8, could not deny what was done in the case of the leper, who showed himself duly, and brought his offering, according to the law, to the altar. The "Church" could just refer to a few members in the locality. The sayings on binding and loosing in Matthew 18:18 (and 16:19) have presented a puzzle that resists precise resolution. This verse is a tough pill for Protestants to swallow. Matthew 18:1-35 is a most important chapter for Christian Ethics, because it deals with those qualities which should characterize the personal relationships of the Christian. 23. Who are you to hold a little crutch or a grievance against your brother, not forgive him, because of some slight, or some mean thing that he has said about you, or some dirty thing that he has done to you. 1:11) concerning the behavior of people in the congregation in Corinth. "Who, then," they said, "is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" The Matthew 18 principle tells us the first step when someone sins against you or has offended you. It is equally clear that the seven worse spirits mean the complete energy of the devil in the maintenance of Antichrist against the true Christ: and this, strange to say, along with idols. It was a scorned Messiah who, when rejected of His own people, Israel, turned to the Gentiles by the will of God: it was One who could look upon publicans and sinners anywhere. And the last verse actually seems to give the Church the power to retain and to forgive sins. He said, "The child is so little." It is in an atmosphere of Christian prayer, Christian love and Christian fellowship that personal relationships may be righted. He talks about offending these same little ones. [1.] On being asked why, he answered. For less than $5/mo. "Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." It is true, we have only one in Mark, as in Luke; whereas in our gospel we have two. This person may receive undue shame, embarrassment, and humiliation and may fall away from the faith as result. While believers are not to fraternize with disfellowshiped brethren, they are not to treat them as enemies. Oh, what a heart is ours! ], Neither Jesus nor the apostles specified the exact form this discipline should take (e.g., excommunication, exclusion from the Lords Supper, social isolation, withheld table fellowship, etc.). When He reigns as David's Son, there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts. This would not be a legal claim on man, but the scattering of good seed, life and fruit from God, and this in the unlimited field of the world, not in the land of Israel merely. All you have to do is to make that contact of faith with Him. This is the second reference to ekklesia in Matthew and the only other occurrence of this word in the four Gospels. 15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea ( Matthew 18:6 ). The spoken word can often settle a difference which the written word would only have exacerbated. He never set limits to human forgiveness. A fish was the last being for man to make his banker of; with God all things are possible, who knew how to blend admirably in the same act divine glory, unanswerably vindicated, with the lowliest grace in man. At 18:6 He shifts and talks about interpersonal trespassesoffenses, If a first attempt at peacemaking has been unsuccessful, involve others in the community. Let this be compared with, and explained by, Leviticus 19:17, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; that is, "If thou hast conceived a displeasure at thy brother for any injury he hath done thee, do not suffer thy resentments to ripen into a secret malice (like a wound, which is most dangerous when it bleed inwardly), but give vent to them in a mild and grave admonition, let them so spend themselves, and they will expire the sooner; do not go and rail against him behind his back, but thou shalt in any ways reprove him. Men may be fools but God loves even the foolish man who has no one to blame but himself for his sin and his sorrow. The Christian is like an athlete for whom no training is too hard, if by it he may win the prize; he is like the student who will sacrifice pleasure and leisure to reach the crown. We know the answer. Salem Media Group. This often has devastating effect on children and their relational networks as they simply do not understand what is occurring. It spares him the embarrassment of having his sin made public. What special mercy and tenderness, not only in the end, but also in the way the Lord deals with Israel! To the child a state of dependence is perfectly natural. "For if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it will be done for them by my Father which is in heaven." The church should be able to influence its own members positively when they go astray. It is not a statement that some men are hopeless; it is a statement that Jesus Christ has found no man hopeless--and neither must we. Jesus then told the story of the servant forgiven a great debt who went out and dealt mercilessly with a fellow-servant who owed him a debt that was an infinitesimal fraction of what he himself had owed; and who for his mercilessness was utterly condemned. There were two; but the Spirit of God chose out, in Mark and Luke, the more remarkable of the two, and traces for us his history, a history of no small interest and importance, as we may feel when we come to Mark; but it was of equal moment for the gospel of Matthew that the two demoniacs should be mentioned here, although one of them was in himself, as I gather, a far more strikingly desperate case than the other. Jesus anticipates the congregations that His own apostles will establish after Pentecost. 