Commentary Text: Matthew 18:15-20 Context of the book / letter / Gospel: This gospel was written to the Jewish people to help them ​ identify Jesus Christ as the Promised Messiah (Wiersbe, 11). Main Idea of The Text: Jesus gives the purpose and proper guidelines for church discipline. ​ Exegetical Outline of The Text (Wiersbe, 65-66). I. Keep the Matter Private -- v. 15. II. Ask for Help From Others -- v. 16. III. Ask the Church for Help -- v. 17. IV. Keep the Local Church Spiritual -- vv. 18-20. Verse by verse commentary: 15 “If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If ​ ​ ​ he listens to you, you have won your brother. Verse 15 is actually missing the phrase “against you” is actually not found in the oldest Greek manuscripts which are the text for modern translations. Therefore, the process of church discipline becomes a general practice for the body of Christ, not specifically the responsibility of the person who feels wronged by another (HCSB Study Bible, 1648.) ​ ​ However, the principles of Matthew 18 can certainly be applied if you have been specifically wronged, as this is addressed earlier in Matthew 5:23. Grudem explains the passage as follows: One on the one hand, Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18:15-20 tells us that if a situation involving personal sin against someone else cannot be resolved in a private or small group meeting, then the matter must be brought to the church… In this case the matter has progressed from a private and informal situation to a public and much more formal process of discipline by the whole church. On the other hand, there does not seem to be any explicit limitation specified for the kinds of sin that should be subject to church discipline. The examples of sins subject to 1 church discipline in the New Testament are extremely diverse…. Nonetheless, a definite principle appears to be at work: all sins that were explicitly disciplined in the New Testament were publicly known or outwardly evident sins, and many of them had continued over a period of time. The fact that the sins were publicly known meant that reproach was being brought on the church. Christ was being dishonored, and there was a real possibility that others would be encouraged to follow the wrongful patterns of life that were being tolerated. There is always the need, however, for mature judgment in the exercise of church discipline, because there is a lack of complete sanctification in our lives. Furthermore, a word of admonition may in fact do more harm than good. We should also remember that where there are issues of conduct on which Christians legitimately disagree, Paul encourages a wide range of tolerance (Rom. 14:1-23) (897). Grudem gives the guidelines for the process of church discipline, using the text as his source for the first two guidelines: (1) knowledge of the sin should be kept to the smallest group ​ possible; (2) disciplinary measures should increase in strength until there is a solution (897-8). ​ ​ ​ Verse 15 outlines the first point: (1) Knowledge of the sin should be kept to the smallest group possible: This seems to be ​ the purpose in Matthew 18:15-17 behind the gradual progression from a private meeting, to a meeting with two or three witnesses, to telling the entire church. The fewer people who know about some sin, the better, because repentance is easier, the reputation of the church, and the reputation of Christ (However, he goes on to admit there is a different way of approaching this topic, if someone is in church leadership) (897, 899). Wiersbe adds his thoughts on v. 15: What should we do when another Christian has sinned against us or caused us to stumble? Our Lord gave several instructions: Keep the matter private. Approach the person who sinned and speak with him alone. It ​ is possible he does not even realize what he has done. Or, even if he did it deliberately, your own attitude of submission and love will help him to repent and apologize. Above all else, go to him with the idea of winning your brother, not winning an argument. It is possible to win the argument and lose your brother. We must have a spirit of meekness when we seek to restore a brother or sister (Gal. 6:1). We must not go about condemning the offender, or spreading gossip. We must lovingly 2 seek to help him in the same way we would want him to help us if the situation were reversed. The word restore in Galatians 6:1 is a Greek medical word that means ‘to set a ​ ​ broken bone.’ Think of the patience and tenderness that requires! Pastor Greg Allen reminds us that confrontation of sin should be the business of the believer. Christ makes it very clear in v. 15 that even if we think we should “mind our own business,” that our business should be to confront a sinner and help them to repent and live righteously. He explains v. 15: The first step that the Lord gives us with respect to our sinning fellow believer is to "go and tell him his fault between you and him alone" (v. 15). Notice that Jesus is telling us that we are go to them privately. No one else is to be involved. It is to be a conversation between ourselves and that sinning brother. Jesus tells us that we are to "tell" that sinning brother—or as the New American Standard translation has it, "show" that brother—"his fault". This assumes the best about our sinning brother; because on the one hand, our sinning brother may not even be aware that his fault is a sin at all. And what's more, it may be that we ourselves are seeing something incorrectly—thinking our brother or sister is guilty of sin when, in fact, we have not correctly interpreted the situation. A policy I have adopted is that I should first come to my brother or sister and say something like this: "Listen; I've noticed something in your life that concerns me. But I want to make sure that I'm seeing things correctly. Is what I see correct?" This gives them the chance to correct me if I'm in error. It may be that they can tell me, "Oh no. That's not what's happening at all." And if that's the case, I can thank them and move on. If, on the other hand, they say, "Yeah. You see it correctly. Is that a problem?", then you can open up the Scriptures and "show" them their fault. I believe this should be done with great love and care. It should be done in the same manner in which you would want someone to approach you if you were involved in sin. And it may even be necessary to approach this brother or sister more than just one time; because we all need a little time to let things sink in. Now; before I depart from this first step in the process, let me just point out one more thing. People in church sometimes think to themselves, "This isn't something for me to ​ ​ do. This is something best left to 'the professionals'. I'll wait for the pastor to do it." And yet, do you see anywhere in this passage where Jesus says anything to pastors? This isn't 3 a command for "pastors only". This is a command from the Lord for every believer in His ​ ​ church to "Go"(http://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2007/102107.htm). ​ ​ 16 But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so ​ that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. With vv. 16-17 as his proof text, Grudem gives the next guideline for church discipline: Disciplinary measures should increase in strength until there is a solution: Once ​ again in Matthew 18 Jesus teaches us that we cannot stop simply with a private conversation if that has not brought satisfactory results. He requires that the wronged person first go alone, and then take one or two others (Matt. 18:15-16). Moreover, if a Christian thinks he or she has wronged someone else (or even if that other person thinks ​ that he or she has been wronged, it is always our responsibility to take the initiative and ​ ​ go to the other person. Jesus does not allow us to wait for the other person to come to us. After a private meeting and a small group meeting, Jesus does not specify that the elders or officers of the church are next to be consulted as a group, but certainly this intermediate step seems to be appropriate, because Jesus may simply be summarizing the process without necessarily mentioning every possible step in it. In fact, there are several examples of small group admonition in the New Testament which are carried out by elders and other church officers (cf. 2 Tim. 4:2; Titus 1:13; 2:15). Moreover, the principle of keeping the knowledge of sin to the smallest group possible would certainly encourage this intermediate step as well. Wiersbe comments as follows on the text: Ask for help from others. If the offender refuses to make things right, then we may feel ​ free to share the burden with one or two dependable believers. We should share the facts as we see them and ask the brethren for their prayerful counsel. After all, it may be that we are wrong.