PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 18:15-35
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“Treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:17)
Jesus has demonstrated His compassion and passion for rescuing, restoring and reconciling with ‘little ones’, those who are struggling, wandering or looked down on (Matthew 18:1-14). Now He continues to show His compassion and passion with this process for increasing mercy for a brother or sister who sins.
This teaching is traditionally understood as a process for discipline. But what it if is a process for merciful rescue, restoration and reconciliation. The increasing steps are not intended to increase guilt or pressure, but to increase gracious, loving kindness. We need to understand each step (go yourself, go with a few others, go with the church) AND the last step (treat them as a pagan or tax collector) as how Jesus would do them. This is is how God through Jesus graciously seeks and saves the lost.
The last step is not a punishment. How did Jesus treat pagans and tax collectors? Like the Roman centurion, or Zacchaeus, Matthew and their friends? He ate with them, associated with them, helped them, served them, blessed them. This is God’s redemptive love in action: increasing steps towards healing and restoration. In a grace community (i.e. church), discipline is an expression of discipleship, not punishment. It reflects (or ought to reflect) how Jesus treats us.
This does not mean we should not protect victims from sinners, or firmly deal those who mistreat others. Concern for the ‘little ones’ must go the extra mile to protect any and all victims. But the process of protection, like the process of reconciliation, must also reflect grace and not final judgment. Final judgment awaits the final return of Jesus. Until then, every step of discipleship and discipline needs to be handled with grace and mercy.
The way of redeeming love is also seen in Jesus’s words about binding and loosing (Matthew 18:18). I always understood these words as related to punishment (that is, restricting or releasing). But what if the binding is how wounds are handled (Psalm 147:3, Luke 10:34) and loosing is how oppressed are rescued (Isaiah 58:6, Luke 13:15-16)? Why not be more eager to rescue, restore and reconcile than to punish? Our goal should always be to “win them over” (Matthew 18:15), not just to win over them! This is the way of redeeming love!
Lord Jesus, the kind of grace You show me is much harder when it is directed to someone who sins against me. Help me to be more eager to win them over by grace than to win over them with judgment.