Mastering Your Methods
How to Deal with Sin or Conflict
Matthew 18:15-19
15 “If your brother or sister[b] sins,[c] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’[d] 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be[e] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[f] loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
I could talk about this one for a while as well. So, here are some nuggets I want to glean from it:
1. Notice when you have a problem with someone, Jesus said, go to that person one on one first! What’s the point: it is never ok as believers to talk about someone behind their backs, (and I’ll add this for today’s age, especially on social media talking about someone). If you have a problem with someone go to them one on one. Never do it behind their backs or spread gossip about them on social media! Go to them in private. Talking behind their backs is cowardly and never should be done. Anyone can be courageous behind a keyboard but it takes a real man/woman to go to a person one on one. Don’t punk out! Do the right thing and with love and respect, (yes, we still need to have manners here) with love and respect go to them one on one in private, and try to work it out, without physicality if possible! I say if possible because you cannot speak for them and their actions but we can control ours through the Holy Spirit)! I have seen this in churches many times where a person has a grievance against someone and the first thing they do is tell everybody in the church with their big mouth! This is biblically in error and that person needs to be rebuked for not doing it correctly, then they can deal with the grievance. How do you do that or what is the next step after one on one doesn’t work?
2. Then the bible says take the grievance between 2 or 3 witnesses. That way the 2 or 3 witnesses can act as a mediator and help resolve it. See, if you do it this way, the entire church STILL doesn’t have to know and get involved. Some of us are just so busy running our mouths we need to tell everyone and that is not the biblical way to do it. If there was sin in the camp, church, etc., yes deal with it, but there is a biblical way to deal with it. But many of us are trying to deal with these things from a worldly way instead of a biblical way. We as believers, are held to a higher standard, which is the biblical standard, so we do it God’s way, based upon His Word, not our way and the way of the world! That way is error and we need to know better, therefore, do better!
3. If the 2 or 3 witnesses doesn’t work, then, it says, and only after the first two options don’t work, then you can bring it before the entire church. But only when the first two options have been exhausted first! Once, that happens bring them before the church to deal with the sin/grievance etc.
4. Oh, words of clarity here: you notice in this passage the context is church discipline and how to deal with people who has a grievance or if someone is walking in sin. This is how the church should deal with such matters, this is the formula. But here’s my point: the context here is church discipline, not prayer! If that were the case, all we would need to do is gather two or more Christians together and pray and we can have whatever we want; like this is some magic formula to get whatever we want in prayer. If that were the case, when we gathered and prayed like that, there would never be a case of unanswered prayer would there? But we know that doesn’t happen, so it has to be referring to something else. Many Christians use the verse that says: where 2 or 3 are gathered in My name I will be in the midst of them, as a means of saying: as long as believers are together in prayer, Jesus is in the midst of their prayer. I say, not necessarily! He could be, but maybe not. Why? Again, we need to be praying in accordance with God’s will, (1 John 5:14-15) if we are not, there is no guarantee Jesus is in the midst of anything!
5. Secondly, if we are praying from wrong motives or our own lusts and desires as opposed to God’s desires, that will not work either, regardless if we gather in prayer and touch and agree, (please look at James chapter 4). Just coming together and touching and agreeing is not necessarily the magic formula for us to get what we want, and my point is: it was NEVER the magic formula in the first place! This is a church discipline passage not a prayer passage! We have to seek God’s will and then pray that, then Jesus will be in the midst of that prayer. But back to the context:
6. So the context is church discipline here. When the 2 or 3 are gathered in my name part, Jesus is talking about when the 2 or 3 witnesses come together and touch and agree, doing it the right way, in church discipline, I will be in the midst of them, (the 2 or 3 witnesses or the church as a whole) as they deal with this church discipline matter. Jesus is basically saying, “if you do this the right way, and you need to deal with people in sin or have a grievance, if the 2 or 3 witnesses gather in my name, I will be in the midst of the decision that they make (the 2 or 3 witnesses make or the church) regarding the church discipline they are about to agree upon and enforce”! That is the context here, so technically this is not a prayer passage but a church discipline passage. We have been using this verse incorrectly for years. Now, I’m not saying when we pray with 2 or 3 gathered, Jesus is not there. I’m not saying that at all, Jesus may indeed be there, but it has to align with God’s desires, His will, and His ways, otherwise we are just gathering with no real purpose. We think we are, but we are really not because there is no guarantee that those prayers will ever be answered if it is contrary to God’s ways or His Word. So we need to stop using this verse as a magic wand for prayer; it is not! We need to know that going into it. For scriptures on prayer, go back and look at other weekly devotionals I sent out before this and it will outline many things about prayer for further clarity, (the month of March 2020, especially).
7. Now God can be in the midst of our prayers when 2 or 3 are gathered, and I’m not necessarily saying He doesn’t, but when we pray it has to agree with the will of God and His Word, otherwise we know for a fact He will not be in it. I will discuss more about this next week, until then, please chew on this. This may be brand new for some, blessings!
Closing Prayer:
Lord help me to pray what you want me to pray and not just use this scripture as a magic wand to get stuff from you. I now realize that is not the context of this verse nor was it ever, so forgive me for using it that way. Lord, help me to deal with sin in my own life and people I have conflict with in the right way. Forgive me for not doing it the biblical way and putting everybody’s business out there first, instead of going to them one on one, and if that doesn’t work to go to 2 or 3 witnesses. Forgive me for not doing it your way and help me to get it right starting today, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
Comments