“If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.
Parallel Translations
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“If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.
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Moreover yf thy brother treaspace agenst the. Go and tell him his faute betwene him and the alone. Yf he heare the thou hast wone thy brother:
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Moreouer, if thy brother trespasse against thee, goe and tell him his fault betweene thee and him alone: if he heare thee, thou hast wonne thy brother.
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Matthew 18:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 19:17 “ ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.
- Galatians 6:1 Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.
- Luke 17:3-4 Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
- Colossians 3:13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
- 2 Thessalonians 3:15 Don’t count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
- James 5:19-20 Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
- Proverbs 25:9-10 Debate your case with your neighbor, and don’t betray the confidence of another, lest one who hears it put you to shame, and your bad reputation never depart.
- Romans 12:21 Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
- Psalms 141:5 Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness; let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head; don’t let my head refuse it; Yet my prayer is always against evil deeds.
- Matthew 18:35 So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:12 Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 6:6-8 But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.
- Leviticus 6:2-7 “If anyone sins, and commits a trespass against Yahweh, and deals falsely with his neighbor in a matter of deposit, or of bargain, or of robbery, or has oppressed his neighbor, or has found that which was lost, and lied about it, and swearing to a lie—in any of these things that a man sins in his actions— then it shall be, if he has sinned, and is guilty, he shall restore that which he took by robbery, or the thing which he has gotten by oppression, or the deposit which was committed to him, or the lost thing which he found, or any thing about which he has sworn falsely: he shall restore it in full, and shall add a fifth part more to it. He shall return it to him to whom it belongs in the day of his being found guilty. He shall bring his trespass offering to Yahweh: a ram without defect from the flock, according to your estimation, for a trespass offering, to the priest. The priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh, and he will be forgiven concerning whatever he does to become guilty.”
- 1 Peter 3:1 In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word,
- Proverbs 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He who is wise wins souls.
- 1 Corinthians 9:19-21 For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law.
- 2 Corinthians 7:12 So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:6 that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (26 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain We must labor for concord, not to revenge injuries.
We must labor for concord, not to revenge injuries.
If his offence be such, that thou only knowest thy brother’s offence.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee,…
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.
Ver. 15. If thy brother shall trespass] As trespass he will, "for it must needs be that offences come," Mat 18:7, such is human frailty. Two flints may as soon smite together, and not fire come out, as two or more men converse together and not trespasses in one kind or other fall out. A heathen could say, Non amo quenquam nisl offendam: for so, I shall know whether he love me or no, by his forbearing of me. And Augustine saith, Qui desinit sustinere, desinit amare, He that ceaseth to bear with me, ceaseth to love me. Here therefore our Saviour, after he had deterred his from doing wrong, instructeth them how to suffer wrong. If it be not considerable, it must be dissembled. As if it be,
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Go and tell him] υπαγε, Get thee gone to him presently, lest else the sore rankle, and thou hate him in thy heart, Lev 19:17: say not, he should come to me, &c., but get thee to him with speed. Lech lecha, as God said to Abraham, up and be packing; stand not to strain courtesy with him when both have haste; but seek peace and ensue it; it is best to be first in a good matter. Remember, said Aristippus to Aeschines (with whom he was fallen out), that though I were the elder man, yet I first sought to thee. Verily, said Aeschines, thou art not only an elder, but a better man than I; for I was first in the quarrel; but thou art first in seeking reconciliation. Nae tu profecto vir me longe melior es, &c. Plutarch.
Tell him his fault] God’s little ones are so to be loved, as not to be let alone in their trespasses; but freely and friendly admonished, that they may see their sin and amend their way, as Denkius did when admonished by Oecolampadius. {a} He being a learned man held this heresy, that no man or devil should be damned eternally, but all saved at last, &c. But being also a humble man, he repented; being converted by Oecolampadius, in whose presence he died at Basil of the plague, but piously, A.D. 1528.
Thou hast gained thy brother] To God and thyself, and if to God, to thyself surely for ever, as Philemon (how much more Onesimus!) to Paul, to whom they therefore owed themselves also. Sir Anthony Kingston thus spake to Mr Hooper a little before his martyrdom: I thank God that ever I knew you, for God did appoint you to call me, being a lost child. For by your good admonitions and wholesome reproofs, whereas I was before both an adulterer and fornicator, God hath brought me to forsake and detest the same.
{a} Vir fuit doctus, demissi animi, Hebraicae linguae peritus, &c. Resipuit tandem conversus ab Oecolamp. Scultet. Annal.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Our Saviour very appositely addeth this to his former…
Our Saviour very appositely addeth this to his former discourse concerning avoiding offences, that none might think that by the former doctrine he had made void the law, Lev 19:17, which commanded all in any wise to rebuke their neighbour, and not to suffer sin upon him, pretending that it was their duty in some cases to offend any person by that law. He here telleth them that he would not be so understood, as if they might not tell offenders of their sins for fear of offending them, this had been to have withheld charity from their souls under a pretence of charity. Only in these reproofs we must keep an order, which order he here prescribes.
1. Doing it privately, between them and him alone.
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2. If that had not its effect, then taking two or three with them.
3. If that also proved ineffectual, then telling it to the church.
4. If that he would not hear the church, then, let him be unto thee (saith Christ) as an heathen and a publican.
If thy brother shall trespass against thee. By brother here he meaneth any Christian; for what hath the church to do to judge those that are without? 1Co 5:12.
Trespass against thee. Some interpret this of offences done so privately, that none else knoweth them but one single person; but it is objected, that then there needed no going to him, much less were there need of any witnesses, for they could prove nothing. Others therefore understand the precept of private injuries, which are in man’s power to forgive, Luk 17:3. Others think such injuries are primarily intended, but yet the precept is not to be restrained to them, but to be understood of all offences, whether against God, ourselves, or our neighbours; and that our Saviour useth this term against thee only to distinguish the offences he is here speaking of from public scandals; for, 1Ti 5:20, it appeareth to be the will of God, that public and open sinners should be rebuked before all, that others may fear. The rule therefore seemeth to be given concerning private miscarriages; not such only as are done in the sight or hearing of a single person, but such as are not the matter of public fame, nor openly committed before a multitude, but being committed more secretly, are come only to the knowledge of some particular person or persons. In such cases it is the will of God, not that we should blazon and publish them, but, being certain that any Christian hath so offended, it is our duty first to go to him, and tell him of it; that is, not only tell him what thou knowest, or hast heard in matter of fact, that he hath spoken or done, but show him also the sinfulness of it.
If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother; that is, if he confesseth the sin, and be brought to a sight of it, a sorrow for it, and a resolution against it for the time to come, thou hast gained the soul of thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, if he either denieth the matter of fact, that he did such a thing, or (admitting that) standeth to justify the fact, as what he might do, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established: one or two more, either such as may be of more authority with him, whose words may probably be of more weight than thine with him, or who may witness the matter of fact if it be denied, or at least witness by charitable admonition of him, and his contumacy, if he refuseth to hearken to thee, and to repent and reform. What was the law of God in civil and judicial causes, Deu 19:15,
God would have observed in ecclesiastical causes: One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. And so the words in Matthew should be translated, or at least understood; every word, that is, every matter, be confirmed.
And if he shall neglect to hear them; either refuse to speak with them, or to suffer them to speak with him; or, hearing them with his ears, if he persists to deny the fact, or to justify the fact, as if it were no sin, or go on still in the same course; (all these things are to be understood by the term of not hearing); if he shall not hear them, tell it to the church. That the term church is a noun of multitude is evident, and therefore cannot be understood of any particular person. Some would by the church here understand the political magistrate; but as this sense is embraced by very few, so it is very improbable that our Saviour should send Christians in that age to the civil magistrates, when they were all great haters and persecutors of the Christian religion, especially in cases that were not punishable by the judges; for no deliberate person will say, that the offences mentioned in this text were all of that nature as a civil judicature might take notice of them. Others say, that by the church is here meant the Jewish court called the Sanhedrim, which had a mixed cognizance, both of civil and ecclesiastical causes. There are three prejudices against this:
1. That the Jewish court was never in Scripture called ’ Ekklhsia.
2. That it is not probable that our Saviour would direct Christians to go to the Jewish courts in such cases.
3. That the Sanhedrim was too great a court to be troubled with all scandals, though they did take cognizance of some things in religion, which were of a grand concern; such as blasphemy, idolatry, false prophets, &c.
Others therefore understand it of the Christian church. Against this opinion there is this great prejudice, that there was no such thing in being at that time; but I take this to be a lighter objection than those against the two other opinions:
a) Because we need not understand our Saviour speaking with relation to the present time, but the time to come, and giving laws which should take place and abide from the gathering of the Christian church to the end of the world.
b) Nor is it necessary that we should take the term church here in the strict sense, in which it is most generally used in the Scriptures of the New Testament for the general notion of the word is only a company of people called together; and in this sense, Tell the church, is no more than, Tell the multitude, make his crime more public: now what that multitude was which our Saviour meant, would easily be understood when the churches came to be formed.
But the next verse will make it more plain; Mat 18:18, Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, &c. By the church then must be meant those who had power to bind and loose. Now though at this time there was no particular church formed, yet there were some who had a power to bind and loose. Christ had given such a power to his apostles. These were the present church, and at this time in being. They were afterwards to constitute particular churches, to whom, (when constituted), in force of this precept, such offences were to be told. There are yet further disputes, whether this offence and contumacy be to be told only to the rulers, or to the multitude. I say, to the whole church, but first to the rulers, then by them to the multitude, not to judge of it, but for their consent in casting a person out of the communion of the church. Thus the incestuous person was first accused to Paul, then cast out by the consent of the whole church, 1Co 5:3-5. For it is unreasonable to think that people should deny communion to any without knowing a justifiable cause; and to no purpose for rulers in a church to cast one out of its communion with whom the members will have communion.
If he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican; that is, esteem him as a vile person, for so they esteemed all heathens and publicans. How far this could reach beyond having an intimacy of civil communion with them, and a communion with them in the sacrament, I cannot understand; for as Christians were licensed to a civil commerce with heathens and publicans, so neither were heathens and publicans ever, that we read of in holy writ, denied the benefit of their prayers, and hearing the apostles preach. I am very well satisfied, that the primitive church did not deny to persons excommunicated liberty to be present at the prayers of the church, but it was long after the apostles’ times, and whether grounded upon any practice of theirs I much doubt. Christians had a liberty to pray for any who had not sinned the sin unto death: that they might not be present at such prayers I cannot learn from any thing in holy writ.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain In these words our Saviour gives us an excellent…
In these words our Saviour gives us an excellent rule for the duty of fraternal correction, or brotherly admonition.
Where note, 1. That brotherly reproof and admonition is a duty incumbent upon church members.
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2. That it may be administered successfully, it must must be administered privately and prudently.
3. When private admonition prevails not, Christ has appointed church-governors, to execute church-censures on the obstinate and irreclaimable.
4. Persons justly falling under the censures of the church, and rightly excommunicated, are to be looked upon as obstinate and contumacious offenders, and the members of the church to shun society and conversation with them: If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man, and as a publican was among Jews; wholly neglected, and not thought fit to be conversed with.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And if he shall neglect to hear them,.... The…
And if he shall neglect to hear them,.... The one or two, in conjunction with the offended person that shall hear the ease, and admonish and reprove; if he takes no notice of what they say to him, but remains stiff and impenitent, tell it unto the church: which some understand, of the or "multitude", before whom it was lawful to reprove, after such private methods had been taken: others, the political magistrates, or sanhedrim; who took cognizance of cases between one person and other, either by themselves, or messengers; and gave admonitions and reproofs, as to parents, when they did not provide for their families (x), and to wives that were perverse, and provoked their husbands (y), &c. others, of the presbyters and governors of the Christian church; others, of the church itself, and so the Ethiopic version renders it, "the house of Christians"; to which it is objected, that as yet a Christian church was not formed: but what were the twelve apostles of the Lamb? 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.
But if he neglect to hear the church: the advice they should give unto him, the reproof they should think proper for him, or the censure they should pass upon him,
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let him be unto thee as an heathen man, and a publican. This is not a form of excommunication to be used among Christians, nor was there ever any such form among the Jews; nor could Heathens or publicans, especially such publicans as were Gentiles, be excommunicated, when they never were of the Jewish church.
"A religious person indeed, that becomes a collector of taxes, they first said, is to be driven from the society; but they afterwards said, all the time that he is a tax gatherer, they drive him from the society; but when he goes out of his office, lo! he is as a religious person (z).''
But one that never was of a religious society, could not be driven out of it. And besides, this is given, not as a rule to the church, but as advice to the offended person, how to behave towards the offender: after he has come under the cognizance, reproof, and censure of the church, he is to look upon him as the Jews did one that disregarded both private reproof by a man's self, and that which was in the presence of one or two more, , "a worthless friend", or neighbour; as a Gentile, with whom the Jews had neither religious nor civil conversation; and a "publican", or as Munster's Hebrew Gospel reads it, "a notorious sinner", as a publican was accounted: hence such are often joined together, and with whom the Jews might not eat, nor keep any friendly and familiar acquaintance: and so such that have been privately admonished and publicly rebuked, without success, their company is to be shunned, and intimate friendship with them to be avoided.
