CORRECTING AND FORGIVING SIN
Scripture Reading: Psalm 103: 1 - 7
Gospel Reading: Matthew 18: 15 - 35
In today’s gospel reading Jesus addresses the question of what to do when you find a member of the congregation in sin. Our English translations of the bible have it, "When a brother sins against you," but many of the ancient writings have it "When a brother sins." The against you is not included. In either case you, a Christian, have observed a brother or sister Christian committing sin.
Jesus says that when that happens you should go to the sinner to discuss the matter and try to help get him or her back on the right path. Jesus is saying in effect that as a Christian you have a duty to do this. It is a duty of Christian love. You know that if that person continues to sin his or her soul can very well be lost to Satan. How can you love your neighbor and allow that to happen without making some effort to save the sinner. Recognizing the duty that is here, Paul, in Galatians 6:1 says, "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him Gently,"
Gently. Note now in verse 15 Jesus says to "go and show him his fault, just between the two of you." Don’t embarrass this person by making him or her a public spectacle. If you do that you may be sure you will have greatly weakened any friendship you may have had and may have chased away a member of the congregation and all opportunity for correction of the fault. When I was in the Air Force I attended leadership school. One of the things that I learned there has always stood strong in my memory. It was "Complement in public, but criticize in private." I’m sure that most of us here have experienced the negative aspects of both sides of that admonition How many times have you wanted to go hide someplace because some fool came shouting at you in front of everybody for some mistake you may have made? And how about the times that you did something good and nobody ever recognized you for having done it? Jesus is saying in verse 15 to first go to the sinner privately. It may be that the two of you can work things out without anybody else becoming involved. If that happens the bond between you will certainly be strengthened, and you will have been instrumental in helping your neighbor back into the paths of righteousness.
I want to point out here that before you say that a person has sinned, you had better make sure that what they have done is indeed a sin. Too many people have some very misguided ideas about what constitutes sin. Often these people pick out one verse from the bible and they hang everything on that one verse or paragraph without ever checking the rest of the chapter, book or bible to see what additional things are said on that same subject. It’s also necessary to check the meaning of some words as they were originally used. For example: in our English translations of the Ten Commandments the sixth commandment says "Thou shalt not kill." Does that mean if I kill an animal to eat it I have sinned? How about a cabbage? I kill it when I eat it. And don’t forget those weeds in the garden for crying out loud!! Are our soldiers guilty for killing in a war? There are some who say they are. The truth is that the word that has been mistranslated kill is the Hebrew word ratsach (raw-tsakh’) that most correctly translates to murder. Now I’m sure that we all understand the difference between murder and killing. Murder of course is killing, but it is of a human being and always for evil motives. Again I say, before you judge somebody to have sinned, be sure they really have.
What happens if the sinner won’t admit to his or her sin, or refuses to change. Do you just turn away and say "Oh well!!" No!! Jesus goes on to say that others should be called in to reinforce the effort to turn the sinner to repentance. Jesus says first two or three others who can witness to your efforts and maybe to supply their own testimony on the same matter. When all else fails, the whole congregation is brought in, and finally if the sinner obstinately refuses to repent he is to be treated by the congregation as a person that has never been saved. He is to be no longer a member of the congregation with all the privileges that go with that membership. In 1 Corinthians 5: 2, Paul says concerning a man who has been caught committing adultery with his father’s wife. Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this." And in 4 he goes on to say "When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord."
Some have questioned Jesus saying that the sinner should be treated "as you would a pagan or a tax collector." "How is that possible," they say, "when even Jesus treated pagans with love, and Matthew was a tax collector before Jesus called him." These people are missing the point. What they are saying about Jesus attitude toward those people is exactly right. He treats them with love, and he makes every effort to lead them to salvation. That is what he wants us to do with the unrepentant sinner. We don’t give up on the sinner. We treat him or her in the same way we would treat a non Christian that we are introducing to the faith.
In verse 18 Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Wow!!! That sounds like He’s giving us a lot of power. Consider: Binding and Loosing describe the concept that the church has the power and means to announce that a sinner was condemned or forgiven. The keys to the kingdom given to Peter in Matt. 16: 19 was a symbol in locking or unlocking sins and illustrate his authority in binding or loosing. Later in Matt 18:18 the same power was given to the apostles and the church as a whole. It is not an exclusive gift to any one person or church. The question of how sins are forgiven is raised in the meaning of binding and loosing. Whatever the church, acting prayerfully and according to the leading of the holy spirit, declares to be wrong or right will have been anticipated and ratified in heaven by divine sanction. Keep in mind - Heaven sets the standard, the church follows heaven’s lead.
Now let’s take another look at what Jesus is saying. First remember that he has been talking about a sinner; therefore, when He talks about binding and loosing he is talking about what we do about that sinner. He is also talking about what the congregation acting in unity does. Nobody acts alone. If the sinner repents, the church may declare him loosed (forgiven) being assured that he has been forgiven in heaven. And it is important that we all join in forgiving him or her. Christians don’t carry grudges. If the sinner will not repent, and the congregation after much prayer and discussion and more prayer decides that the sinner is bound (not forgiven) and must be removed from membership in the body, the decision will have been ratified in heaven. Even so, as already stated, we don’t give up trying to bring him or her back into the fold.
In verse 21 Peter, who had probably been doing some deep thinking about the idea of forgiving a sinner, especially one who has sinned against him personally, asks Jesus, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive y brother when he sins against me?"
Jesus’ reply is "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy seven times." In other words, there is no limit to how many times the sinner should be forgiven. Jesus then goes on to tell the parable of the Unmerciful Servant. Jesus concludes the parable with a powerfully noteworthy statement: Verse 35: "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
We often recite The Lord’s Prayer, but I wonder how often we pay attention to the words of that beautiful prayer. Please look at it now in Matthew 6: 9 - 13, and observe especially verse 12 where it says, "Forgive us our debts in the same way we forgive our debtors. Understand, please, that debts, in the context of the prayer doesn’t refer to money we owe. It refers to sins. In that prayer we are saying to God, "If we don’t forgive those who have sinned against us, then don’t forgive us." Verse 35 of the parable in Matthew 18 makes it abundantly clear that that is exactly what we may expect.
In conclusion then, Christians have a duty to try to correct our brothers and sisters from their sins whenever we observe them committing a sin. To fail to do so is the same as to say we don’t love them, and are content to see them lost from the faith. If, after every effort from the individual through the full church they fail to repent they must be dropped from membership in the church. After that they are to be treated with the same love and desire to bring them into the faith that would be extended to any other non Christian. Jesus sets the example -we must follow. Amen
