Allow me to give you pretext to the title of today’s quiet time. In Matthew 18, Jesus addresses the issue of having a fellow Christian do you wrong. In other words, because I’m not going to use the word “sin,” he or she did or does something so egregiousness and so offensive to you that you are angry and/or upset. I’m going to be honest here, we Christians are so overly sensitive that everything anybody does is offensive and egregiousness enough to upset us and make us boil with anger, but that’s a different story altogether. Let’s just say that this said Christian person really really did something that was terribly wrong to you or you witnessed it personally and it was such a heinous act that you need to do something about it for the good of society. Yes, this is the situation Jesus is addressing. He says to that: first confront him or her. If that doesn’t work, then tell other people in your faith family and have them address it in the form of an intervention. If that doesn’t work, and this is where we pick up the Bible passage for today: If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:17 ESV) If you read this verse and you walk away thinking that the Bible is saying erase that person from your life and/or walk away from that person or stop being involved with that person then you are wrong. Contextually the Jews had nothing to do with “gentiles” because they were “unclean.” Likewise, the Jews saw tax collectors as traitors that funded Roman supremacy on their sovereignty.Before Jesus, this type of behavior would have been acceptable and even allowable. But Jesus is underpinning a deeper message, a more radical message than what meets the eye. Jesus wants you to treat this person that doesn’t listen to your advice or take the counsel of an intervention as you would treat somebody who doesn’t know God. How do you treat somebody who doesn’t know God then? That’s right, you go and make them a disciple of God, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Effectually, what Jesus is saying to all of us who have turned our back on our failure and reject of friends is that we need to go out to them even more so because they don’t know God and they need to become disciples vis-a-vis our actions and love toward them. It’s an incredibly tall task that most of us will not want to embark in. However, Jesus makes it clear that this is the only way to deal with somebody who doesn’t want to be dealt with because of his or her own stubbornness– you have to show them God’s love and be that love to them. Lets try it today.
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