(x) Maimon Hilehot Ishot, c. 12. sect. 14. (y) Ib. c. 14. sect. 9. & Moses Kotsensis Mitzvot Tora, pr. neg. 81. (z) T. Hieros. Demai, fol. 23. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain But how can we avoid giving offense to some?…
But how can we avoid giving offense to some? or being offended at others! Especially suppose they are quite in the wrong? Suppose they commit a known sin? Our Lord here teaches us how: he lays down a sure method of avoiding all offenses. Whosoever closely observes this threefold rule, will seldom offend others, and never be offended himself. If any do any thing amiss, of which thou art an eye or ear witness, thus saith the Lord, If thy brother - Any who is a member of the same religious community: Sin against thee,
1. Go and reprove him alone - If it may be in person; if that cannot so well be done, by thy messenger; or in writing. Observe, our Lord gives no liberty to omit this; or to exchange it for either of the following steps. If this do not succeed,
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2. Take with thee one or two more - Men whom he esteems or loves, who may then confirm and enforce what thou sayest; and afterward, if need require, bear witness of what was spoken. If even this does not succeed, then, and not before,
3. Tell it to the elders of the Church - Lay the whole matter open before those who watch over yours and his soul. If all this avail not, have no farther intercourse with him, only such as thou hast with heathens. Can any thing be plainer? Christ does here as expressly command all Christians who see a brother do evil, to take this way, not another, and to take these steps, in this order, as he does to honour their father and mother. But if so, in what land do the Christians live? If we proceed from the private carriage of man to man, to proceedings of a more public nature, in what Christian nation are Church censures conformed to this rule? Is this the form in which ecclesiastical judgments appear, in the popish, or even the Protestant world? Are these the methods used even by those who boast the most loudly of the authority of Christ to confirm their sentences? Let us earnestly pray, that this dishonour to the Christian name may be wiped away, and that common humanity may not, with such solemn mockery, be destroyed in the name of the Lord! Let him be to thee as the heathen - To whom thou still owest earnest good will, and all the offices of humanity. Luke xvii, 3.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. If thy brother] Any who is a…
Verse 15. If thy brother] Any who is a member of the same religious society, sin against thee, 1. Go and reprove him alone, - it may be in person; if that cannot be so well done, by thy messenger, or in writing, (which in many cases is likely to be the most effectual.) Observe, our Lord gives no liberty to omit this, or to exchange it for either of the following steps. If this do not succeed,
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Mat 18:15-17. But if thy brother, &c. — But…
Mat 18:15-17. But if thy brother, &c. — But how can we avoid giving offence to some? or being offended at others? especially suppose they are quite in the wrong? suppose they commit a known sin? Our Lord here teaches us how: he lays down a sure method of avoiding all offences. Whosoever closely observes this three-fold rule will seldom offend others, and never be offended himself. If any do any thing amiss, of which thou art an eye or ear witness, thus saith the Lord, If thy brother — Any who is a member of the same religious community; sin against thee — 1st, Go and reprove him alone — If it may be, in person; if that cannot so well be done, by thy messenger; or in writing. Observe, our Lord gives no liberty to omit this, or to exchange it for either of the following steps. If this do not succeed, 2d, Take with thee one or two more — Men whom he esteems or loves, who may then confirm and enforce what thou sayest; and afterward, if need require, bear witness of what was spoken. If even this does not succeed, then, and not before, 3d, Tell it to the elders of the church — Lay the whole matter open before those who watch over your and his soul. If all this avail not, have no further intercourse with him, only such as thou hast with heathen. Can any thing be plainer? Christ does here as expressly command all Christians who see a brother do evil, to take this way, not another, and to take these steps, in this order, as he does to honour their father and mother. But if so, in what land do the Christians live? If we proceed from the private carriage of man to man, to proceedings of a more public nature, in what Christian nation are church censures conformed to this rule? Is this the form in which ecclesiastical judgments appear in the Popish, or even the Protestant world? Are these the methods used even by those who boast the most loudly of the authority of Christ to confirm their sentences? Let us earnestly pray that this dishonour to the Christian name may be wiped away, and that common humanity may not, with such solemn mockery, be destroyed in the name of the Lord! Let him be unto thee as a heathen — To whom thou still owest earnest goodwill, and all the offices of humanity.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Moreover, if thy brother - The word “brother,” here,…
Moreover, if thy brother - The word “brother,” here, evidently means a fellow-professor of religion. Christians are called brethren because they belong to the same redeemed family, having a common Father - God; and because they axe united in the same feelings, objects, and destiny.
Trespass against thee - That is, injure thee in any way, by words or conduct. The original word means sin against thee. This may be done by injuring the character, person, or property.
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Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone - This was required under the law, Lev 19:17. In the original it is “go and reprove him.” Seek an explanation of his conduct, and if he has done wrong, administer a friendly and brotherly reproof. This is required to be done alone:
1. That he may have an opportunity of explaining his conduct. In nine cases out of ten, where one supposes that he has been injured, a little friendly conversation would set the matter right and prevent difficulty.
2. That he may have an opportunity of acknowledging his offence or making reparation, if he has done wrong. Many would be glad of such an opportunity, and it is our duty to furnish it by calling on them.
3. That we may admonish them of their error if they have done an injury to the cause of religion. This should not be blazoned abroad. It can do no good - it does injury; it is what the enemies of religion wish. Christ is often wounded in the house of his friends; and religion, as well as an injured brother, often suffers by spreading such faults before the world.
Thou hast gained thy brother - To gain means, sometimes, to preserve or to save, 1Co 9:19. Here it means thou hast preserved him, or restored him, to be a consistent Christian. Perhaps it may include the idea, also, thou hast reconciled him to thyself - thou hast gained him as a Christian brother.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Offend against thee. St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and…
Offend against thee. St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome understand from this verse, that the injured person is to go and admonish his brother. Other understand against thee, to mean in they presence, or to thy knowledge, because fraternal correction is a duty, not only when our brother offends us, but likewise when he offends against his neighbour, and much more when he offends God. It is moreover a duty not peculiar to the injured, but common to all. When the offence is not personal, our advice will be less interested. This precept, though positive, in only obligatory, when it is likely to profit your brother, as charity is the only motive for observing it. Therefore, it not only may, but ought to be omitted, when the contrary effect is likely to ensue, whether it be owing to the perversity of the sinner, or the circumstances of the admonisher. (Jansenius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain B. The Discipline of the Church Mat_18:15-20
B. The Discipline of the Church Mat_18:15-20
15Moreover [But] if thy brother shall trespass [sin, ἁμαρτήση]16 against thee,17 go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gainedthy brother. 16But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established [σταθῆ]. 17And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church:18 but if he neglect to hear the church [also, καί], let him be unto thee as a heathen man [heathen] and a publican. 18Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; 19and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again [verily]19 I say unto you, That if [only] two of you shall agree20 on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which [who] is in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
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EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Logical Connection.—Meyer denies the existence of such a connection with the preceding context, and objects to the construction of Beza: “Ubi de iis disseruit, qui sunt aliis offendiculo, nunc quid sit iis faciendum declarat, quibus objectum est offendiculum,” The connection lies in the condemnation of hierarchical practices. Hence the view of Beza is substantially correct. Give no offence to your neighbor, but rather overcome by love the offence which he gives to you. Or, in the special form in which it is expressed in the text, Put no stumbling-block in the way of your neighbor by hierarchical offence, but rather assist the Church in removing such offences.
Mat_18:15. Against thee.—Not merely referring to personal offences, but rather to sins, which, being done in presence of others, cannot but excite attention and give offence. Viewed in the context, it might be paraphrased: Sin not against thy brother by giving him offence. Again, on the other hand, overcome by the discipline of love the offence which he has given thee.
Between thee and him alone.—First measure. Brotherly admonition, or private entreaty. Meyer: “The administration of reproof is here represented as intervening between the two parties.” But this critic is mistaken in supposing that the text refers to party disputes. Of course, the expression implies that the guilt rests with our brother.
Thou hast gained thy brother.—Euthym, Zigab.: In respect of brotherly fellowship. Meyer, more correctly: For the kingdom of the Messiah. Both ideas, however, seem combined in the text. The person who has been gained for the kingdom of the Messiah becomes the brother of him who has thus gained him. He has been gained by wisdom and cautious dealing, when serious loss seemed impending. Such private expostulation implies self-denial and courage, while it gives our brother the impression that we feel for him, that we love him, and would willingly spare him. Such an assault of love upon his heart may gain him. The opposite course, of hastily divulging his fault, is an evidence of pride, harshness, cowardice, want of love and of prudence. In all probability, it will only tend to embitter, and thus further to alienate our brother. Besides, in our personal dealings as individuals, we are not entitled to go beyond this private expostulation, unless we know that we act in the spirit of the whole Church (Acts 5; 1 Corinthians 5).
Mat_18:16. One or two more.—This is the second measure to be adopted. One or two witnesses are now to be called in. The law of Moses enjoined the judicial examination of witnesses (Deu_19:15). In this instance, the final judgment of God is supposed to be already commencing, and witnesses are called in, because the guilty brother is to become his own judge.
The question has been asked, whether the word σταθῆ here means, “be established,” or else, “stand still, rest, depend.” The latter meaning seems to be preferable, as the guilt of the offending brother is apparently admitted. The fault of our brother is not to be prematurely published. Hence, while in the first clause of the verse we read, “Take with thee one or two,” the last clause speaks of two or, three witnesses. If our brother confesses his fault, he becomes himself the third witness, and there are no longer merely two, but three who know of the fault.
Mat_18:17. To the church (congregation).—Third measure. From Mat_16:18, the term ἐκκλησία must always be understood as referring to the Christian Church, or to the meeting of believers, whether it be large or small. Calvin, Beza, and others mistake equally the meaning and the connection of the passage in applying it to the Jewish synagogue. In opposition to this, de Wette remarks, 1. That the term ἐκκλησία is never applied to the synagogue; 2. that Jesus could not have meant to direct His disciples to apply to a community which was estranged from them in spirit, for the purpose of restoring brotherly relations among themselves; 3. that Mat_18:18-20 evidently refer to Christian fellowship, and to its power and quickening by His presence. But when de Wette suggests that both this passage and Mat_16:18 were a historical prolepsis, he must have wholly missed the connection of the gospel history in the mind of Matthew. Similarly, Roman Catholic interpreters are entirely in error in explaining the passage: Tell it to the bishops. Even de Wette and Vitringa go beyond the text, in supposing that it applies to the function of the rulers of the Church as arbitrators or judges on moral questions. On the contrary, the έκκλησία is in this passage put in antithesis to the question touching the μελ́ζων ἐν τῆ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανων. Hence this would have been the most unsuitable place for anything like the sanction of a hierarchy. It is indeed true that the Church is, in the first place, approached and addressed through its officials. But then we must also bear in mind, that there is an entire accordance between the views and dealings of these officials and those of the Church, and not anything like hierarchical assumption on their part (comp. 1Co_5:4). [Alford: “That ἐκκλητία cannot mean the Church as represented by her rulers, appears by (from) Mat_18:19-20,—where any collection of believers is gifted with the power of deciding in such cases. Nothing could be further from the sprit of our Lord’s command than proceedings in what were oddly enough called ‘ecclesiastical courts.’ ”—P. S.]
Let him be unto thee.—The Jews regarded heathens and publicans as excommunicated persons. As such we are to consider a Christian who perseveres in his offence: he is no longer to be acknowledged as belonging to the fellowship of saints. The accord of the Church in this step is implied. Still the verse reads, Let him be to thee—not, to the church; the personal impulse being in this case a prophetic manifestation of the gift of discerning the spirits. Viewing it in this light, we cannot imagine how Meyer could infer that it did not apply to excommunication—all the more so, that he himself refers it to the cessation of all fellowship with such a person. However, we question the correctness of the latter statement. In our opinion, the text only implies the cessation of ecclesiastical fellowship, not of civil or social intercourse. In point of fact, it was the mistake of the Jews to convert what was intended as an ecclesiastical censure into a civil punishment. Perhaps this might be excusable under the ancient theocracy, when State and Church were not yet distinct. Nay, when the theocracy was first founded, it was even necessary under certain conditions, and for a season (see the laws against the Canaanites). But under the New Testament dispensation this confusion of civil and sacred matters has entirely ceased. Christ did not regard the publicans and heathens, viewed as such, as belonging to His communion; but He considered them the objects of His mission. Accordingly, we must take the idea of excommunication in this light. The Roman Catholic Church has, on the question of discipline, again lapsed into Judaism. Regarding those who are excommunicated as heretics, if not as heathens and publicans, it hands them over to the civil tribunals.
Mat_18:18. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth.—It is very remarkable that Christ should have employed a solemn adjuration, when according the power of the keys to all His disciples, and with them to the Church generally, or rather to the Church along with the disciples. For, evidently, while Mat_18:17 lays down the rule for the conduct of the Church, Mat_18:18 shows that the Church is warranted in this conduct. This right is again solemnly confirmed by the amen in Mat_18:19. The similarity of expression with Mat_16:19 shows that this passage also refers to the office of the keys; and hence that both Mat_18:17-18 referred to its exercise. The privilege therefore of Peter only consisted in this, that he was the first to make confession and to bear witness (see Acts 5, 8, 11), in accordance with the Church generally, to which he also was subject. But whenever he occupied a separate position, he also subjected himself to the discipline and reproof of the Church (Gal_2:11).
