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Scripture: Matthew 18:15-20
15 "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Meditation: What's the best way to repair a damaged
relationship? Jesus offers his disciples spiritual freedom and
power for restoring broken or injured relationships.
Don't brood over an offense - speak directly and privately
What can we learn from Jesus' instructions about how to mend a
damaged relationship (Matthew 18:15-20)? If you feel you have been
wronged by someone, Jesus says the first step is to speak directly
but privately to the individual who has done the harm. One of the
worst things we can do is brood over our grievance. This can
poison our mind and heart and make it more difficult to go
directly to the person who caused the damage.
Pray for the offender - for healing and
reconciliation
Lastly, if even the Christian community fails to bring about
reconciliation, what must we do? Jesus seems to say that we have
the right to abandon stubborn and obdurate offenders and treat
them like social outcasts. The tax-collectors and Gentiles were
regarded as "unclean" by the religious-minded Jews and they
resorted to shunning them. However we know from the Gospel
accounts that Jesus often had fellowship with tax-collectors (as
well as other public sinners), ate with them, and even praised
them at times! Jesus refuses no one who is open to receive pardon,
healing, and restoration.
Set no obstacle in seeking to heal your brother's wound
When you are offended, are you willing to put aside your own
grievance and injury in order to help your brother's wound? The
Lord Jesus wants to set us free from resentment, ill-will, and an
unwillingness to forgive. The love of Christ both purifies and
sets us free to do good to all - even those who cause us grief.
The call to accountability for what we have done and have failed
to do is inevitable and we can't escape it, both in this life and
at the day of judgment when the Lord Jesus will return. But while
we have the opportunity today, we must not give up on praying for
those who cause us offense. With God's help we must seek to make
every effort to win them with the grace and power of God's healing
love and wisdom. Do you tolerate broken relationships or do you
seek to repair them as God gives you the opportunity to mend and
restore what is broken?
"Lord Jesus, make me an instrument of your healing love and peace. Give me wisdom and courage to bring your healing love and saving truth to those in need of healing and restoration."
Psalm 95:1-2,6-9
1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us
make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a
joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the
sheep of his hand. O that today you would hearken to his
voice!
8 Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah
in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though
they had seen my work.
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: If someone
has done you injury, by Augustine of Hippo (354-430
AD)
"If someone has done you injury and you have suffered, what should
be done? You have heard the answer already in today's scripture:
'If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault,
between you and him alone.' If you fail to do so, you are worse
than he is. He has done someone harm, and by doing harm he has
stricken himself with a grievous wound. Will you then completely
disregard your brother's wound? Will you simply watch him stumble
and fall down? Will you disregard his predicament? If so, you are
worse in your silence than he in his abuse. Therefore, when any
one sins against us, let us take great care, but not merely for
ourselves. For it is a glorious thing to forget injuries. Just set
aside your own injury, but do not neglect your brother's wound.
Therefore 'go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone,'
intent upon his amendment but sparing his sense of shame. For it
might happen that through defensiveness he will begin to justify
his sin, and so you will have inadvertently nudged him still
closer toward the very behavior you desire to amend. Therefore
'tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to
you, you have gained your brother,' because he might have been
lost, had you not spoken with him. " (excerpt from Sermon
82.7)
Scripture quotations from Common Bible:
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright
1973, and Ignatius Edition of the Revised Standard
Version of the Bible, copyright 2006, by the
Division of Christian Education of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the United
States of America. Used by permission. All rights
reserved. Citation references for quotes from
the writings of the early church fathers can be
found here.
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