The righteous recognize that there’s a proper order of things, initiated by God himself. They understand that they, and everyone else, were created according to the image and likeness of God ― and they understand this metaphorically, not that they look like God, but were designed to be like him in some other ways. They understand that God has many qualities, and is honest, rational, responsible, kind, stern, resolute, proactive, just, and serving, to name a few. They understand that he wants them to be like this, too, even though they cannot possibly equal him in every way, since they lack both his powers and his role as God and Creator.
The righteous understand that they were put into this world only for a time, and that after this comes the opportunity to live with God in God’s own home. For a time, they are here in this beautiful-ugly world, and living in bodies quite like the animals, yet charged with taking in the Spirit of God ― which idea itself is a challenge, for many are uncertain whether to take it literally or figuratively. That is, are they to be literally indwelt by God’s own Spirit, as in some sort of holy “possession” scenario? Or was it intended metaphorically, as in, “No player has adopted the team spirit like Suzy has!”? Most will side on the literal interpretation, but to be fair, there is much in scripture that seems to go along with the metaphorical option ― things about learning and growing and understanding and keeping in step with the spirit (vs. living according to the flesh). That is to say, even if the Spirit does literally possess and indwell the Christian, the Christian still seems to have a responsibility for voluntarily adopting “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. And since we know that Christians can indeed do poorly in their religion, it’s impossible to escape the Christian’s own choice in the matter ― whether to stay close to God and his principles or not. We could argue whether it’s 100% voluntary or not, but there’s no arguing that it’s 0% voluntary. Obviously, the Christian has a say in how well he does.
But here we are in this largely-unrighteous world, where even our most-famous religious organizations don’t seem to be striving to adopt the whole of God’s righteous ways, but maybe something closer to the half of it ― as if half of Jesus would do. They’ll adopt this part, but not that. They’ll learn the one practice, but not the other. And where it really seems to break down is this mastering of self, this total responsibility for oneself, and for learning to live according to the teachings and examples of Jesus, as if this were important to God.
The righteous are not born that way, but have to learn it. Indeed, how does one live in an animal body with its drives for comfort, ease, food, sex, and material goods, without losing track of the spiritual, other-worldly things that God and Jesus kept talking about in the scriptures? It is a challenge. And it seems to be a challenge that God designed for each of us to face. That seems to be the point of us being here. (I think that this Earth serves as a proving grounds of a sort, where we may both decide and demonstrate over our lives what kind of people we want to be, and who we deem to be our God.)
But not all will take the same view of this, and even in the churches. Some many pay lip service to it, but I have yet to see even one church that makes itself totally responsible for adopting all of Jesus’ teachings. For example, a church might be serious about feeding the poor, and yet quite irresponsible about taking care of people spiritually, as Jesus commanded here:
Matthew 18:15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you; if he listens to you, you have won him over. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
This command is anathema to the Laissez-Faire philosophy of this world, that opines that it’s best to leave others to their own business, and not to get involved in it. Yet here Jesus commands the Christians to get involved, as if all on one team, and all aimed at the same goal of living according to that image and likeness of God. They were even to correct each other, and to shun those who would not repent and repair themselves to the holy standards of Jesus. And this idea is exceedingly radical to this world, except, perhaps in sports (to give one example), where some learn the value of having corrective input from their peers. Even so, some never learn this, and will take correction only from the coach, and begrudgingly so at that! Those players have not adopted the “team spirit” in every way, even if they love being on the team.
And so with the Christians who believe that their sins are a matter between them and God only, and are not to be the subject of open conversation with other Christians. That view is diametrically opposed to Jesus’ design for his believers, and yet that seems to be the going view today.
- “Get off me!”
- “That’s between me and God.”
- “Don’t judge me!”
- “God’s still working on me.”
- “Nobody’s perfect!”
- “I’m sure you have some sins of your own to work on.”
Replies like these, whether spoken aloud, or merely brooded over silently, are contrary to the spirit of the confession, “Jesus is Lord.” They run contrary to the spirit of being the student under the tutelage of the Divine Master. Even so, this spirit is so very common in so very many churches. It’s as if they’re not even trying to have a proper attitude.