Mat_18:19. Again, verily I say unto you.—The reading πάλιν ἀμήν is very fully attested. This amen was afterward omitted from the text, probably from an apprehension that it might be quoted in support of separatism.—That if [only] two of you shall agree.—The smallest number which could form a fellowship. They shall agree on earth, i.e., in forming a social and visible fellowship. This, however, does not imply that two believers will always suffice to form a church. The emphasis rests on the word τυμφωνία. Such a full agreement of two persons could only be wrought by the Holy Spirit. Hence it represents in principle the catholicity of the whole Church. The smallest fragment of a straight line may be closely and homogeneously joined to all similar fragments. Suffice it, that the Church may commence, continue and be reformed with two individuals. The prayer of these two humble individuals on earth brings dawn the gracious answer of the Father who is in heaven, thereby attesting and confirming the character of the Church.
Mat_18:20. For where two or three are gathered together.—A confirmation and explanation of what had preceded. The two individuals must not stand aloof in a sectarian spirit, but seek to become three. Similarly, their σνμφωνια must consist in being gathered together in the name of Jesus. If such be the case, Himself is in the midst of them by His Spirit. It is this presence of the Shechinah, in the real sense of the term, which forms and constitutes His ὲκκλησία, or Kahal. Hence it also enjoys both the blessings and the protection of our Father who is in heaven. Lightfoot: “Simile dicunt Rabbini de duobus aut tribus considentibus in judicio, quod Schechina sit in medio eorum.”
The statement in Mat_18:19 must evidently be regarded as primarily a continuation of the second measure prescribed in cases of offence, when two or three witnesses were to be called in. It is as if the Lord hoped that, by their earnest continuance in prayer, these witnesses would prevent the necessity of extreme measures. But if they should be obliged to assemble in His name in order to lay a formal accusation before the Church, the Lord promised to be in the midst of them. The fact that the phraseology of the text so closely resembles that of Mat_18:16, seems to imply, in a certain sense, an antithesis. Probably the meaning is: The two or three who form a true Church shall not be entirely dependent upon the large majority of a larger ἐκκλησία, nor upon the possible abuse of the power of the keys. Their outward minority is compensated by the blessing of the Father, and by the presence of Christ, or by an inward and real excess of power. Thus the Lord points to the circumstance, that the essential characteristics and the power of the Church lie not in the existence of an outward majority, or in the presence of great masses of people. Christ intervenes between the first and the third measure of discipline.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. According to the direction of the Lord in the passage under consideration, ecclesiastical discipline should above all things rest on the basis of brotherly faithfulness in the private intercourse of Christians. This is the first condition for the proper exercise of Church discipline.
2. According to apostolic direction, excommunication was only to take place if the person who gave offence obstinately resisted the Church itself. In that case, both truth and honor required that such bold and open opposition, either to the principles, doctrines, or practice of the Church, should not be tolerated in the midst of it. More than this; esteem, love, and faithfulness toward the offending brother himself demanded such a step. Still, such an one was only to be ranked with that class from which he had at first been taken, and from which the Church is ever willing to receive proselytes, and hence also to welcome penitents. All this implies that the excommunicated person was not to be subjected to civil pains and penalties by the Church.—“Let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publican.” These words convey a very different meaning to Christiana from what they did to the Jews. The latter despised and condemned heathens and publicans; Christ received them. In other words, where the discipline of the Church ceases, its missionary work commences anew. Perhaps we might rather call it the catechetical office—as the penitent professes a desire to have the bond which had been broken restored, and hence does not require to be again admitted by a new baptism, but only to be restored to the fellowship of the Church.
3. The characteristic of true catholicity is not outward uniformity, but inward unity in the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, when even two are completely united, they are, in point of fact, in fellowship with all the holy spirits both in heaven and on earth, and Christ Himself is in the midst of them.
4. Not “three or two” but “two or three.” The pure Church may for a time be very small, but it must always aim after universality. Besides, it deserves notice that this saying of the Lord was closely connected with His teaching about primacy in the Church, and about offences, hence we may see with what tender care He watched over the interests and how He defended the origin of the evangelical Church.
5. On the subject of Jewish excommunication, comp. Winer’s Real-Wörterbuch, sub Bann, and on Christian excommunication, Herzog’s Real-Encyclop., sub Bann. The lesser excommunication implied only the cessation of full and purely ecclesiastical fellowship. The person excluded became, for the time, a non-communicant. A deep meaning attached to the practice of the ancient Church, by which such an individual was in certain respects ranked among the general hearers of the word and the catechumens. In truth, his connection with the Church had not wholly ceased; it may be regarded rather as suspended for a time, than as completely terminated. Hence the greater excommunication may be said to be no longer applicable to any individuals, as it necessarily involved civil consequences. At first sight, some of the statements of Paul seem to imply such a procedure; but a further examination of the passages in question will modify our ideas on that point. Thus, 1Co_5:11 refers probably to the common meal of brotherly fellowship; while the formulas in 1Co_16:22, and Gal_1:8-9, appear to us to be couched in hypothetical language, as a thing that might and should take place in certain circumstances, not as one that had actually occurred. Of recent writers on the subject, we mention Meyer of Rostock, Otto (Bonn, 1856), M. Göbel, On Eccl. Discipline in the Reformed Church until Calvin (Kirchl. Vierteljahr’s Schrift, 2 Jahrg., Berlin, 1845). Also the Transactions of the German Church Diet for 1856.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The necessity of ecclesiastical discipline. 1. The gospel cannot be preserved without salt; nor, 2. fraternal love without frankness: nor, 3. a particular church without discipline; nor, 4. the Church in general without the spirit of discipline.—The object of all Christian and ecclesiastical reproof is to gain our brother.—The frankness of affectionate, brother faithfulness, the basis of ecclesiastical discipline.—The exercise of ecclesiastical discipline implying the institution and the establishment of a Christian Church; but, on the other hand, churches must be trained and educated to this duty.—The training of the Church for the exercise of Christian discipline forms the commencement of that discipline.—How the discipline of the Church is to prove affectionate care for the spiritual welfare of our brother: 1. Its object is to exclude sin from the Church, but to retain our brother; 2. its mode of exercise—frankness, decision, wisdom, prudence.—How genuine Church discipline observes the principle of progressing from private to open dealings.—The object of Christian reproof being to awaken, not to harden, we must display—1. Compassion, to the extent of even appearing to share the guilt; 2. compassion, to the extent of even appearing to cry for help; 3. compassion, to the extent of even appearing to be inexorable.—The three different kinds of Church discipline: 1. Our brother is excommunicated, but sin is retained in the Church; 2. sin is cast out along with our brother; 3. sin is eliminated, and our brother restored.—The right of reproof: The individual may exercise f it privately, if he has strength and courage for it; a small number of friends may administer it in kindly intercourse; the Church may publicly exercise it, i.e., not in opposition to the ministry, but as represented by it.—The exercise of discipline incumbent on the Church and its representatives.—To whom did Christ say, “Tell it to the Church?” 1. He said it to Peter; 2. to all the Apostles.—The Church called to take an active part in the administration of its most sacred affairs.—The power of the keys vested in the apostolic Church.—How fellowship of prayer leads to fellowship of faith.—Agreement of the Spirit, a confirmation of the power of the keys.—Evidence of this.—How the keys have lost their power when the spirits are not subject to Christ.—How the whole Church of Christ may revive in the smallest community.—The great Church appears in a small community: 1. If there be agreement in the spirit of prayer, securing the answer of the Father 2. if there be union in the name of Jesus, and hence the presence of Christ.—The characteristic features of the true Church: 1. An inward life of prayer; 2. an outward life of confession.—What is the state of a church. If, 1. the former of these two characteristics is wanting; or, 2. the latter; or, 3. both are gone.—The great promises of Christ shall be fulfilled, even in the experience of the weakest church.—The watch word of the Church and the watchword of sectarianism. The former: two or three; the latter: three or two.—How this promise of the Lord was fulfilled in the formation of the Protestant Churches.
Starke:—Zeisius: Secret sins should be secretly rebuked and expiated, but open sins, openly.—Cramer: It is very dangerous to be excluded from the communion of the saints.—Hedinger: The prayer of a righteous man availeth much, nay, everything; Jam_5:16.
Gerlach:—What in Mat_16:19 had (apparently) been bestowed upon Peter alone, is here conferred on the whole Christian Church, being ultimately traceable to the character of Christian communion as the outward manifestation of the invisible Church.—The Church of Christ on earth consists of a number of circles, drawn around the same centre, and always widening. Its well-being consists in this, that all have the proper centre, and that none of the circles interferes with the other.
Gossner:—The principal thing is the agreement.—All depends not on large numbers, but on the presence of Christ as the third or fourth in a spiritual communion.
Heubner:—We can only call those persons our own whom we have gained for the kingdom of heaven.—The decline of, and the difficulties attending upon, the exercise of scriptural discipline, constitute glaring evidence of the sad decay of our State Churches (or rather, of the hierarchical disinclination of office to train the congregation to spiritual self-government).21—Wherein may two be agreed? Manifestly, not in temporal things (or rather, in matters of pure egotism).
[16] Mat_18:15.—[Compare Mat_18:21, where the E. V. renders ἁμαρτἀνειν: sin.—P. S.]
[17] Mat_18:15.—Lachmann and Tischendorf [not in his large critical edition of 1859], after Cod. B., al. omit εἰς σέ (against thee). The omission made the sense clearer; but for this very reason the words should be retained.
[18] Mat_18:17.—[Here ἐκκλησὶα is used in the sense of a particular or local congregation, as often in the Epistles, while in Mat_16:18 it means the church universal, since no individual congregation (or denomination) has the promise of indestructible life. Comp. on ὲκκλησία, and its proper translation, the Crit. Note No. 4 on p. 298.—P. S.]
[19] Mat_18:19.—The reading πάλιν ἀμήν [instead of πάλιν without ἀμήν] is very strongly attested [and adopted by Tischendorf and Alford. Lachmann reads ὰμήν without πάλιν, and gives Cod. B. as his authority. But this is an error; the Vatican Codex, both in the edition of Angelo Mai and that of Phil. Buttmann jun., reads πάλιν ἀμην,—P. S.]
[20] Mat_18:19.—The future συμφωνήσουσιν is best attested. [Adopted by Tischendorf and Alford. Sustained by Cod. Sinait. which reads: ἐἀν δύο συμφωνήσιν ἐξ ὑμῶν. Lachmann reads with Cod. Vaticanus and text. rec. the subjunctive συμφωνήσ ω σιν, which looks like a grammatical emendation. Meyer (1858) and Tischendorf (1859) quote Cod. B. in favor of the future, but both the editions of this Codex by Angelo Mai (Rome, 1857, and sec. ed., 1859) and that of Phil. Buttmann (Berlin, 1862) read the subjunctive, as stated previously by Birch and Lachmann. The ω or ου seems to be very indistinctly written in the original MS., so as to account for the difference among the collators and editors. Comp. the note in Buttmann’s edition of Cod. Vat., p. 501, sub Mat_18:19.—P. S.]
[21]A Prussian regulation of March 27, 1748, prohibits the minister from excluding any of their church members from the holy communion. Now cases of the kind must be reported to the royal consistories.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go…
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, &c.--Probably our Lord had reference still to the late dispute, Who should be the greatest? After the rebuke--so gentle and captivating, yet so dignified and divine--under which they would doubtless be smarting, perhaps each would be saying, It was not I that began it, it was not I that threw out unworthy and irritating insinuations against my brethren. Be it so, says our Lord; but as such things will often arise, I will direct you how to proceed. First, Neither harbor a grudge against your offending brother, nor break forth upon him in presence of the unbelieving; but take him aside, show him his fault, and if he own and make reparation for it, you have done more service to him than even justice to yourself. Next, If this fail, take two or three to witness how just your complaint is, and how brotherly your spirit in dealing with him. Again, If this fail, bring him before the Church or congregation to which both belong. Lastly, If even this fail, regard him as no longer a brother Christian, but as one "without"--as the Jews did Gentiles and publicans.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. Moreover — Jesus still continues, in strict sequence…
15. Moreover — Jesus still continues, in strict sequence after the preceding, to lay down laws for the body of his childlike followers. How is one of them to deal with another who trespasses against him? From this it is to be seen that our Lord does not teach that the Christian is one who has no regard to his own right, or who sits passively under any trespass whatever. Yet in our dealing with such a trespasser, the leading object should be to gain our brother. To restore him to a right state of mind, and thereby to bring back the former state of childlike harmony, as well as save his soul is the first aim. If you succeed in these results, the highest objects will be gained all round. If he prove obstinate, the result will be that you and the Church will be righted, and he will not only be condemned by the Church below, but the sentence will be ratified by God in heaven.
If thy brother — If in this community of Christ’s little ones there shall be one who trespasses against thee, who art also one of the same childlike brotherhood. Tell him his fault — Not so much to gain thy own rights as to gain his soul and thy peace and the purity and peace of the Church. Alone — So that there shall be no motive of pride to induce him to make out a good case before a witness. Thou hast gained thy brother — Thou hast prevented one of Christ’s little ones from perishing. Thou hast delivered thy own soul. Thou hast vindicated the purity of the Church.
