INTRODUCTION
We sometimes hurt people. I can think of times when I’ve hurt people. And people sometimes hurt us. I can think of times when I’ve been hurt. It happens in families, in workplaces and in churches.
There was a time when Paul was planning to visit the church in Corinth. But he was worried. He wrote:
‘I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarrelling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder’ [2 Corinthians 12:20].
Such things happen in churches. Have you experienced them?
We’re in Jesus’ fourth ‘discourse’ in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus is talking about the church and at this point, he’s talking about what to do if we become aware of some sin.
His instructions are specific, step by step. Many companies have Standard Operating Procedures which set out what to in the case of, for example, a dispute. A company requires its employees to follow its Standard Operating Procedures and Jesus requires us to follow his instructions. We need to know what to do and what not to do if we become aware of sin at church.
We find Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 18:15-17. They consist of four steps. To make the steps easy to remember I’ve given them rhyming words. Step One is one. Step Two is true. Step Three is key. Step Four is door. Every word and phrase in these verses is important.
Let’s take a look at Jesus’ first step.
‘ONE IS ONE’
Jesus’ first step is in verse 15. I’m using the New American Standard version of the Bible on this occasion. I’ll explain why shortly.
Jesus says, ‘Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother.’
First, Jesus says, ‘If your BROTHER sins.’ The Greek word that’s translated brother means literally, ‘from the same womb’. It means brother or sister. Does ‘brother’ here mean our literal sibling? No. Jesus uses the word brother to mean a fellow believer. Jesus is giving us instruction that applies to conflicts at church, not conflicts outside the church.
In this talk I’ll sometimes say ‘he’ or ‘brother’ or ‘they’ or ‘them’ but in every case I mean brothers and sisters.
Second, Jesus says, ‘If your brother SINS against you.’ Let’s just note that Jesus’ instruction is for SIN. If my brother is singing out of tune, it isn’t sin! I might have to look for another way to deal with it. Love is patient, Paul says!
My third point is a bit tricky but really important. For much of my Christian life, I’ve used a version of the Bible called the New International Version, the NIV. It’s what we have at church. For this verse, the NIV USED to have, ‘If your brother sins AGAINST you.’ Then, some years ago, the NIV brought out a new version. Now this verse starts, ‘If your brother or sister sins.’ They’ve made the language gender-neutral. But more importantly, they’ve removed the phrase ‘against you’. The New American Standard Bible, which some people think is the most literal and accurate translation of the Bible, is the same. It says, ‘Now if your brother sins….’ Like the NIV, it doesn’t have ‘against you.’
But the vast majority of English versions do include ‘against you’.
Why’s there a difference? The English New Testament is a translation of very old copies of the New Testament which were written in Greek. The oldest copies are ‘Codex Vaticanus’ and ‘Codex Sinaiticus’. They were probably written in about 350 or 360 A.D. After that, in the fifth century A.D., we have ‘Codex Alexandrinus’.
The two oldest Greek manuscript’s DON’T have the phrase ‘against you.’ But Codex Alexandrinus and various later manuscripts have it. The Bible translators have to figure out which is most likely to be correct – and they come to different opinions.
The difference is just two tiny words. ‘Against you’ in English; ‘eis se’ in Greek. Do they really matter? Yes, they do! They make a huge difference.
As I’ve looked into this, my view is that these words were probably not part of the original. I’m taking the same view as the translators of the NIV and the New American Standard Bible.
Let me explain why I think these two tiny words SHOULDN’T be there – and then why it makes such a difference.
FIRST, look at the context! Jesus has just told the Parable of the Lost Sheep. A shepherd goes in search of a lost sheep because he doesn’t want a single sheep to perish. There’s no suggestion that the sheep has offended the shepherd! Straight after that, we come to the verses we’re looking at today. Jesus says, ‘Now if your brother sins….’ In other words, if your brother is being like that lost sheep, if he’s straying, here’s what you do. It doesn’t matter if he’s sinned AGAINST YOU or not.
