What About Matthew 18?

Nov 20

The Use and Misuse of Jesus’ Command

 by Rev. John Mahaffy

Jesus, in Matthew 18:15–17, gives you instructions on how to handle serious conflict with a fellow believer. If your brother sins against you, go to him and show him his fault. The goal is to win your brother over. Should that fail, take two or three witnesses. If that fails, take it to the church. (In the Orthodox Presbyterian Church [OPC], in which I serve as a pastor, we have a formal judicial process outlined in the Book of Discipline to help carry that out properly.)

Not every perceived offense ought to trigger the process of Matthew 18. Many offenses can simply be forgiven and passed over in grace. Remember that Jesus did say something about removing the plank from your own eye before searching for the speck in someone else’s. But something that is serious between brothers and sisters, something that interferes with fellowship, something that really needs correcting, can and should prompt us to go to the other party. 

One of the crucial reasons for going to the other party is to preserve the unity and fellowship of believers with one another. It is difficult to over-emphasize how important that is. John Murray, deals with a similar instruction of Jesus in Matthew 5:23–24, where you are instructed that, even if you are in the act of bringing a gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, you are to go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and complete the interrupted worship of the Lord:

Discontinue your act of worship. Why? The reason is that a brother has something against the worshipper. It is the relationship to this other person that is weighted with relevance in this case…. This grievance on the part of the brother may be but the rudimentary movement of estrangement. Yet, if it is not remedied, it will fester and will develop into the antithesis of ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’[2]

Matthew 5 and Matthew 18 both promote the harmony that ought to exist in the body of Christ. The process outlined in Matthew 18 is not simply a suggestion for us to take or leave. It is a command of our Savior. We are to follow it. It is not optional. Thus the OPC’s Book of Discipline, Chapter 3, as it outlines the procedure for bringing a charge of sin, requires that if the alleged sin is known only to the person bringing the charge, he follow the process set out in Matthew 18.

At the same time, it is crucially important to understand properly what Jesus is commanding, lest we misuse Matthew 18. Jesus is talking about private sins against an individual. There is no indication that the Bible requires the process of Matthew 18 for a public sin. In Galatians 2:14ff., Paul recounts his public rebuke of Peter when the latter’s actions harmed the church in Antioch. The text gives no indication that the public rebuke was preceded by a private meeting as indicated in Matthew 18.

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