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We append Mr. Wesley’s notes on this passage:
“If thy brother — Any who is a member of the same religious community: Sin against thee, 1. Go and reprove him alone — If it may be, in person; if that cannot so well be done, by thy messenger, or in writing. Observe, our Lord gives no liberty to omit this, or to exchange it for either of the following steps. If this do not succeed, 2. Take with thee one or two more — Men whom he esteems or loves, who may then confirm and enforce what thou sayest; and afterward, if need require, bear witness of what was spoken. If even this does not succeed, then, and not before, 3. Tell it to the elders of the Church — Lay the whole matter open before those who watch over your and his soul. If all this avail not, have no farther intercourse with him, only such as thou hast with heathens. Let him be to thee as the heathen — To whom thou still owest earnest good will, and all the offices of humanity.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. go and tell him his fault between thee…
15. go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone] See Lev_19:17, where the words “not suffer sin upon him,” mean “thou shalt not incur sin through him,” i. e. by letting him go on unrebuked in his sin. Tell him his fault, rather, convict him; the same Greek word is translated rebuke, Levit. loc. cit. St Luke has a different Greek word with a similar meaning.
gained] i. e. won over to a better mind,—to Christ. Cp. 1Co_9:19-22, and 1Pe_3:1.
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15–35. Forgiveness of Sins. Luk_17:3-4
God’s forgiveness of sinners suggests the duty of forgiveness among men.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) Moreover if thy brother shall trespass.—Better, and if…
(15) Moreover if thy brother shall trespass.—Better, and if thy brother shall sin. A twofold train of thought is traceable in what follows. (1.) The presence of “offences” implies sin, and the question arises how each man is to deal with those sins which affect himself personally. (2.) The dispute in which the teaching recorded in this chapter had originated implied that the unity of the society which was then represented by the Twelve, had for the time been broken. Each of the disciples thought himself, in some sense, aggrieved by others. Sharp words, it may be, had been spoken among them, and the breach had to be healed.
Go and tell him his fault.—The Greek is somewhat stronger, convict him of his fault, press it home on him in such a way as to reach his reason and his conscience. (Comp. Joh_16:8.) But this is to be done “between thee and him alone.” Angry words spoken in the presence of others would fail of that result. It is significant that the substance of the precept is taken from the passage in Leviticus (Lev_19:17-18) which ends with “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
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Thou hast gained thy brother.—The words in part derive their force from the subtle use of a word in one sense which men associated commonly with another. “Gain” of some kind, aimed at, or wrongfully withheld, was commonly the origin of disputes and litigation. A man hoped to reap some profit by going to law. In the more excellent way which our Lord points out, he would by sacrificing the lower gain, attain the higher, and win for God (see 1Co_9:19, 1Pe_3:1, for this aspect of the word) and for himself the brother with whom he had been at variance.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 15-20. Correction of an offending brother.
Vers. 15-20. Correction of an offending brother.
Hitherto the discourse has warned against offending the young and weak; it now teaches how to behave when the offence is directed against one"s self. Moreover (de , "now," introducing a new subject) if thy brother shall trespass against thee (eiv se). The brother is a brother in the faith, a fellow Christian. The words, "against thee," are omitted in the Sinaitic and Vatican Manuscripts, and by some modern editors, on the ground that it is a gloss derived from Peter"s question (ver. 21). The words are retained by the Vulgate and other high authorities. Without them, the passage becomes one of a general nature, applying to all offences. Retaining them, we find a direction how to treat one who offers personal offence to ourselves which seems to suit the context best. In the case of private quarrels between individual Christians, with the view of reconciliation, there are four steps to be taken. First, private remonstrance: Go. Do not wait for him to come to you; make the first advances yourself. This, as being the more difficult course, is expressly enjoined on one who is learning the lesson of humility. Tell him his fault; elegxon auton : corripe eum. Put the fault plainly before him, show him how he has wronged you, and how he has offended God. This must be done in private, gently, mercifully. Such treatment may win the heart, while public rebuke, open denunciation, might only incense and harden. Plainly, the Lord primarily contemplates quarrels between individual Christians; though, indeed, the advice here and in the sequel is applicable to a wider sphere and to more important occasions. Thou hast gained thy brother. If he shall own his fault, and ask for pardon, thou hast won him for God and thyself. A quarrel is a loss to both parties; a reconciliation is a gain for both. The verb "to gain" (kerdainw) is used elsewhere in this high sense. (see 1Co_9:19 1Pe_3:1)
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Vers. 15-18. The offending brother.
The wise advice which our Lord here gives is rarely followed, and yet it is not at all impracticable, and if obeyed it would prevent an immense amount of distress and ill feeling. Let us consider, first the general principles of his advice, and then its special details.
I GENERAL PRINCIPLES.
1. The fact of the brothers offence is admitted. This is very important. Too often men quarrel and accuse one another without justly apportioning the faults. The innocent man is blamed by his guilty brother. We must not put in force the process indicated by Christ until we have discovered that our brother is really in the wrong.
2. The aim must be to recover the offending brother. It is not to crush and humiliate him. It is not to have our revenge on him. It is to restore him to a better condition of mind, and to bring about a reconciliation.
3. The method must be kind and generous. The slowly advancing stages show a reluctance to proceed to extreme measures. Inasmuch as our end is not to vindicate our own rights, but to recover our brother, our method must be tender and considerate.
II SPECIAL DETAILS. It is important to observe that Christ is treating of the relation of true Christian people to one another. If either party does not recognize the claims of Christian brotherhood, the process must be different, although the generous spirit of Christ"s method must be observed with all men. Let us now note the successive steps.
1. We are to see the offending brother alone. This is just the very last thing some people will do. In pride or fear they shun the very person they should seek. They refuse to speak to him, when it is their duty to be frank with him. Yet too often they spread the tale of their wrong among their neighbours. Thus a train of idle gossip is started, and vast mischief originated. He who so behaves reveals himself in an unchristian light; he becomes an offending brother, and gives the man who has offended him a just cause of complaint. Immense mischief would be stayed if Christ s method were pursued. We have to seek out the person who has wronged us, and be simple and frank with him; then very often a little quiet talk will bring us to a mutual understanding and end the quarrel.
2. If the first step fails, we are to call in the help of two or three other Christians. This is also to be private. The calm impartiality of outsiders may settle the dispute. The gravity of their advice may convince the offending brother that he is in the wrong.
3. If this process fails, we are to appeal to the Church. Christ assumes the exercise of Church discipline. With us this has fallen very much into abeyance. It can only be restored in a Christ-like spirit.
4. Finally, if all these processes fail, we must cease to regard the offender as a Christian brother. He has excommunicated himself. God does not forgive the impenitent, and he does not expect us to do so. Yet we should never hate the offender, but always desire to restore him as we should desire to convert "the Gentile and the publican. W.F.A.
Vers. 15-20. The method of dealing with offences.
I THE DUTY OF PRIVATE CHRISTIANS.
1. Secret admonition. The Lord had warned the apostles that offences must come; he had urged the necessity of exceeding carefulness against giving offence to others; now he tells us how to act when others put a stumbling block in our way by their trespasses. Go and tell thy brother his fault, he says; speak to him secretly, do not publish his transgression, do not make a talk of it; charity endureth all things, charity hideth a multitude of sins. Speak to him; it is better to tell him his fault than to brood over it. But speak to him gently for his own soul"s sake. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother gained him to Christ, gained his soul; for he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. And oh! what is the exceeding great privilege of gaining a soul which Christ loved, for which he came down from heaven that he might seek it!
2. The second step, admonition before two or three witnesses. If the first attempt fails, still publicity should be avoided as far as possible; a second should be made with the help of one or two Christian friends. They may bring the erring brother to a sense of his own guilt, of the offence which he is causing to others, of the, wrong which he is doing to the Church of which he is a member by his wilfulness and obstinacy.
II THE OFFICE OF THE CHURCH.
1. Its discipline. If the sinful brother again and again refuses to listen to Christian reproof in private, the sin which is causing offence to the brethren must be brought before the Church. By the word "Church" the Lord must mean the Christian Church, that Church of which he had spoken for the first time at Caesarea Philippi, which he was building upon the Rock. He was speaking prophetically, looking forward to the growth and increase of the Church. "Tell it unto the Church." This is the last resort; if he neglect to heal the Church he must be regarded as a heathen man and a publican, no longer a brother in the full Christian sense of the word. But we must remember that the Lord"s mercy extended to heathen and publicans. He came to call sinners to repentance. The sinful brother may repent, he may be forgiven and saved. The censure itself is inflicted not only for example"s sake, not only that the cause of offence may be removed, but also for the sake of the offender, "that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus". (1Co_5:5)
2. Its authority. The Lord here confers upon all the apostles as representatives of the Church that authority which he had already (Mat_16:19) given to St. Peter as the representative of the apostolic college. The Church, then, hath authority in controversies of faith authority to declare what is of faith and what is not, what is of obligation and what is indifferent, what is allowed and what is forbidden. Christians are bound to regard the decisions of the Church with respect and reverence, for if rightly made they are ratified in heaven. Yet St. Peter certainly erred; (Gal_2:11) Churches may err, and alas! have erred. It is only while the Church stands firm upon the Rock, which is Christ; only when the two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, and he himself according to his promise is in the midst of them; when those two or three are men who have turned to God in the simplicity and lowliness of little children; it is only then that the conditions are fulfilled on which this promise depends. What a tremendous responsibility rests upon those who are called to guide and rule the Church of God! All Christian men should feel for them in the many difficulties of their arduous work, should pray for them constantly and earnestly.
3. The strength of the Church. That strength lies in prayer. The power of united prayer is such that if any two true believers agree as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them. They pray on earth, our Father hears in heaven. United prayer brings to their help the almighty power of God. That union of human wills into concordance with the holy will of God must be the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the suppliants; and when the Holy Spirit prompts the prayer, the prayer is always heard, the petition is always granted. Only let us not misunderstand the Lord"s promise, as perhaps the sons of Zebedee did at the time. (comp. Mar_10:35, where they almost quote these words of Christ"s) Instructed Christians will ask for spiritual blessings, which alone are blessings always and under all conditions; or, if they sometimes ask for earthly things (and they are encouraged to do so in the Lord"s Prayer itself), it will always be with the Lord"s own condition, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." The strength of the Church lies in prayer, and the strength of prayer lies in the presence of Christ. The union of only two Christians in real earnest prayer represents the Church. For Christ himself is present wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, or rather, as the literal rendering is, into his Name. Christians are united by the one Spirit into one body, into that spiritual unity which is called by the one name. (1Co_12:12) Believers are gathered together into that name, into that spiritual fellowship which can only be realized by those who walk in the light as he is in the light. (1Jn_1:7) And wherever that fellowship is, there is Christ the Lord manifesting himself to those who meet in his name and are gathered together into his name. He is in the midst of that little gathering, for he is God, omnipresent, ready to hear his servants in whatever corner of the world they lift up their prayers to him, ready to grant their petitions, to guide their counsels, to ratify the decisions, to give effect to the sentence issued in his name by those who met together in his name in the simple earnestness of childlike Christians, in the energy of that faith which has turned wholly to the Lord.
LESSONS.
1. It is a difficult task to reprove a sinful brother; it is sometimes our duty; it must be done with gentleness and wisdom.
2. To gain a brother"s soul is an exceeding great reward; it is worth much prayer, much thought, much time.
3. The Lord bids us hear the Church; the Christian must respect the authority of the Church.
Vers. 15-20. Christian judgment.
From dealing with the offended, our Lord here passes on to the offending, and he shows us how we should deal with a guilty brother, for our own sake, for his sake, for the sake of the Church, and ultimately for the sake of the world. Christian judgment should be faithful, loving, spiritual.
I FAITHFUL.
1. The Christian will tell his brother his fault.
(1) "If thy brother sin against thee." By fraud, defamation, affront, contempt. (see Lev_6:1-7)
(2) "If thy brother sin." Some ancient authorities omit "against thee" (see New Version margin; see also Lev_19:17).
(3) "Tell him his fault." This is fidelity to thyself, also to thy brother. How salutary to David was the reproof of Nathan!
2. He will tell it him before witnesses.
(1) Not in the first case. But he will not consider his soul clear it the offending brother be not gained by the private reproof without proceeding further.
(2) The witnesses chosen should be persons of credit and reputation. True men will not refuse to serve as witnesses in the interests of justice.
(3) This precaution is due to the Church. The courts of the Church should not be trifled with by moving them with cases which are not ripe.
3. He will tell it to the Church. This when the minor means have been tried and failed.
(1) But what is the Church? Amongst the Jews ten men were deemed sufficient to constitute a synagogue. Any number of persons met in the name or by the authority of Christ will constitute a Christian Church (see ver. 20). Tell it to the wise among the Church. Paul speaks ironically when he says, "Set them to judge who are]east esteemed in the Church.
(2) Tell it to the Church in justice to the Church, that its purity may be preserved. Scandalous persons must be separated from the Church on earth, which is the type of the purer Church in heaven.
(3) Tell it to the Church in justice to the obstinate offender, that he may be reproved before many and repent.
(4) That if he be excommunicated he may be treated as a heathen and publican. Those cast out of the kingdom of Christ belong to the kingdom of Satan. Church discipline is for Church members. The Christian is not forbidden to use civil courts against outsiders.