SECOND, I’m a dad. If I saw one of our children falling into some kind of sin, I would go and talk to him or her. I have a brother who is a Christian. If I saw him falling into some kind of sin, I would go and talk to him. I must do that! Love requires me to do that. So, what should I do if I see someone at church fall into sin? They are my spiritual brother or sister. I must go and talk to them. Love requires me to do that. It’s much more logical to suppose that Jesus’ instruction applies to anyone who falls into sin and not just to people who commit some sin AGAINST US.
Third, trust in scholars and experts can be misplaced. But if the New American Standard Bible considers that the main reading should not include ‘AGAINST US’, and if the NIV, which previously included ‘AGAINST US’, now leaves it out, then that carries weight.
So, my conclusion is that Jesus’ instruction doesn’t just apply to the situation where someone has offended or hurt ME. If I see one of my brothers falling into some kind of sin I must go and talk to them! It doesn’t matter if it’s against me or not.
This really changes the way I understand what I have to do.
In the past, when I thought that Jesus said ‘against you’ then I would only take action if someone sinned against me.
But since I now believe that ‘against you’ shouldn’t be there, I have a responsibility to act if I become aware of sin – even if it wasn’t against me. And I have much more freedom to act. I can act on behalf of someone even if the sin wasn’t against me.
I believe Jesus is calling us to be shepherds: to go in pursuit of those who are falling into sin and falling out of relationship with Jesus. It isn’t just about responding to sin against us.
We’re looking at verse 15 and so far, I’ve made three points.
Brother means our brother or sister in Christ. Sin means sin, not just the fact that I don’t like the way you sing. And I don’t believe Jesus is limiting this instruction to sin against us. It’s about any sin our brother or sister is falling into.
Let’s go on to a fourth point. Jesus says, ‘Go ... tell.’ We need to call the person who has hurt us and say, ‘Have you got time for a chat?’ Then we meet for a coffee or a beer and we talk.
You might ask, do we really need to GO? Can’t I just send a text or an email or a message by Facebook or WhatsApp or Instagram? But Jesus says ‘Go.’ Sending a text or an email doesn’t require going. You might say, ‘But in Jesus’ day they couldn’t text or send an email!’ But people could still send a message or a letter. If Jesus told people to GO then he didn’t want them to just send a message.
Unless we get up and go, we aren’t doing what Jesus tells us to. There’s someone in this church who’s very good at doing this. I won’t say who it is. But it’s been great. Occasionally some little difficulty comes up. Then this person asks if we can meet. We get together for a coffee or a beer. The result has always been that we’ve sorted out whatever little difficulty there was quickly and pleasantly, and our friendship has grown stronger.
Fifth, Jesus says, ‘Between you and him ALONE.’ This word ALONE is right at the heart of this first step. That’s why I’ve called this first step ‘ONE IS ONE.’ If there is just one thing you remember from this talk, I think it should be this. ‘ONE IS ONE.’
The point of this instruction is that we keep the issue contained. We want to pour oil on the troubled water, not stir it up. In churches, the exact opposite sometimes happens.
The person who the offended person SHOULD speak to is the person who caused the hurt. But he is usually the one person the offended person DOESN’T speak to! Instead, the offended person speaks to everyone else!
Jesus’ emphasis isn’t on not speaking to anyone else. It is on speaking to the person who has committed the sin BETWEEN YOU AND HIM ALONE. I’m sure it’s OK to discuss the matter with your spouse. And I think it’s very sensible to have a chat with someone wise, preferably someone who’s outside the situation, to decide what to do. For example, I might have a chat with one of my regional ministers.
But we haven’t quite finished on Step One. Jesus then says, ‘If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.’ Let’s be clear. When you speak with your brother, your goal is to regain him. You may need to tell him how he’s hurt you. But the goal is to regain him. You are meeting with him for his sake, not for yours.
Jesus concludes Step One by saying, ‘If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.’ But what if he doesn’t listen? Then we go on to STEP TWO.
‘TWO IS TRUE’
Jesus then says, ‘But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.’