3. If this article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? There are some stubborn spirits to whom the likeliest means of conviction prove ineffectual; yet such must not be given over as incurable, but let the matter be made more public, and further help called in. So in this case there was brought to Him a paralytic man, lying upon a bed, "and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." He tells them that they should not have gone over (or finished) the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come. Men little weigh what their words will sound and prove in the day of judgment. "As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. But this becomes tricky when it comes to church conflict. At the beginning of this trip Jesus revealed to His . He does not wish for prominence; he would rather be left in obscurity. It would often happen that, if our prayers were answered, the prayers of someone else would be disappointed. The evil spirits asked leave to pass into the herd of swine, which thus typify the final condition of the defiled, apostate mass of Israel; their presumptuous and impenitent unbelief reduces them to that deep degradation not merely the unclean, but the unclean filled with the power of Satan, and carried down to swift destruction. It might be well enough for a Pharisee; it might be worthy of a legal formalist, but it would never do for God; and the Lord Jesus was come here not to accommodate Himself to their thoughts, but, above all, to do God's will of holy love in an evil, wretched world. As to any one else, even the most liberal gift that ever was given of God to fallen man on earth, to the golden head of the Gentiles, exempted the deep and its untamed inhabitants. I don't think the move from exegesis to application is that straightforward in this case. They are the circumstances that preceded the discourse upon the mount, as given in Matthew 5:1-48; Matthew 6:1-34; Matthew 7:1-29. It is bound to happen. Why? And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents [about sixteen million dollars]. God is like that; God cannot be happy until the last wanderer is gathered in. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Commentary on Matthew 18:15-20 - Working Preacher They were the great congregation and church, in the midst of which Christ sung praise to his Father: and since the whole of this advice, and these excellent rules are given to them, and they are spoken of in the next verse, as having the power of binding and loosing, they may well be thought to be meant here; and that the design of Christ is, to instruct them how to behave, in case of offence to one another; that the reproof should be first private, and if it did not succeed, to be made before one or two more; and if that did not do, the whole body was to be acquainted with it; and which rules hold good, and are to be observed by all Christian men and churches, in all ages: though no doubt but allusion is made to the Jewish customs, in rebuking before the multitude, or carrying of a private case, after all other means used were ineffectual, to the sanhedrim. Life had been imparted to, the sleeping maid of Zion the blind men call on Him as the Son of David, and not in vain. Because Matthew's object is the display of the change of dispensation through, or consequent on, the rejection of Jesus by the Jews. You do not go to court/jail for insensitivities toward another believer in the community! Verse 4 seems quite adverse to the idea that great multitudes were witnesses of the cure; for why "tell no man," if so many knew it already? Would any man make of the Messiah a mere man and a mere subject of the law given by Moses? Your Father is watching over them. If he were willing to follow the Lord, it was for what he could get. Take it to the church. This is the only way to preserve peace and purity in the church. RUN DONT WALK, to the first opportunity you have to attend the Understanding the Prophetic Mind seminar. Let them recognize the power that banished the leprosy, and the grace withal that touched the leper. The Church Refugee sanity video you posted last week gave us some sanity. Tell it to the church. Hence the Lord would raise up a fresh testimony altogether, and do a new work suitable to it. Jesus took a child and said that unless they turned and became as this little child, they would not get into the Kingdom at all. However, in extreme circumstances such as adultery or other sexual sin, leaders may decide putting them up in front of the church may be the best bet to protect the flock and to maintain their safety. Observe, First, That the power of church discipline is not here lodged in the hand of a single person, but two, at least, are supposed to be concerned in it. "Then," said the Lord, "are the children free. Jesus says, "That is perfectly true; this world is full of temptations; that is inevitable in a world into which sin has entered; but that does not lessen the responsibility of the man who is the cause of a stumbling-block being placed in the way of a younger person or of a beginner in the faith.". I cannot thank you enough for your ministry through these books they are so enlightening. They forgot His glory in their own anxiety and selfishness. Most the commentaries I've read agree that "the church" refers to the local church as compared to a universal church. On this occasion Peter thought that he was being very generous. Paul warns that sin, like leaven, spreads (1 Corinthians 5:4-6). We can imagine how the other shepherds would return with their flocks to the village fold at evening time, and how they would tell that one shepherd was still out on the mountain-side seeking a wanderer.