II LOVING.
1. Love"s reason for telling a brother his fault is to gain him.
(1) This is love"s reason for going to the offender rather than waiting for him to come. "Go and tell him." It will give him opportunity for explanation. The sense of injury is often the result of sensitive self-love.
(2) This is love"s reason for going to him privately. It will save him the exasperation of an unnecessary public reproach.
(3) The manner will accord with the object. The truth is told in love. The fault is not unduly magnified. There is no resentment.
2. Love"s reason for calling witnesses is still to gain the brother.
(1) "Take with thee one or two more." To avoid unnecessary publicity, the smallest number required to attest evidence is called in. (cf. Deu_19:15 Joh_8:17 2Co_13:1)
(2) The witnesses may add persuasion. The offender may listen to the pleadings of disinterested persons.
(3) The witnesses have the double function of seeing that the reproof is administered without malignity, and that, in rejecting it, the reproved is incorrigible.
3. Love also has reasons for then telling it to the Church.
(1) The offender may hear the Church and be gained.
(2) Church courts are preferred to those of the world, as more competent to deal with offences against Christian law. The more so when civil rulers were notoriously enemies of the saints.
(3) The purity of the Christian brotherhood must be preserved, The Church that condones things scandalous transgresses the reason for its existence.
(4) A scandalous Church can be of little service to the world.
III SPIRITUAL.
1. It recognizes the presence of God.
(1) The sanctuary of God is the assembly of his saints. (cf. Exo_40:24 2Ch_5:14 Psa_132:14 Mat_28:20 Rev_2:1)
(2) That presence is here promised in relation to maintenance of discipline. God is with his Church to quicken prayer, to answer petition, to guide in counsel.
(3) "If two of you shall agree," etc. "God sometimes stands upon a number of voices for the carrying of some public mercy, because he delighteth in the harmony of many praying souls, and also because he loves to gratify and oblige many in the answer" (Flavel).
2. It recognizes his ratification.
(1) "Binding and loosing." When the Jews set apart any to be a preacher, they said, "Take thou liberty to teach what is bound and what is loose," i.e. what is binding or obligatory and what is not.
(2) Here the question has relation to discipline rather than to doctrine. It is concerned also with things rather than persons. "Whatsoever," etc. "In the primitive Church absolution meant no more than a discharge from Church censure" (Wesley, in loc.).
(3) The ratification in heaven of the decisions of the Church, in the strict sense, applied to apostolic times when plenary inspiration was with it. (see Joh_16:24-26 Act_9:29-31)
(4) In a qualified sense it still holds good, viz. when the rules laid down in Scripture are observed.
(5) If through error or envy any be east out of the Church, Christ will find that soul in mercy. (cf. Joh_9:34, Joh_9:35) The instructions of the text come to us with the force of law. We have no option to pursue any different course with an offender, or any different order to that here prescribed. In the whole compass of pagan ethics there is no rule at once so manly, so benevolent, so wise, so practical. J.A.M.
Christian ways with trespassers.
This counsel seems to indicate that the dispute among the disciples as to who should be the greatest had gone a considerable length, had led to hard words, and even heart divisions. Our Lord made this the occasion for advice in relation to misunderstandings among Christians. It should be distinctly seen that his advice concerns cases of Christians, each party professing strict loyalty to Christ.
I TALK TOGETHER. Not just at once, while there is heat of feeling; but presently, when both have had time to grow calm, and give room to those regretful feelings which are sure to come when the more difficult passages of life are reviewed. When offence is given, the evil to dread is the disposition of each to stand aloof from the other. This can soon widen into hopeless separation. In common life it is the work of friends to bring such separated ones together; in the Christian life we find Christ expects both the offended and the offender to be seeking each other. Talk in a Christian spirit will often correct misunderstandings, smooth difficulties, and put things straight. But Christ puts the chief burden of seeking reconciliation on the injured one. The one against whom the trespass is committed is to act.
II BRING PRIVATE CHRISTIAN FRIENDS IN. There arise cases in which the judgment of one party may be blinded; and the correction may be beyond the power of the other party interested. Then it is wise to bring in independent and unprejudiced persons, who may help to unite the disputing parties. This will lead on to a consideration of the principle of "arbitration," and its possible adaptation, not only to Christian, but also to social and national disputes. For such arbitration the men of character and weight are sought. They gain power, in all phases of life, who culture character.
III LET THE CHURCH DEAL WITH THE MATTER. The point is this do not make a public thing of private disputes save as a last extremity. There will be different opinions as to what is referred to by the term "Church." Most probably our Lord was thinking of the recognized officials of the synagogue, who formed an "ecclesia," or Church, and acted, on consultation, representatively and authoritatively. Christ says, "Do everything by brotherliness; bring in the officials only as a last resort. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John A. Broadus 1886 · Public Domain Mat 18:15-35.
Mat 18:15-35.
How To Deal With A Brother Who Has Wronged Us
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This is found here in Matthew only, though stone of the expressions are paralleled on other occasions in Luke. The disciples having shown jealousy and selfish ambition (Mat 18:1), our Lord urged upon them humility and mutual kindness, and pointed out the great wickedness of causing the humblest Christian to sin. (Mat 18:2-14.) He now proceeds to give directions as to what course one is to pursue towards a fellow-Christian who has sinned. This is divided into two parts, (1) efforts to win back such a brother, Mat 18:15-20; (2) readiness to forgive great and often repeated offences, Mat 18:21-35.
I. Mat 18:15-20. Efforts To Win Back A Brother Who Has Sinned
If thy brother shall trespass, or sin. The addition in the common text against thee, is wanting in several of the earlier documents,[1] and was doubtless brought in by copyists from Mat 18:21, just as in Luk 17:3, it was inserted from the next verse. In this general form the directions of the passage apply to all attempts to win back a brother from sin. (Compare Jas 5:19 f.; Lev 19:17) To act quietly, and if possible privately, is hardly less important in other cases than when the sin was against ourselves. Still, the following context suggests personal offences, and that is still more plainly the case in Luk 17:3 f. The word ’sin’ was by Tyn. and followers translated ’trespass,’ probably because that word is used in Mat 6:14; and they translate it likewise in Luk 17:3 f. Notice ’thy brother,’ the following precepts being for individual action (Mat 18:15-17), after which he returns to the plural. (Compare on Mat 6:2.) In Luk 5:23 the injurer is addressed; here it is the injured. Brother’ might mean any man (see on Mat 5:22), but here means a brother Christian, as shown by the reference to the church in Luk 5:17. Go and tell (show) him his fault. ’And’ after ’go,’ is omitted by the correct text. The word means go right along, as in Mat 4:10, Mat 5:24, Mat 13:44, etc. ’Show him his fault’ is, more strictly, convict him of his fault, as in Joh 8:46, Joh 16:8 Jas 2:9. To convince a man that he has erred, especially that he has wronged the person addressing him, is a difficult and delicate task. Some wise counsels were given in Ecclus. Sir 19:13-17. A famous Rabbi of later times said (Wun.), "I wonder whether there is any one in these times that accepts reproof" (compare above on Mat 7:4). Another replied, "I wonder whether any one nowadays knows how to give admonition." Between thee and him alone. Thus the injurer would be more likely to acknowledge his fault than if approached in company, so as to arouse his pride; and thus the difficulty if settled need never be known at all. Thou hast gained thy brother,[2] might mean only gained him for thyself, but probably means also (Ewald, Meyer, Weiss) gained him for God and salvation. (1Co 9:19-22, 1Pe 3:1) In, or at, the mouth of two or three witnesses. It would seem to us more natural to say ’two or three witnesses,’ but ’two witnesses or three,’ is the Greek order, and so in 2Co 13:1, both corresponding to Deu 17:6, Deu 19:15. Compare Joh 8:17 Heb 10:28. There is nothing to forbid the ’one or two more’ from also helping to convince him. But with these as witnesses he cannot afterwards deny, or profess to have forgotten, what he had conceded. And if the matter has at last to come before the church, these witnesses can declare what passed in the private interview.
[1] Wanting in à B, three cursives, Thebaic, Origen, Cyril, Basil. Internal considerations seem to settle the question. The words were easily introduced from Mat 18:21, and agree well with the connection. We cannot conceive of a reason for their omission if originally present. So we must regard them as a spurious addition. In Luk 17:3 the documents which omit are much more numerous.
[2] Wünsche, in his great desire to find Rabbinical parallels to the sayings of Jesus, quotes here from Pirqe Aboth, "He that has won many for good, through him no sin is done." But the Hebrew word hamezakkeh, means simply ’he that makes pure,’ without any notion of winning or gaining; the similarity is greatly increased by the translation. There are other instances of the same mort in his useful collection.
Mat 18:17. Only as a third step, when the two more private efforts have failed, must he tell it unto the church. As to the general uses of the word ekklesia, rendered ’church,’[1] see on Mat 16:28. In the present passage it cannot mean the Jewish synagogue (Calvin, Beza, Fritz.); for it is impossible that Mat 16:18-20 should have been spoken with reference to a Jewish synagogue. It must here mean one of two things. (1) It may be the body of Christ’s disciples existing at the time he speaks, including the apostles. (Mat 18:18.) It seems to be intimated by this passage, together with Mat 16:18, that as the end of his ministry approached, Jesus began to regard and speak of his followers as a sort of community or association, a thing which would in itself appear not unnatural. The twelve apostles seem to have been grouped in companies of four (see on "Mat 10:2"). Yet we can hardly suppose that they alone constituted the ekklesia here spoken of, since there is no clear analogy for applying the term to them, and since Mat 16:19 f. refers, by common consent, to any gathering of believers, and not simply to a gathering of apostles. Upon this view, then, the word must denote a general community, including the apostles. The exact constitution of this supposed community cannot be determined. Some would liken it more to the Jewish synagogues, others to the churches described in Paul’s Epistles; neither side can prove its point. (1) The word ’church’ may be used by anticipation for one of the churches founded by the apostles. It might be taken for granted from the general analogy of the synagogues, that there would be some sort of assembly or congregation to which the person addressed in these instructions would belong. Perhaps the two ideas might be combined; ’the church’ might mean at the moment the existing loosely organized community of Christ’s followers then after the Day of Pentecost the one organized assembly at Jerusalem, and still later the local assembly with which the persons in question should be connected; e. g., ’the church at Corinth,’ 1Co 5:12. This question is of no great importance for the interpretation of the passage before us, whatever interest it may possess in general ecclesiastical theory. Tyndale, Cram, and Gen., correctly translated the word by ’congregation’; Wyc. and Rheims gave ’church;’ and this was one of "the old ecclesiastical words" which, by direction of King James, his Revisers retained. The Rev. Ver. of 1881 has placed ’congregation’ here in the margin, probably through recognition of the fact that the meaning of the originalis in this case somewhat undefined; for the word congregation has become gradually modified in meaning by usage, and can no longer be in general employed as the equivalent of church. Let him be unto thee, etc. The Rev. Ver. properly translates, as the Gentile and the publican, one with whom you have no communion or association, Rom 16:17; 2Th 3:14 (compare on Mat 5:46 f). This does not distinctly teach what we call excommunication, but contains the germs of that which Paul afterwards clearly taught.(1 Corinthians 5, 3-5)
[1] The English word church comes from the Greek kuriakon, ’the Lord’s (house),’ so used to some extent by the early Greek Christians (Skeat). The Teutonic tribes, when converted to Christianity, adopted this Greek word for the house of worship, and it is found now in the German kirche, the Scottish kirk, Anglo Saxon cyrice, cirice, circe, from which comes the English church. The use of the word was gradually extended to the assembly meeting at the church, an extension similar, though in the opposite direction, to that which has taken place in the words synagogue, parish, school, etc. (See on "Mat 4:23"). Those who wish to avoid the confusion which arises from applying the same word to the building and the assembly, would be keeping nearer to the history, at least, if they applied the term church only to the building. The Greek Christians themselves are not known to have ever used kuriakon for the assembly, and in modern Greek ekklesia is the only word in both senses. From this through the Latin form ecclesia, came the French eglise, our word ecclesiastical, etc.
Mat 18:18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth. He is directly addressing the disciples alone, (Mat 18:1) probably only the Twelve; but he has just mentioned the action of a church, and so the reference here seems to be not to apostolic action, but to church action (Bleek, Keim). Whatever Christ’s people, assembled in their organized congregation or church, may decide, is ratified in heaven, i.e., by God—unless, of course, the decision be in itself wrong. The point is that the church has God’s authority to decide. The reference here is especially to the settlement of a difficulty between brethren, but the statement is a general one. The power some time before given to Peter, (Mat 16:19) is now clearly given to others; the only question being whether it is to the apostles or to a church.
