Matthew 18:15-18 is often taken, erroneously, as a roadmap for how to properly discipline trouble-makers up to and including kicking someone out of a church. However, what about context? What so many forget is that the gospels were part of the genre of ancient biography, so as with other literature in the genre, these gospels do not follow a consecutive time-line like modern biography. Instead, the gospels group their stories in similar themes. Then they move from theme to theme. In Matthew 18, at the start of the chapter, the theme is the social experience of children. From vvs 1-5, we learn that we must become like little children to be great in God’s kingdom. Vvs 6-9 warns potential followers of Jesus to do no harm to children or something dreadful would happen to them. Vvs 10-14 continues the theme of protecting and honoring childhood. These little ones who wander are worth leaving the majority to bring them back. God considers them precious.
The section of Matthew 18:15-18 has a heading in my Bible “Dealing with Sin in the Church”. That is not what this is about! It is a continuation of the theme of respecting childhood. How do children handle disputes: they handle these things among themselves and then go back to playing together. If there is a serious problem, they might bring an adult in but there is no talk of someone throwing them out of society. An ornery child might be sent home, but they can return the next day. What is a tax collector and a gentile? They are people outside of polite society, but in Jesus’ world they are part of His church. Just ask Matthew the tax collector or Luke the gentile. The rest of the chapter follows the theme. Forgiveness, as among children, must be virtually forever. Forgiveness of debts should have no limit. It is Jesus that forgave us for all eternity because of the cross.
What can we learn from this? We need to move past confrontation and embrace forgiveness. Instead of viewing each other with suspicion and being so keen to defend our turf, we must be forgiving and magnanimous to those we see as potential rivals. We need to put others before ourselves in importance. When we do that in the church, the world might see something attractive and worthy of emulation. No, not just emulation but transformation. “Little children, love one another.” (1 John 3:18)
Pray: "Dear Lord, please cause us to take seriously the admonistion to come to Christ as a little child and learn to love one another as You love the church."