It Depends On Us

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

IT DEPENDS ON US

Matt 18:15-17

15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'   17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

NIV

This is serious business, and it should not be taken lightly. However, the problem is in the post-modern church we have developed hundreds of independent little churches that do not speak to each other and so if we have a brother who sins against us and we go through this process that Jesus has established, and we end up having to tell the whole church, which is simply that local church which we are members of, the offender who has refused to listen just goes to another local church and starts all over again. However, this does not relieve us from going through the process. There are also occasions in which the offended brother or sister refuses to attend to this process and go to a brother or sister and tell them of how they offended them, trying to establish a Christian bond. Instead of doing that which Jesus tells them, they merely retreat, leaving that local church to go on living with the offense, and an unwillingness to forgive the offender. Both these situations are symptoms of an unhealthy church, but what can we do? How can we solve problems between other believers? It has been said that if we are not part of the problem and not part of the solution then we should stay out of the situation. However, if we see our brothers or sisters behaving in a manner that is not befitting a believer, should we try to help them to see the truth? That could cause even more problems. What we can do is make sure that we do not offend others, if possible, and not become offended. However, if we do become offended in any way, we have the responsibility to go to our brother or sister and let them know that we felt offended and ask them to forgive us for that feeling for it is sure they did not intend to offend us, it is not their fault, but it is ours for harboring an offended spirit. Maybe they did it intentionally, but maybe they were completely unaware of our taking offense to something they said or did. However, there is also the fact that if we get offended, it might be that we are thinking more highly of ourselves than we should. But it is also possible that even if we are a humble spirit, we could feel as though a brother or sister has stepped on our toes, so to speak. Jesus makes it clear enough that we should resolve any conflict, anything that would cause division, dissension, or any animosity in the body of Christ. As far as it depends on us, we should live in peace with everyone.