The person who has been hurt gathers ONE OR TWO other people. It means that you’ll be a minimum of two and a maximum of three people. You don’t want to stir up the troubled waters any more than necessary. The purpose of this meeting is to establish the facts of the matter. Jesus constantly builds on Old Testament principles and that’s the case here. What he calls believers to do corresponds to an instruction in Deuteronomy. Moses is speaking, but he regards what he’s saying as God’s commandments. Moses tells the people of Israel:
‘A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin that he commits; on the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed’ [Deuteronomy 19:15].
The witnesses establish that the facts of the case are true. This meeting may also establish a couple of other things. It will be clear to the person who has caused the hurt or offence that he or she has been warned. And they may wake up to the fact that this is getting serious. But what if your brother still doesn’t listen? Then we go on to STEP THREE.
‘THREE IS KEY’
Let’s suppose that Step Two doesn’t give the desired result. God doesn’t want us to give up. We need to take things to the next step. Jesus says, ‘If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church’ [Matthew 15:17]. I said ‘three is key’ because this is when a formal decision will be taken. If, at this point, the brother doesn’t wish to do what is asked of him then he will be put out of the church. Notice that the matter goes to the CHURCH, i.e. a body of people, rather than to the leader or leaders of the church. The church as a whole has the authority to make such an important decision. There has to be a formal church gathering.
Does the church really have such authority? In the following verse, Jesus says this: ‘Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ [Matthew 15:18]. Jesus is giving the church authority. The church holds the key.
But what if your brother still doesn’t listen? Then we go on to STEP FOUR.
‘FOUR IS THE DOOR’
If after all this, the person does not wish to repent then the last step is to show the person the door. Jesus says, ‘And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.’ In other words, treat the person as someone who is not a Christian.
This is essential both for the sake of the person and for the sake of the church.
Let’s imagine the church as a bucket with some water in it. The water represents church members. As the church witnesses to Christ, as it shows Christ’s love, people join. The bucket fills with water. But the water in the bucket of the church in Britain has been steadily draining away. In the period from 1980 to 2015 church attendance in Britain went down by more than half [Brierley Consultancy: 6.5 million to 3.1 million].
If people don’t come to our pizza restaurant, we must ask ourselves if there’s a problem with our pizza. If people don’t come to our church, we must ask ourselves if there’s a problem with the Christianity that people see there.
Let’s suppose that in our church there are people who live in a way that’s inconsistent with Christ’s teaching. They’re rude or offensive or divisive or engage in some sort of sinful behaviour. Such people create holes in the bucket. People come into the church but before long, someone offends them and they leave.
For the sake of the church, if there are problems, we, the church, must do what Jesus tells us to do. In some cases, we should overlook an offence. But in other cases, we need to deal with it and if we don’t Jesus will not be pleased. In Revelation, Jesus gave a letter to a church in a city called Thyatira. He told them, ‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols’ [Revelation 2:20]. That sin mattered. But the church in Thyatira wasn’t doing anything about it. In our day, too, churches, by and large, hate dealing with sin. I’ve been a Christian for more than 50 years but I can’t think of a single instance when a church I was part of followed Jesus’ instructions through to the end.
The church needs to follow Jesus’ instructions for the sake of the church. It also needs to follow them for the sake of the person who has committed the sin. If a person who has fallen away from faith continues to attend church, he or she may think that everything is fine. It’s better that he or she is woken up. ‘FOUR IS DOOR.’ We need to be willing to show someone the door.
ACTIONS
How do we respond to this? Jesus’ instructions aren’t only about fixing broken relationships. They’re about going in pursuit of a brother or sister who is falling into sin and drifting from God. We go in search of him or her as a good shepherd goes in search of a straying sheep. We do NOT want the person's relationship with God to come to an end.
Jesus has definite instructions for what he expects us to do. One is one. GO and tell the person ALONE. Two is true. Go with others; establish the facts. Three is key. This is the decisive moment. Four is the door. Ultimately, for the sake of the church and the person, we need to be open to that.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 28th April 2024, morning service.
