of it. I am to go privately to Brother Jones and tell him about it.
If he hears me, that is, if as I come tenderly and kindly to him, confessing also my sin (if I have been less than God-glorifying toward him, I must also confess my side, also) this does not end up with reconciliation between the two of us, then I am to take one or two others. Now the purpose of one or two others, we read here, is that "in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established."
Of course, you see, when I bring one or two others into the picture, they may decide that Brother Jones hasn't really sinned against me. And they may decide that I don't have a case at all. So that would be the end of the matter. But let's suppose that they listen and they say, "Yes, you do have a case." And so the two or three of you go again to Brother Jones, to talk to him about his sin against you. And again he does not wish to listen. He says, "Forget about it. It's none of your business. I'll live my life, you live yours," and so on.
Then the next stage is that the church is to be told. Now again, you take it to the ruling body of the church and tell them what the situation is, and they listen and they say, "Well, as we really study this matter, Mr. Jones hasn't really sinned against you, and you really shouldn't be agonizing about this." Then of course you are to listen to the church because you are under their rule and you want to be obedient to their conclusion.
On the other hand, they may decide that yes indeed, Brother Jones has sinned against you. And so they counsel with him and say, "Brother Jones, you have to make restitution," or "Brother Jones, you have to straighten out this matter with this other brother." If Brother Jones refuses to be obedient to the edict of the church, then it indicates that he does not want to be under that kind of rule or authority. It indicates that he is not submissive to Christ at all, because in the church this line of government has been established by Christ Himself. And so he is to be excommunicated. By his action he indicates that he is not properly a member of the congregation, and so he is to be a heathen and a publican.
Then God sums this up in verse 18, and He said, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth [and the verb form here really is] shall having been bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall having been loosed in Heaven." In other words, the action is first of all in Heaven and it is the church that is simply following through. God does the saving and the church receives those who are saved into the congregation. God also indicates those who are not saved in the congregation, and it is the church that eventually will excommunicate them.
And then in verse 19 God indicates the size of the church. And many many people take verse 19 of Matthew 18 completely out of its context and try to do something altogether else with it. They simply read it as this, "Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven." And completely out of context they say, "Well, therefore if two believers with any kind of a desire on their hearts agree together that this would be wise, then they can pray to God about it and God will faithfully carry through, and give what they have asked."
Now that is not the context here at all. God is simply indicating that God works in the church. And when the church, whether it's two or three or a mighty congregation, works in this matter of discipline, and it is done by God's principles, then they are carrying out the will of God. And this of course we see when we carefully investigate if a person should become a member of the church and as we try to decide whether he is born again. And this also has to do with excommunication.