But what about the one who is trying? That Christian is going to have a different life experience from the rest, for he or she understands that there’s much to be learned, many habits to be changed, and much to be worked on. His or her life is about seeing to the Master’s business, and “putting on the new self” ― not just partially, but completely. They recognize that God is not a God of chaos, but of order. They recognize that there is beauty in it, and righteousness, and honor. But they also recognize completely that this world is not a world of order, but of chaos ― not a world of diligence and honor, but of negligence and dishonor. For the ungodly, it’s not a world of trying to become heavenly while living in an earthly body, but one of trying to get by while enjoying oneself as much as one may dare. It’s a world of doing what one must, but not of volunteering oneself wholly to loving God:
Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
The attitude ― the disposition ― the spirit of this command ― is not one that many are willing to adopt. And even so, Jesus called it the first and greatest command of all! It is the prime directive of Christianity, even if it is not the prime directive of all those who like to consider themselves Christians. And the second greatest command, he said, was this:
Mark 12:31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.
But remember, millions will recite these commands, yet almost none of them routinely and diligently practice the second one the way that Jesus taught here:
Matthew 18:15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you; if he listens to you, you have won him over. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
They will not take care of their brother in this way, even though Jesus explicitly spelled it out for them. So, they have not adopted the spirit of Jesus’ teachings when it comes to loving their brothers. Remember, he also famously stated this “Golden Rule”:
Luke 6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Now there’s some irony here. We can certainly look at this command this way: If you want to be treated fairly, then treat others fairly. Or, to give another example: If you don’t want to be lied to, then don’t lie to others.
Indeed, this is how the Golden Rule is commonly understood. And there’s nothing wrong at all with that interpretation. But let’s look more closely by way of this question: What would the phony follower of Jesus want when it comes to having other people confront his sin and challenge him to repent? Wouldn’t he want them to “Get off me!” and “Mind your own business!”?
Indeed, he would, because that’s what the whole world tends to be like before it has “taken off” the attitude of the animalistic self and “put on” that of the heavenly self. (That is, before a person has figured out that Jesus knows what he’s talking about, and decides to learn Jesus’ way of life, and to adopt that same spirit of Jesus’ way of seeing things.) But Jesus made it his own business to come down here and confront the world about sin, did he not? And in the command we have been discussing, we see that he intended for the Christian to do some of this, too. They were commanded to confront sin within the church, and not to stay silent about it ― and even to discontinue their fellowship with those who would not keep repenting of their sins whenever they occurred.
So, what about the irony?
Well, Jesus had said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” And the phony Christian, who’s not interested in the whole Jesus, does not want other Christians to help him or her adopt the whole of Jesus’ ways. Instead, he wants them to “get off me!” So, the irony is this: This is how he treats the other Christians. He doesn’t confront them about their sins, either ― not most of the time. If he’s particularly offended, he might get onto somebody about something, but he’s not going to take this general view about all sins, but only about offenses committed against him personally. So it’s a very selfish view, and not a godly one. He’s not concerned about the other Christian sinning against God’s will; he just concerned about how this or that has affect him personally. Thus, when he does not confront the others about their sins, he is treating them exactly as he wants to be treated!
In our military there’s a saying, “Never leave a fallen warrior behind.” It’s a code of honor between soldiers. They will risk their lives to retrieve not only the wounded, but even the dead. It’s what you do. And it’s been trained into them. And if you even think about violating this code, the diligent ones among them will get in your face about it.
Our military is not a religious organization, yet it holds to this self-sacrificing and others-honoring code. So this is very instructive, for even the people of a worldly organization can learn to adopt such a code! And even the non-Christians among them. It’s not like it’s impossible for them to do it. They know full well that they themselves don’t want to be abandoned when wounded or dead, and they are willing to pay the price to see to it that their peers aren’t abandoned, either. That is straight-up the Golden Rule in action.
