Daily Lesson for June 21, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 17:

15 ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.16But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector.

Jesus is laying down the ground rules for his community. This is what is expected in the company of the gathered he is forming. They will be upfront and truthful with each other and will deal with each other face to face. 

This means that when one thinks another has offended him or her then the first step is one-on-one, direct communication. 

That means the first step is not gossip, it is not murmuring, and it is not whispers in the corner, or conversation in the parking lot, or a post on Snapchat. The very first step is direct, face to face, human to human conversation.

Jesus goes on to give a process for handling conflict.  It starts face to face.  Next it’s two or three so as to keep things in proportion and also have witnesses. Finally, the conversation is taken to the community at-large.

And when the person is found to have indeed acted offensively according to the community at-large then Jesus says that person is to be treated as a Gentile — which sounds pretty harsh, until we remember how Jesus treated Gentiles. His point is then to say the community is to treat the offender as an outsider, one perhaps welcome to visit the gathering on safe terms, but who has no right of authority within the community. 

It needs to be said, these are ground rules and not laws. This process is not always appropriate in every situation. That is especially true in the case of abuse or abuse of power or when the offense is so otherwise grievous that exceptions are warranted. In those cases special consideration and process is necessary so as to protect individual members and also the body at-large. 

But in general, this is a good process. Dealing with things one-on-one is a necessary step. It gets us talking and listening to one another. And it also keeps us from sowing seeds of discord unnecessarily or getting a jury to pass judgment unfairly.

Community is hard. Church is hard. The fact that Jesus gave his disciples this instruction shows that he never thought it was going to be easy.

Church is not perfect. Conflict is inevitable.  These are instructions on how to deal with it in a proper, constructive, and hopefully redemptive kind of way.