Having the Attitude of

Christ toward Sinners

      Suppose
your brother does you wrong; an evil word, perhaps, or an unkind action done
against you—something that you feel deeply as a real personal trespass against
you. It is a sin, of course. Nobody knows it, probably, but himself and you.
What are you to do? At once this great principle is applied:When you were
ruined and far from God, what met your case? Did God wait till you put away
your sin? He sent His own Son to seek and to save you. “The Son of Man came to
seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). This is the principle for
you to act upon. You belong to God; you are a child of God. Your brother has
wronged you? Go to him and seek to set him right. It is the activity of love
that the Lord Jesus presses upon His disciples. In the power of divine love we
are to seek the deliverance of those who have wandered from God. The flesh
feels and resents wrong done against itself. But grace does not shroud itself
in its own dignity, waiting for the offender to come and humble himself and own
his wrong. The Son of Man came to seek the lost. I want you, He says, to be
walking after the same principle, to be vessels of the same love—to be
characterized by grace, going out after the one who has sinned against God.
This is a great difficulty unless the soul is fresh in the love of God and
enjoying what God is for him. How does God feel about the child who has done
wrong? His loving desire is to have him right. When the child is near enough to
know the Father’s heart he goes out to do the Father’s will. A wrong may have
been done against him, but he does not think about that. It is his brother who
has slipped into evil, and the desire of his heart is not to vindicate self but
to have the brother righted who has gone astray that his soul may be restored
to the Lord.

“You and Him Alone”

      “Moreover,
if your brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault between
you and him alone” (Matt. 18:15). It is not here the case of a sin known to a
great many, but some personal trespass only known to the two of you. Go, then,
to him and tell him his fault between you and him alone. “If he shall hear you,
you have gained your brother.” Love is bent on gaining the brother. So it is to
him who understands and feels with Christ. It is not the offender, but your
brother that is the thought before the heart:“You have gained your
brother.”

Further Steps

      “But
if he will not hear you, then take with you one or two more, that in the mouth
of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (18:16). Is it
possible he may resist one or two who come to him, witnesses of the love of
Christ? He has refused Christ pleading by one; can he refuse Christ now that He
pleads by more? It may be, alas, that he will. “And if he shall neglect to hear
them, tell it unto the church.” The church means the assembly of God in the
place to which these all belong. “If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it
unto the church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto you as a
heathen man and a publican” (18:17). The assembly, then, is told of the guilty
person’s fault. The thing has been investigated and pressed home. The church
warns and entreats this man, but he refuses to hear; and the consequence is:
“Let him be unto you as a heathen man and a publican.” This is a most solemn
issue! A man who is called a brother in the preceding verse is now to me as a
heathen man and a publican.

The Kind of Person Who

Is to Be Put Away

      We
are not to suppose the man necessarily to be a drunkard, thief, or fornicator;
but he is one who shows the hardness of self-will and a spirit of
self-justification. It may arise out of small circumstances; but this unbending
pride about himself and his own fault is that on which he may, according to the
Lord, be regarded as a heathen man and a publican. In the case of open sin or
wickedness, the duty of the church is clear:the person is put away. Nor would
there be reason in such a case for going one at a time, and then one or two
more. But the Lord shows here how the end of this personal trespass might be
the same:the Church has finally to hear it may have to put the unrepentant
sinner away.

      (From
Lectures on the Gospel of Matthew.)