But in the churches, do they have each other’s backs as Jesus commanded here?:
Matthew 18:15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you; if he listens to you, you have won him over. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Are they doing this diligently, faithfully, and consistently? Nope! And it’s because they don’t want it done to them, either.
And I submit that they have missed the whole point of signing on as a Christian in the first place. Somehow they’ve missed the old-self/new-self paradigm. Somehow they’ve missed the point about living according to Heaven, rather than according to the Earth. Somehow they’ve missed the part about sacrificing oneself for the good of others ― or at least they have when it comes to this one explicit command, even if they’ll help set up tables for the potluck dinner.
And how could they have missed this? Well, surely, there’s some bad teaching going on out there. But there’s also this: People tend not to see what they do not want to see. And somebody who does not really want to follow these commands might well find a way to miss them. And one common way to attempt this missing is to go do something else you’d rather do for the cause. So setting up tables for the potluck can sound like a fine way to be serving others ― even while refusing to obey Jesus here:
Matthew 18:15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you; if he listens to you, you have won him over. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
They pick and choose, as if it were a common buffet line, rather than an array of all-necessary foods chosen by the one who created their bodies and knows what they need to eat. So they ignore the needs that the other Christians have in being helped to repent of their sins, and are happy to neglect them wholly in this regard, even if they might give them a ride when their car breaks down.
Meanwhile, I think all this bothers Jesus’ considerably. He sees what’s going on. He gets it. He is not fooled by it: “Oh, I don’t know why they’re disobeying Matthew 18, but at least they’re helping out at the potluck, so everything’s going to be OK!”
He does not see it that way. Rather, he’s the sort to display a spirit like this:
Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
He thinks there’s something fundamentally flawed in the minds of people who give lip service, but who won’t obey. And he’s famously on-record with this and other such statements, expressing his disgust with the lip servants. Yet we miss it so easily. And how can this be?
Well, I think for an answer to this, we can turn to the Three Stooges, who played it out brilliantly in this skit with Curly and Larry:
Curly: I CAN’T SEE!!! I CAN’T SEE!!!
Larry: WHAT’S THE MATTER???
Curly: I’ve got my eyes shut!
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Jesus is instructing here:
Matthew 18:15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you; if he listens to you, you have won him over. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
What it takes is a person with his eyes open. It takes a person willing to look and listen, and to adopt the spirit of the kind of fellowship Jesus had in mind. It takes willing volunteers ― willing servants who don’t mind getting their hands dirty in dealing with the shortcomings of others.
John 13:12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Did you catch that? No servant is greater than his master. That is to suggest that if Jesus was the sort to wash feet, than his servant should also be the sort to wash feet. And for the record, this whole demonstration was a metaphor, and was not to be understood literally, as if Jesus were calling for regular foot-washing ceremonies in the literal sense. This was not the only such thing he taught them. Just days before, they were still exhibiting some considerable worldliness and pride inasmuch as several of them were vying to be the greatest among them. But look at what he told them:
Mark 9:33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
Not just the servant of some ― not just the servant of one’s favorites ― but the servant of “all”. If you wanted to be a great disciple of Jesus, you served all the other disciples. That was to be your mindset. He taught them elsewhere:
Luke 17:10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’
How is it, then, that so many in today’s fellowships have been unconverted to this way of thinking ― to this spirit of service? How have so many refused to serve by confronting the sins of the others? How have they not adopted this spirit about them?
Indeed! If they do not think that confronting the sins of others is a righteous thing to do, why on Earth would they want to be followers of Jesus in the first place?
Yet there it is right in the Bible, and they have to close their eyes to it to miss it.
- “Couldn’t I just set up the potluck tables instead?”
- “Couldn’t I just teach Sunday School instead?”
- “Couldn’t I just invite people to church instead?”
- “Hows about I help out in the nursery?”
- “I think I’ll just focus on praying for people, rather than confronting them. That’ll be my ministry!”
There are many dodges applied to this command to confront the sins of others. Some adopt a late manuscript that inserts the words “… against you” thus:
Matthew 18:15 If a brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you…”
This makes it easy to pretend that Jesus was only talking about settling conflict here. But this raises the question: “Oh, well, what is to be done for the brother who sins against God, and not against man ― is he not to be corrected?”