Mat 18:19 f. This is closely connected with the preceding. The church expresses the view, hotel an individual, but a number of Christians concurring in an opinion, and so is more likely to have the divine approval. He now adds that any petition in which two Christians unite, will be granted by God. Agree. The Greek word is used primarily of musical instruments that make the same sound, then of harmony, symphony, where the sounds agree, though not identical, then of agreement in general. Origen on this passage revels in the fancy of symphony in prayer. But it is doubtful whether more is here intended than the general idea of agreeing. On earth, as in Mat 18:18. You pray "on earth." the "Father who is in heaven" answers. As touching, or simply ’about,’ ’concerning.’ Anything that they shall ask, not simply any decision that a church shall make (is), but any petition which even two shall agree in offering. It shall be done, or ’shall come to pass,’ ’take place,’ see on "Mat 6:10". My Father which is in heaven, as in Mat 18:10; he gives his assurance concerning his Father (see on "Mat 6:9"). This promise is of course understood as limited, compare on Mat 7:7. The words ’in my name’ are naturally reflected back from Mat 7:20 upon the foregoing promise by the connecting ’for,’ so that we have here an implied anticipation of Joh 16:23. Men are more influenced by the united request of many persons than by the request of one; and this holds of requests to God. It applies also not merely to a large assembly, but to even two or three, when gathered in the Saviour’s name, and agreeing in their petition. In my name is here in Greek a different construction from Joh 18:5, but without substantial difference of meaning (see on "Mat 28:19"). They are assembled with reference to Christ, and not to some other person or object—assembled according to his teaching, in reliance on him as their Saviour, with desire to please him and to advance his cause. The pronoun I is not expressed in the Greek, and so is not emphatic, though commonly so uttered in English.[1] The point is not that I am there, but that I am there, in the midst of them. Theophyl: "There, not far away to be sent after and waited for, but there." Our Lord here distinctly points forward to a time when he will be corporeally absent but spiritually present. So in some of the instructions in Matthew 10, in the farewell discourse of John 14-17, and in the parting words of Mat 28:20. Notice that the language is perfectly general. It is no longer ’two of you,’ but in general ’two or three’; it is not ’there I shall be,’ but ’there I am,’ a general fact. And it holds, not merely of a large assembly, but of the smallest gathering in his name. He is there to give authority to their action as a church (Mat 18:18), by making it his action, and to give efficiency to their petitions (Mat 18:19), by adopting them as his own. It shall be done for them of my Father, for I am there. The Mishna (Aboth) has a similar expression: "Where two sit and occupy themselves with the law, the Shekinah is between them. Mal 3:16."
[1] The pronoun in the nominative is more frequently used in New Testament Greek than in classical Greek. Therefore its presence does not so certainly show eraphasis, but its absence does even more certainly (Impossible) than in classical Greek, show that there is no emphasis. (compare Joh 11:21, Joh 11:32)
II. Mat 18:21-35. Readiness To Forgive A Brother Who Has Wronged Us
Compare on Mat 6:12, Mat 6:14. Jesus had just been speaking of the proper way to act when a brother "sins," with special reference to personal offences. (Mat 18:15.) This suggests to Peter a practical inquiry, which he approaches the Master to make. Then (Mat 18:21) is therefore clearly to be understood strictly. (Compare on Mat 3:13) Jesus replies (Mat 18:22), and then goes on to enforce the duty of forgiveness by a parable. (Mat 18:22-35.)
Came, or approached, stepped forward from the group of disciples and came close to Jesus and asked him. Every person who attempts to exercise a forgiving spirit towards those who do him wrong, will sometimes have occasion to feel that Peter’s question was a practical one. We bring ourselves up from a sense of duty, to the point of forgiving; behold! very soon the same man commits an equal or greater wrong; and so, perhaps, again and again. How long are we bound to let this go on? How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? The former clause is simply the basis of the latter; so in the much discussed passage, Rom 6:17, and so perhaps in Luk 24:18. Tyndale, Cram, Gen., render, ’how oft shall I forgive my brother, if he sin against me?’ This expresses the thought, but takes unnecessary liberties with the phrase. Until seven times? He probably thought this a very high number. Chrys.: "Peter supposed he was saying something great." The Talmud of Babylon says, "When a man sins against another, they forgive him once, they forgive him a second time, they forgive him a third time, but the fourth time they do not forgive him" ’Seven,’ among its many uses, was sometimes a round number, Lev 26:21; Deu 28:25; Psa 79:12; Pro 24:16, etc. So our Lord, when speaking of this subject on a subsequent occasion, says, ’Seven times in the day.’ (Luk 17:4) Seventy times seven is the natural meaning of the Greek But it may mean (Rev. Ver. margin) ’seventy-seven times,’ which some of the best expositors prefer (Origen, Bengel, Ewald, Keim, Meyer), because precisely the same expression is found in the Sept. translation of Gen 4:24, where the Hebrew can signify nothing else than ’seventy-seven times.’ Compare Moulton in Winer, 314, n. Either way it is a general expression, which practically removes all limit to the repetitions of forgiveness. (Theophyl.) Of course all this rests on the supposition that we believe the man sincerely repents. (Luk 17:4) Otherwise we are not bound to forgive even once, in the full sense of restoring to confidence and affection. (See on "Mat 6:14").
Mat 18:23. Therefore. Since the Messiah requires his followers to forgive, and no matter how often (Mat 18:21 f.), therefore the Messianic reign resembles the story about to be told; under that reign men will be severely dealt with if they refuse to forgive (Mat 18:35). The kingdom of heaven, see on "Mat 3:2". Is likened, or has been likened, see on "Mat 13:24". Unto a certain king, literally, to a man, a king. The action of the Divine King is illustrated by that of a human king. Would take account, (wished to make a reckoning). This and ’to reckon’ in Mat 13:24 are kindred expressions, and ought not to have been differently rendered. Besides, ’take account of,’ is misleading, the idea being to settle accounts with. His servants, literally slaves (doulos), see on "Mat 8:6". It has always been common in the East to call the court officials the slaves of the king.—They are as dependent on his arbitrary will as a slave on his master, and with the servility which despotism engenders, they often seem even to delight in calling themselves by that name. This word doulos is similarly used in Mat 23:2 ff., and in 1Ki 1:47; the more common word in that sense is pals (see on "Mat 14:2"). In a kindred but not degrading spiritual sense Paul delights to call himself a doulos of Jesus Christ, and so James, Peter, Jude. In the parable, therefore, the king’s ’servants’ are the great officers of government, who received his revenues and attended to their disbursement. It was quite possible in one of the great Oriental despotisms for a treasurer, or the satrap of a province, to embezzle as much as twelve millions of dollars. Our Lord purposely supposes a very strong case, in order the better to illustrate the vast disparity between what God forgives to us, and what we are called to forgive to others.
Mat 18:24-27. Ten thousand talents. Besides the difference between a talent of silver and of gold, the gold talent varied greatly in value for different countries and periods. Archaeological exactness is here of no importance. According to margin of Rev. Ver., the ten thousand talents would amount to near twelve million dollars. We may see how vast the sum is by comparisons. The amount provided by David for building the temple was three thousand talents of gold, and seven thousand of silver, and the princes gave over five thousand talents of gold and ten thousand of silver, (1Ch 29:4, 1Ch 29:7) and the amount which Haman offered the King of Persia, for the destruction of the Jews, was ten thousand talents of silver. (Est 3:9) It is not necessary to suppose that the parable narrates a historical fact, but such things did happen. (Compare on Mat 13:3) To be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had. It is still common in Oriental countries to inflict all this upon a man of the highest station. The law of Moses allowed a man himself to be sold for theft, (Exo 22:3) or debt. (Lev 25:39, 2Ki 4:1) Worshipped, the prostration before a monarch, see on "Mat 2:11"; the Greek has here the imperfect tense, describing him as engaged in this lowly homage. The man only asked for indulgence, and he would pay. Perhaps he really hoped to do so; for men who go into vast fraudulent operations are usually of very sanguine temperament. Loosed (released) him, and forgave him the debt. ’Loosed’ (Com. Ver.) would now imply that he had been bound or imprisoned, a thing not indicated nor probable; he was ’released’ from arrest and from obligation. ’The debt’ is here more exactly (Rev. Ver., margin) ’the loan.’ In his compassionate mood the king chooses to speak of it as a loan, not an embezzlement; afterwards, in Mat 18:32, it is literally ’debt.’
Mat 18:28-30. One of his fellow-servants. One of the other court-officials; from the smallness of the debt we should think of him as an inferior officer. A hundred pence, or shillings. The Roman denarius, the word always used where our English versions have ’penny,’ varied in value at different periods; if we take the estimate in margin of Rev. Ver., ’a hundred pence’ will be seventeen dollars of our money. See, then, the disparity of the two debts—twelve million dollars, seventeen dollars. Or we could get the effect of round numbers by saying ten million dollars and ten dollars. This pictures the difference between the guilt of our sins against God and that of a fellow-man’s sins against us. Took him by the throat, or more literally, went to choking him. Pay that thou owest, or pay, if thou owest anything; the debt is small and hardly amounts to anything, but he is determined to have it. The Roman law allowed a creditor to seize his debtor and drag him before the judge, and Roman writers repeatedly speak of a man’s twisting the neck of his debtor till tile blood flowed from mouth and nostrils. Fell down merely; at his feet being an unwarranted addition. Besought and would not (Mat 18:29 f.) are in Greek in the imperfect tense, implying continued entreaty and refusal. All, at end of Mat 18:29 in Com. Ver., was an addition by copyists from Mat 18:26. The similarity of the plea to that which had just availed for himself failed to touch the creditor’s heart.
Mat 18:31-35. His fellow-servants, other court officials, high and low, saw what was done, what took place. (See on "Mat 6:10".) Told is in the Greek a very strong word, signifying that they gave a clear and complete account. His lord, etc.... said, O thou wicked servant. Chrys.: "When he owed ten thousand talents he did not call him wicked nor upbraid him, but had compassion on him; but when regarding his fellow-servant he was unforgiving, then he says, wicked servant." Shouldst not thou also have had compassion (mercy).... even as I had pity (mercy) (Mat 18:33), the same Greek word in both cases, and not that of Mat 18:27, but that of Mat 17:15, Mat 5:7. Tormentors (Mat 18:34), not simply ’jailers,’ as Tyn., Cran., Gen, but strictly ’torturers’; he was to be not now sold into slavery (Mat 18:25), but imprisoned, and from time to time tortured. This fearful punishment suggests the torments of Gehenna: compare Mat 8:29 Luk 16:23, Luk 16:28 Rev 14:10 f.; Mat 20:10. So... unto you. The comparison of sins to debts was a familiar idea to the Jewish mind. (See on "Mat 6:12".) From your hearts comes in at the close with emphasis. Their trespasses is a useless addition by copyists, and so is unto him, end of Mat 18:34. Nobody would have cared to omit either phrase if originally present, yet both are wanting in a number of the earliest documents. Forgive, see on "Mat 6:12"; ’hearts,’ see on "Mat 6:21".
Homiletical And Practical
Mat 18:15 ff. How to deal with a brother who has wronged you. (1) Do not await his coming, but go right away to him. (2) Make loving, wise, and repeated efforts to gain him, by personal interview, by the help of other brethren, by the help of the church. (3) As soon (Luk 17:3) and as often as he repents, forgive him (Mat 18:21 f.); and when tempted to be unforgiving, remember how much is forgiven you (Mat 18:35).
Mat 18:15. Chrys.: "He saith not, ’accuse,’ nor ’charge him,’ nor ’demand satisfaction,’ but ’tell him of his fault.’" Aug.: (in Aq.): "But why do you correct your neighbour? If you do it from self-love, you do naught; if you do it from love of him, you do most rightly." Henry: "We should think no pains too much to take for the recovering of a sinner to repentance."
Mat 18:16. Chrys.: "The physician, in like manner, when he sees the malady obstinate, doth not give up nor grow impatient, but then makes the more preparation."
Mat 18:19 f. United Christian prayer. (1) The prayer of many, even of two, is more likely to be for right objects. (2) The sympathy of common supplication promotes earnestness. (3) The Saviour himself is in the midst, making it his prayer to his Father. Cyril: "For it is not the number of those coming together, but it is the power of their piety that will be effectual." Henry: "If there be no liberty and opportunity for large and numerous assemblies, then it is the will of God that two or three should gather together. When we cannot do what we would in religion, we must do as we can, and God will accept us."
Mat 18:23-35. God’s unforgiving servant. (1) God forgives him an immense debt. (2) He refuses to forgive his fellow-servant some comparatively trifling debt. (3) God will punish him with terrible severity. All turns upon the ’if’ of Mat 18:35; a true servant of God will take warning and forgive.
Mat 18:32. Chrys: "Let us hearken, the covetous, for even to us is the word spoken. Let us hearken also, the merciless and the cruel, for not to others are we cruel, but to ourselves..... Let us not thrust the sword into ourselves by being revengeful."
Mat 18:35. Forgiveness. (1) Who must forgive? ’Every one.’ (2) Why must we forgive? (a) Fit in itself that they who wish to be forgiven should be willing to forgive. (b) Clearly taught that they who do not forgive are not forgiven; this parable and Mat 6:14 Jas 2:13. (c) A great privilege that we can thus express to God our gratitude for his forgiveness, Col 3:13. (3) How must we forgive? ’From the heart.’— Bruce: "Obviously Jesus has no sense of incongruity between the Fatherhood of God and the strange work of stern judgment on the unmerciful. Neither was there room for such a feeling. Just because God is a Father, and because his inmost spirit is love, he must abhor a spirit so utterly alien from his own. It is only what we should expect, that under the government of a gracious God the spirit of mercilessness should have judgment without mercy."
John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Mat_18:15; Mat_18:18
Mat_18:15; Mat_18:18
Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee.
