Living in the Spirit
September 6, 2020
Scripture Reading:
Matthew 18:15-20
‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’
Scriptures like the one above make me wonder why I committed to using the Lectionary as my source for these devotions. I had grown weary of the use of small sections of the Bible being used, often out of context, to support systems of belief that seemed to be incongruous with other parts of the Bible. I continue to think we need to study the Bible as a whole and deal with those incongruities. So here I go trying to evaluate this scripture with some objectivity rather than following in Thomas Jefferson’s example and just cutting out the sections I do not care to deal with.
First, we need to understand that the word adelphos*, translated here as “church,” is not the same thing as the building in which we attend worship. Some will include the people who worship in that building as “church.” Others may extend that meaning to our denomination, and perhaps even other denominations with whom we might interact. We may think of the church universal as all Christians. The Greek word means brother and is extended to mean a brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian*. Today, using the phrase religious community instead of “church” might have been more meaningful. Jesus is giving instructions regarding how a community of faith is to solve problems. I must confess, I checked to make sure I was reading from Matthew rather than Paul because this sounds very much like what he wrote to the churches he served.
My Sunday school class had an interesting discussion once where one participant indicated that sin relates to our relationship to God and that he did not think we sin against one another. The word translated sin in this scripture means missing the mark. It is used originally as I miss the mark, hence (a) I make a mistake, (b) I sin, commit a sin (against God); sometimes the idea of sinning against a fellow-creature is present**. My classmate might be right in one regard. If we miss the mark as related to another, we may also commit sin against God.
In either case, the advice is sound that we should deal with misunderstandings and mistakes before they fester and grow into significant impediments to our advancing in a community the vision and mission of God through Jesus Christ.
Prayer: God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, help us to follow you more nearly as we bring with us the sound teachings of our past, live in your love now, and set the stage for the greater good for future generations. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/greek/80.htm
**https://biblehub.com/greek/264.htm
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.