They also like to pretend (using the “against you” insertion) that it’s all a personal matter, and may be handled properly at one’s own discretion. One book I read suggested something like this: “If it’s a serious offense that can’t be overlooked in love, you need to confront the person.” So they want to spin it in such a way as to suggest that if you can “overlook it in love” then you are exempt from confronting the sin. Yet Jesus said:
Matthew 18:15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you…
He doesn’t say “…unless you can overlook it in love”! And it’s not like it takes a genius to figure this out. All it takes is an honest, rational, and responsible person who’s actually “reading for comprehension”, as they say.
So again, people see what they want to see. And they shut their eyes to what they don’t want to see. And if you’re like I used to be, you’ve got your eyes shut to this, at least partially. You may obey Jesus somewhat on this, but you’ve probably never obeyed him completely about it. I’ve confronted plenty of churchmates about their sins, and had plenty of those conversations go badly. But rarely did I take someone else along to establish their unruly response. And never ― not one single time ― did I take it to the congregation. In fact, having spent decades in churches of various flavors, I never once saw such an assembly where such a matter was heard and the congregants had a chance to speak to the unrepentant one. Never!
Never!
Not once.
And how can that be?
I’ve seen preachers kick people out without having the assembly hear the matter, and without letting them have their say. (I’ve also seen people unjustly kicked out, and without such a hearing ― and have suffered that myself more than once.) But never have I seen this done as Jesus commanded.
But really, is this so hard to read and to understand?:
Matthew 18:15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you; if he listens to you, you have won him over. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
No, not really. It’s just that most of the church world does not want to understand it, nor to put it into practice.
And what hypocrisy this is! Why not rather disavow Jesus than to pretend to be his follower while refusing to obey this explicit command? Why try to pretend oneself into an orderly kingdom while being yet unwilling to let go of the disorder of this world? Can you really live with one foot in the kingdom and the other out?
Yet this is the way of the churches. And while I do know of some churches that definitely practice some of this passage more than do the other churches, I know of exactly zero congregations who practice the whole of it faithfully ― not even one tenth of the time!
Of course, people who do these things often twist the rest of the scriptures to make it sound OK. They’ll pretend to be practicing “grace” and “forgiveness” and “patience” and such, rather than to confess that they are flat-out disobeying Jesus by not serving the one in sin, and “washing his feet” in this way. They’ll pretend that are indeed being godly, even if it looks like they think they know better than Jesus, their supposed Master. Jesus said to confront the sin, but they say it’s OK not to confront it.
And let the excuses start flowing.
But the righteous know how to repent of a sin when it comes to their attention. They will set it straight. And if they cannot find a righteous fellowship, they will “Come out from them and be separate”.
There are constant reminders in the scriptures about not loving the world or anything in it, and not compromising oneself to abide by worldly standards.
2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”
17 Therefore,
“Come out from them
and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you.”
18 And,
“I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
Notice the logical implication here, that they would not be his sons and daughters if they would not “come out from them and be separate”. And still they refuse. They still try to have churches that put up with “Belial” (vs 15) and with “idols” of various sorts (vs 16) and with “unclean things” (vs 17). They refuse to separate themselves from those behaviors, and to correct those who stumble into them. But “what fellowship can light have with darkness?” None. That’s what. And this means that all those Christians refusing to “come out” and refusing to confront the sin are not in the light, but in the darkness, for the two cannot have fellowship together ― not really. Even so, those who don’t really believe in the spirit of Jesus’ teachings, and who won’t adopt that spirit themselves, continue to call themselves “believers”, even while yoking themselves together with others who habitually disobey Jesus.
Even so, millions continue to pretend, in Jesus’ name, that they are the children of Light, even as they let the darkness of sin flourish among them, and are themselves adding to it by leaving it unconfronted.
This is very disorderly behavior, and unbecoming anyone claiming to be one of God’s followers.