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How to meet offences
Observe the method Christ has laid down-
I. The trespass supposed, whether accidental or designed. Whether it regards reputation, or property, or feelings, etc. Then, the direction given-
II. Seek a private interview. That he may explain, if possible. Better adapted for him to confess. More faithfully and affectionately admonished.
III. If this fail, take one or two more. Let them be unobjectionable, peaceable, prudent persons. These are to witness and aid by their counsel and influence. If this fail-
IV. Bring it to the church. Do so for these reasons:
1. For the offenders sake. He may hear the Church.
2. For Christianitys sake.
3. For the worlds sake, that they may see we are neither indifferent or malevolent. If he refuse to hear the Church, then he must-
V. Be removed from christian communion. This is the last act, and if this is rightly done, it is ratified in heaven (Mat_18:18). Do not let us neglect this order. You object He is not worthy of all this, etc.; This is troublesome, etc. But it is your duty; Christ demands it. (J. Burns, LL. D.)
Tell the offender his fault
A person came one day to see Mr. Longdon, of Sheffield, and said, I have something against you, and I am come to tell you of it. Do walk in, sir, he replied; you are my best friend. If I could but engage my friends to be faithful with me, I shall be sure to prosper. But, if you please, we will both pray in the first place, and ask the blessing of God upon our interview. After they rose from their knees, and had been much blessed together, he said, Now I will thank you, my brother, to tell me what it is you have against me. Oh, said the man, I really dont know what it is; it is all gone, and I believe I was in the wrong! (Anon.)
Private reproof
A reprover is like one that is taking a mote out of his brothers eye-now this must be done very tenderly. For this purpose it would be convenient, where it may be, that reproofs be given privately. If thy brother offend thee, tell him his fault between him and thee. The presence of many make him take up an unjust defence, who in private would have taken upon him a just shame. The open air makes sores to rankle-others crimes are not to be cried at the market. Private reproof is the best grave to bury private faults in. (Swinneck.)
Brotherly reproof
I. Whom are we to reprove? Our brother. This term, in general, comprehends all mankind.
II. For what are we to reprove our brother? It is for trespassing against us.
III. How we are to reprove.
1. Be sure that the person whom you are about to reprove is really guilty of the sin.
2. See that the sin, which you are about to reprove, be that heinous sin which you have taken it to be. We are not for every trifle to fly in the face of our brother, and to hale him before our tribunal.
3. When you are about to reprove a brother, you should consider whether there is any probability of your doing him any good by your reproofs. If the goldsmith were persuaded that his toil and sweat at the refining pot would answer no good but to injure his health, and perhaps to shorten his days, he would sooner break his utensils in pieces, and burst his bellows apart than engage in such unprofitable and unhealthy employment. Equally fruitless ii is to reprove some men. To reprove successfully requires no small degree of dexterity and penetration. It must be the combined work of a cool head, and a gracious compassionate heart.
4. When you are about to reprove a brother, go to him yourselves. Do not wait until he comes of his own accord to you.
5. He who would reprove with success, should be as unblemished as possible in his own conduct.
IV. For what end we are to reprove him. Not to please ourselves, or to gratify our private resentments-not to triumph over his infirmities or to display our superiority to him; not to insult him, or to make ourselves merry with his faults; but that we may win him over from the camp of the aliens, and restore him to his rightful owner. (Daniel Rowland.)
The necessity of ecclesiastical discipline
I. The gospel cannot be preserved without salt; nor-
II. Fraternal love without frankness; nor-
III. A particular Church without discipline; nor-
IV. The Church in general without a spirit of discipline. (J. P. Lange.)
Correction of fault a duty
He who sees his brother commit a sin and keeps silence, is equally in fault with him who does not forgive him who repents. The very elements teach us the benefit of this correction. For so fire chastises, and by burning purifies the air. The air by the blasts of winds chastises and purifies the water. In like manner, so does the water the earth. There can be no Christian charity in any one unless he afford the medicine of correction to an erring brother. (Anon.)
Private admonition best
It is true open sinners deserve open censures; but private admonitions will best suit private offences. While we seek to heal a wound in our brothers actions, we should be careful not to leave a scar upon his person. We give grains of allowance in all current coin. That is a choice friend who conceals our faults from the view of others, and yet discovers them to our own. That medicine which rouses the evil burnouts of the body, and does not carry them off, only leaves it in a worse condition than it found it. (Archbishop Secker.)
Do not parade other peoples faults
They are fittest to find fault in whom there is no fault to be found. There is no removing blots from the paper by laying upon them a blurred finger. What do you get by throwing stones at your enemys windows while your own children look out at the casements? He that blows into a heap of dust is in danger of putting out his own eyes. (Archbishop Secker.)
Test of friendship
It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend of his faults. If you are angry with a man, or hate him, it is not hard to go to him and stab him with words; but so to love a man that you cannot bear to see the stain of sin upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words-that is friendship. But few have such friends. Our enemies usually teach us what we are at the point of the sword. (H. W. Beecher.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 15. If thy brother. Compare Mark 9:38, and Luke…
15. If thy brother. Compare Mark 9:38, and Luke 9:49. Brother in the church. Sin against thee. Personally. Injure you or do you wrong. Shew him his fault. Go to him privately and have a kind, brotherly talk over the matter, and try to show him his fault. Gained thy brother. For thyself, by restoring good feeling; for God, by leading him to a sense of sin and repentance.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Mat_18:15. Moreover, etc.—Better, and if thy brother shall sin.…
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat_18:15. Moreover, etc.—Better, and if thy brother shall sin. A twofold train of thought is traceable in what follows.
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1. The presence of “offences” implies sin, and the question arises how each man is to deal with those sins which affect him personally.
2. The dispute in which the teaching recorded in this chapter had originated implied that the unity of the society which was then represented by the Twelve, had for the time been broken. Each of the disciples thought himself, in some sense, aggrieved by others. Sharp words, it may be, had been spoken among them, and the breach had to be healed (Plumptre).
Mat_18:17. Church.—The word “church” (Gr. ekklesia), is found only here and in Mat_16:18 in the Gospels. Carr says the reference is either to:
1. The assembly or congregation of the Jewish synagogue, or to:
2. The ruling body of the synagogue (collegium presbyterorum, Schleusner). This must have been the sense of the word to those who were listening to Christ. But, as Dr. Morison points out, the Saviour had deliberately gone out of his way to avoid the employment of the word “synagogue.” The expression, he adds, just means the church. And yet, as assuredly, it determines nothing as to the arrangements which the church might be at liberty to make for the profitable, seemly, and efficient transaction of its discipline and other business.
Mat_18:18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, etc.—What was spoken to Peter alone (Mat_16:19) is now spoken to all the disciples representing the church (Carr).
Mat_18:19. It shall be done for them.—The promise is dependent on implied conditions. Those who pray must be gathered together in the name of Christ (Mat_18:20), i.e. as trusting to His intercession, asking a prayer which is not the utterance of the natural but the spiritual man, asking it in entire submission to the will of their Father in heaven. In the absence of those conditions, as in the prayer of the sons of Zebedee, asking they knew not what (Mat_20:20), that which they desired might be withheld from them, or granted in quite another manner than that on which they had set their hearts (Plumptre).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_18:15-20
Collective grace.—“Occasions of stumbling” cannot always be avoided (Mat_18:7). When they do come how should they be dealt with? They should be dealt with by the “church,” in other words, by that general body of believers in Christ of whom He spoke under that name not long before, in reply to the confession of St. Peter (Mat_16:18). This seems to be the general principle implied in this passage. The cautions to be observed in applying it, and the reasons which make these cautions necessary seem to be the chief further points here presented to our notice.
I. The requisite cautions.—These may be regarded as three. The first is a caution against too great eagerness in applying this method at all. It is not the first thing—it is rather the last thing—to be thought of in such cases. The first thing to be thought of, if thy brother has offended thee, is the welfare of thy brother. The thing to be done, if it may be, is to bring him to a sense of his sin; and so, as it were, to “gain him” back again to his proper standing and place (Mat_18:15). If this be accomplished there will be no necessity for appealing to the church. And this can best be done, it is evident on the face of it, by dealing with him alone. Let this, therefore, be the universal first rule in regard to such offences. Do not have recourse to any degree of publicity till you have seen what private dealing can do. The next caution is on similar lines. Do not go by one leap from the individual to the general. Even if strictly private remonstrance should fail entirely of obtaining a hearing (Mat_18:16), there is a process far short of complete publicity which may be adopted with hope; and which you are bound to adopt, also, if you wish, as you ought, to make sure of your ground. In reality, the matter in question is one both of fact and of judgment. Has thy brother really done as you say? Is the character of that which he has done really that which you think? If he refuses to “hear” thee privately because he disputes these two things, endeavour to obtain the opinion of others about them; but only so in sufficient numbers for the occasion (Deu_19:15). And then, with these to fortify you (if they agree with you), appeal to him again. In any case, till you have tried this, do not proceed to the extreme step of appealing against him to all. Rather—so the legitimate inference is—try all other plans first. Finally, be careful if at last driven to this, not even then to push matters too far. Keep in view carefully what is the very outside of what you have to do in such matters. All that is asked of you, in regard to such offences, is to avoid complicity with the offender (cf. 1Ti_5:22). And all that the church itself can do legitimately, in regard to such offenders, is to withdraw its countenance from them. Let that, therefore, be the very utmost that you yourself seek to attain in this way. Let the most obdurate brother be to you only as not a brother in truth (Mat_18:17).
III. Why these cautions are so especially needed.—Generally, we may say, because of the vast importance attaching to the idea of the “church.” Like an ironclad on the waters, the great body of believers has a momentum about it which makes its least movement momentous. This seems to be illustrated here in three separate ways. There is special weight, we are taught, in the first place, in the common judgment of those who believe. In a general way we may even say of that judgment that it is the judgment of God. Whatever difference of opinion there may be as to the best way of ascertaining this common judgment, and whatever undoubted and formidable difficulties there are in the way of so doing, it cannot be doubted, that, if ascertained, it is a thing of great weight. No true believer will readily venture either on setting it aside, on the one hand, or adding to it, on the other (Mat_18:18). In a similar way, we are taught, next, that there is very great power in the common desires of those who believe. What God leads them to agree in (Mat_18:19), He agrees in as well. We cannot doubt this if we really believe them to be “led” by His “Spirit” (Rom_8:14). Neither dare we deny this even where the number of those thus “agreeing together” is the very least that it possibly can be in the nature of things. There cannot be agreement at all unless there are two at least to agree. If there are but two such, we are taught here, their prayer will be answered (Mat_18:19). Judge, therefore, of the efficacy of the “common prayer” of all who believe. Lastly, these things are true because of the special honour which it has pleased God to put on common confession of Christ. This would seem to be the secret of all. Where “two or three only” are so far united as to be “gathered together” in the “name” of Jesus, they are doing open homage to Him. The fact of their being there with that object—the fact of their having come there with that object—the fact of their being there unitedly, with that object—all lend significance to their presence. That significance is not lost on their Master. So far from this He is with them in spirit to accept their homage. He is with them in power to honour them for it; He is with them in grace to give weight and authority and efficacy to all that they do in. His name. That is why these “candlesticks” give the light that they do—because He Himself walketh in the midst of them (Rev_1:13). That is why “the blessed company of all Christian people” is the thing that it is—because it is “the fulness of Him who filleth all in all” (Eph_1:23).
Two brief but not unimportant lessons seem to follow:—
1. We shall be very careful how we allow ourselves to trust implicitly in all we hear on the subject.—There are those who are always ready to speak in the name of the church. They are to be found in very diverse and very far apart ecclesiastical quarters. We shall be very careful how we admit so great a claim simply because it is claimed. Nothing comes more naturally to a partisan spirit and a self-sufficient judgment and a narrow nature, than the assertion of such a claim. All the more reason for not allowing ourselves to accept it without thought (1Jn_4:1).
2. We shall be equally careful not to oppose ourselves rashly to what others think on this subject.—So to do, in effect, would be little else than making a church of oneself. And that may safely be said to be, of all conceivable churches, the farthest of all from the truth. How is it possible for one mind to be a collection of many? (cf. also Jer_7:4).
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat_18:15-17. Brotherly love in dealing with injuries.—“If thy brother shall trespass against thee,”—what? Pay no heed to it? Since it takes two to make a quarrel, is it best simply to let him alone? That might be the best way to deal with offences on the part of those that are without; but it would be a sad want of true brotherly love to take this easy way with a fellow-disciple. It is certainly better to overlook an injury than to resent it; yet our Lord shows a more excellent way. His is not the way of selfish resentment, nor of haughty indifference, but of thoughtful concern for the welfare of him who has done the injury. That this is the motive in the entire proceeding is evident from the whole tone of the paragraph, in illustration of which reference may be made to the way in which success is regarded: “If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.” If a man sets out with the object of gaining his cause or getting satisfaction, he had better let it alone; but if he wishes not to gain a barren triumph for himself, but to gain his brother, let him proceed according to the wise instructions of our Lord and Master.—J. M. Gibson, D.D.
Mat_18:17. The offender and the church.—
1. When more private means avail not to remedy a scandal, Christ hath appointed more and more public censure and discipline in His church. 2. Christ hath appointed a church of governors or rulers over congregations, and over all particular persons within the same, which must attend the complaints of the offended and remove scandals, and who have power to call before them and to examine and censure the offender for that end.
