Week 4:
Matthew 18:15-20
15 “If your brother or sister sins, 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.’ 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.”
Reflection
Let’s pray for each other
Please will you tell me when you see me sin!
Just before this passage, Jesus has warned that things that cause us to stumble - to sin - “must come” (Matthew 18:7). He’s also said that if the thing that causes us to sin is our hand or foot, we would be better off cutting these off - better “to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire”! (v8)
Our sin matters.
Our sin matters to Jesus. So if he sees us wander off, he’ll give up everything and everyone else and come to rescue us because “your Father in heaven is not willing that any one of these little ones should perish” (verses 12-14). God has done and will do everything we need to rescue us. And he intends to use us to help in the rescue operation of others.
We have a role to play. It’s not love to ignore the person in sin. So if it’s me who’s in sin, please love me and rescue me - come and tell me, speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). You may be God’s agent of my rescue. We want to be the people who help each other throw off everything that causes us to stumble (Hebrews 12:1).
And as well as coming to me, will you go to God? As well as telling me when you see me sin, will you also pray for me? Where two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ name, doing his bidding, praying in his name, so he joins us.
For as we pray for and lovingly challenge each other, we set the standards for what is good and healthy in the church (and the opposite - as we ignore sin we set the bar for what is considered bad and harmful, in the church). And as we get that right on earth as it is in heaven, so Jesus is with us even as we pray in twos and threes, doing what we ask for.
This week, check yourself: What is causing you to stumble? Then be quick to cut it out of your life.
When you have got the plank out of your own eye, pray about people you love who are stumbling. What does Jesus want you to say to them? How does he want you to say it? Check yourself: how much do you love them? Is this love, or is this irritation? Check with others you love and trust. When you have the Spirit’s green light, go and speak with them, and watch yourself, that you do not also stumble (Galatians 6:1).