3. The church hath means and power to remove public scandal, which, being employed by the church and obeyed by the offender, excommunication is not to be used; for neglecting to hear the church presupposeth the church’s direction and order to be given forth for amendment of the offender and removing of the scandal.
4. When the church hath given sentence upon the offender and hath appointed the way to remove the scandal, then the offender should obey in the Lord, for Christ declareth it a censurable fault to neglect to hear the church. 5. If the offender disobey the church’s direction for removing the scandal, then the church may and should excommunicate the obstinate, i.e. declare him to be deprived of the honour of a Christian till he repent, and to be holden in such disrespect as the heathen and publicans were by the Jewish church in those days.
6. When the church declareth an offender contumacious or excommunicateth him as unworthy of the fellowship of the saints for his present abominable condition, then every believer must carry himself toward the excommunicate as toward a man disgraced and cast out of church-honour, to the intent the offender may be ashamed of his sin and repent.—David Dickson.
Mat_18:20. Christ’s church.—This is the principle of the text—wherever men come together for a common purpose, and that purpose represented by the name of Christ, there is in them a more than human power—the power of an indwelling Christ, wise to guide, patient to endure, strong to achieve. I wish to apply this principle to three aspects of church life.
I. This is the principle which underlies and gives its chief value to ecclesiastical independency.—We stand as Congregationalists, not for the principle that we will be free to do what we please, not merely for the principle that no other ecclesiastical organisation shall dominate us; we stand for a spiritual principle, that wherever men, whatever their form of creed, their method of worship, their organisation, come together, animated by a Christian purpose, there Christ is and there is a part of Christ’s church.
II. In this declaration is the secret and the inspiration of our faith in catholicity.—There are but two conditions to the promise—gathered together, and gathered together in My name. Go with me and take the round of the Brooklyn churches. Their creeds are not all correct. Possibly none of them are quite correct. Their formularies are not all correct, possibly. Not one of them is essential. But they are united in a common purpose, and they are united around a common Lord.
III. This text gives to us the secret of the power of the church.—It is the power of Christ in His church—not in a hierarchy, not in a definitely organised and established body, but in every body of faithful disciples united to worship Him and to work for Him.—L. Abbott, D.D.
Christ in the church.—The living presence of Christ in His church is:—
I. The bond of its union.
II. The soul of its worship.
III. The power of its ministry.—J. Branwhite French.
The power of combination.—The chemist mixes his various elements together in the battery, and when they are brought together, and the conditions are fulfilled, electricity is there. He does not summon electricity from some remote distance; but already dormant in those elements was the electric power, and when they are combined, instantly the electric power springs into existence. So Christ says, “In each one of you Christians there is a dormant power.” I am in you, but there is more of Me in all of you together than there is in any one of you separate and individually; and when you have combined around My banner and My name to do My will, there springs into existence, not merely the strength that comes from union, but the Diviner help that comes from this, that I am in the midst of that organisation, the spirit that inspires the body. It becomes at once more than human—it becomes Divine—the body of Christ.—L. Abbott, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain Mat 18:15-20. “If thy brother may sin, go, convict…
CHURCH DISCIPLINE
Mat 18:15-20. “If thy brother may sin, go, convict him, between thee and him alone.” Many a time you can win him by thus going privately and quietly, with the loving overtures of a friend and the sympathies of a brother. This is invaluable direction. Be sure that you heed it. It is awfully grievous to the Savior to go recklessly into Church discipline, widen the breach, and ruin the brother, world without end; whereas, if you had gone alone, not so much as intimating the matter to a human being, in the great majority of cases you would succeed. The great mistake is in speaking of it, and thus giving it publicity.
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“But if he may not hearken, take with thee yet one or two, in order than in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” If your kind and loving visit in the capacity of a sympathizing brother, no publicity having been given even to the Church, much less the world, has signally failed, after all you could do by prayer and entreaty to soften his heart and win him back for Jesus, — now the omens look really gloomy, rigid discipline, in all probability, becoming your imperative duty, in order to remove the unholy leaven out of the lump.
“And if he may not hear them, tell it to the Church; but if he may not hear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican. Truly, I say unto you, So many things as you may bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and so many things as you may loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” Church here is ekklesia, from ek, “out,” and kaleo, “to call.”
Hence it means the company of individuals called out of this wicked world by the Holy Ghost, and organized with a bishop — i.e., the pastor or leader of the band, having in charge the spiritual interest; a deacon — i.e., the holy man or woman having charge of the temporal interest; and the eldership, composed of the people enjoying spiritual seniority, being intrusted with the general interest. Our Lord here provides abundantly for the government of the Church, in this simple and unmistakable formula; i.e., first go to the offending party, alone with him, on your knees, with your tears of sympathy and words of kindness. If you fail, then take one or two brothers or sisters, filled with the Holy Ghost, and wait on him, invoking the blessing and help of God. If then you fail, bring the case before the whole Church. In case of final failure, let him be to you as a heathen or a publican. Now you observe that our Lord says that, pursuing this course, if faithful and true, your final verdict is ratified in heaven, standing valid, and preparing all parties to meet at the judgment bar. Thus our Savior has made perfect provision for the perpetuated purity of the Church, which is absolutely indispensable; as Paul says, “A little leaven will leaven the whole lump” — i.e., one corrupt member is likely to contaminate the whole Church, as one rotten potato will rot a barrel. O how the wicked, worldly Churches of the present day need the enforcement of this law! “Brother Godbey, it would tear our Churches all to pieces, and break up our organizations.” All right; Jesus makes no mistakes. Awful will be our responsibility. If we do not enforce discipline, and remove the rotten apples out of the pile, they will soon all go to destruction. Such is the apostasy of the Churches of the present age that discipline has become a matter of bygone history. If not revived and enforced, according to the very words of Jesus in this paragraph, which is plain, simple, practical, leaving excuse for none, we never can have a genuine revival of the Churches. Holiness people, beware! and enforce discipline as here enjoined by our blessed and glorious Lord, or we go the way of our ecclesiastical predecessors, in the track of fallen Judaism, Romanism, and the dead Protestant Churches. Good Lord, deliver us!
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXXIV. Sin and…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXXIV. Sin and Forgiveness].
LXXIV. SIN AND FORGIVENESS BETWEEN BRETHREN. (Autumn, A. D. 29.) aMATT. XVIII. 15-35.
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a15 And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. [Having warned against giving offense, Jesus now shows how to act when offense is received. The fault is to be pointed out to the offender, but for the purpose of gaining him--not from a desire to humiliate him. The offended is to seek the offender, [435] and the offender is likewise to seek the offended ( Mat_15:23, Mat_15:24), and neither is to wait for the other.] 16 But if he hear i thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. [Reconciliation is still to be sought, but witnesses are now to be called in preparatory to the next step, which is the hearing before the church, wherein their testimony will be needed.] 17 And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the gentile and the publican. [As the Saviour was giving preparatory instruction, he was compelled to thus speak of the church by anticipation before it actually existed. The word "church" means assembly, and the apostles knew that there would be some form of assembly in the kingdom about to be set up. When Matthew wrote his Gospel, churches were already in existence. One who will not hear the church is to be regarded as an outsider. This implies that such a one is to be excluded from the church.] 18 Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. [The binding and loosing here mentioned is limited by the context or the subject of which Jesus now treats. Binding represents exclusion from membership; loosing, the restoration to fellowship in cases of repentance. The church's act in thus binding or loosing will be recognized in heaven if performed according to apostolic precept or precedent. Hence it is a most august and fearful prerogative.] 19 Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. [These two verses illustrate the sublime power of the church which has just been suggested by its right of excommunication. A small church of two or three can prevail with God in prayer [436] (in matters not wholly at variance with his will) and can be honored by the very presence of the Christ.] 21 Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? [Peter, seeing that the language of Jesus called for large forbearance, asked the Lord to fix the bounds. If we accept the Talmud as probably representing the ideals of forgiveness which pertained among the Jews of that age, we find that Peter was striving to be liberal, for the Talmud limits forgiveness to three times.] 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven. [Jesus here plays upon the words so as to show that there is no numerical limitation. To keep track of four hundred ninety offenses one would have to open a set of books with his neighbor, which would be ridiculous. Forgiveness, prayer, and charity know no arithmetic. Peter's question brings to mind the forgiveness of God and calls forth the following parable.] 23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, who would make a reckoning with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, that owed him ten thousand talents. [Assuming that the silver talent is meant ($1,600), the debt was $16,000,000, which would render the debtor hopeless enough. If it was a gold talent, it would be nearly twenty times as much. 25 But forasmuch as he had not i wherewith to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. [The law of Moses allowed such a sale-- Lev_25:39-47, 2Ki_4:1.] 26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27 And the lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. [Seeing the man's apparent willingness to pay, and knowing the hopelessness of his offer to do so, the lord compassionately forbore to sell him and forgave him the whole debt.] 28 But that [437] servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him an hundred shillings [The denarius or shilling was worth about seventeen cents. The debt was, therefore, about $100]: and he laid hold on him, and took i him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. [This frenzy to collect might have been somewhat pardonable had the lord still been demanding his debt, but, that debt being forgiven, such harsh conduct was inexcusable.] 29 So his fellow-servant fell down and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee. [Compare this conduct with that depicted in 2Pe_2:20-22.]
[FFG 435-439]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23")
trespass
Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain How to Deal with an Erring Brother.
How to Deal with an Erring Brother.
v. 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.
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v. 16. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
v. 17. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Note the connection: God does not want a single one to perish, to be lost, especially not the weak and erring, whose weakness might make them a comparatively easy prey in case they are tempted. The purpose of this entire passage is to show how a weak and erring brother or sister may be won back to Christ, even if it be a matter of some difficulty, of hard work. "Against thee": not referring mainly to personal offenses, but rather to sins about which one has a first-hand knowledge, which have drawn attention and are sure to offend Christ and the Christian religion. Sins they must be, not personal peculiarities. The latter may make a person unfit for some office in the Church and come into consideration only in that connection. But the Lord is concerned about the former only in this passage. "Christ now says: ’If thy brother sin against thee,’ that is, if he bears himself thus that he publicly lives against God and His Word. For that means to sin against thee and all Christians, which is done against God’s honor, or which is done and sinned against God, as when one despises God, blasphemes His Word, or sins against the Second Table, as in stealing, robbing, hurting, lying, and deceiving. Now if this comes to thee, if thou noticest it, then tell him his fault between him and thee. Thou shalt not publicly expose him on the market or where thou art, before everybody, but remember that he is still thy brother, therefore keep silence in the presence of others and go to him, take him alone before thee, in a kind manner admonish and rebuke him, say: This I have heard of thee, see that thou desist there from, lest God punish thee. Then it may well be that he will gladly hear thee and thou gain thy brother and bring him back to the right path. " The entire manner of speaking and acting must be kindly, but emphatic, yet dignified. The hatred of sin, but the love of the sinner, must be evident. Note also: It must be a brother, a fellow-Christian, for whom this work of love is done, 1Co 5:10-11.
If this first attempt at serving the brother and gaining him back from his error should fail (and it may be a matter of Christian wisdom to repeat the private admonition several times), then the second measure must be adopted. A careful selection of these witnesses is also a matter of loving judgment. The injunction is based upon Deu 19:15. For a second time every effort should be made to have the erring one submit to the admonition. Patience and the object of gaining the erring brother must dictate every word, without, however, derogating from the dignity of the Word of God. Truth and righteousness must be upheld at all costs.
If, now, the full application of this measure also fail in spite of all efforts, in spite of all kindness and patience, then the last measure must be resorted to; there is no alternative. If the erring brother pays no attention to your admonition, if he shows no evidence of realizing his sin, if he refuses to be convinced in spite of clear passages of Scripture condemning his manner of acting, then the matter must be brought to the attention of the whole congregation. This is not the Church in its totality, but, according to common Jewish usage of the word, and also according to Christ’s own explanation, verse 19, the local, visible congregation. And again shall appeal and admonition be employed with the object of winning the brother. The length of time is not prescribed and may vary in different cases, if only the erring one may be brought back to knowledge. But finally, if all efforts are of no avail, the condition of facts must be stated. The former brother must be declared to be as an heathen man and a publican, as one that is outside of the Christian Church, by his own fault and in spite of the most painstaking care and loving search.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus begins to teach his disciples about forgiveness and reconciliation.
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your brother
This refers to a fellow believer in God, not a physical brother. AT: "your fellow believer"
you will have gained your brother
"you will have made your relationship with your brother good again"
so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might be verified
Here "mouth" and "word" refer to what a person says. This can be stated in active form. AT: "so that two or three witnesses may verify that what you say about your brother is true" (See: Metonymy and Active or Passive)
translationWords
brother
sin
testimony
word
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 18:15-35 The believing community must not be fractured into…
18:15-35 The believing community must not be fractured into rival parties and unreconciled relationships. Its members are to pursue reconciliation (18:15-20) and forgive willingly (18:21-35). At times, however, stern discipline may be necessary (18:17).
18:15-20 Restoration begins privately and should be made public only as a last resort.
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18:15 If another believer sins, love requires us to go privately and point out the offense (Lev 19:17; Luke 17:3; Gal 6:1; 1 Tim 5:20; Titus 3:10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.