Brotherly Behavior
BROTHERLY BEHAVIOR
MATTHEW 18:15-22
Much church living could be transformed if people sensitively obeyed 18:15. Don’t ask the minister or pastor or tell the gossips; win the offender!
These verses present us with a short “manual of discipline” regulating the conduct of Jesus’ followers one to another. In 18:15 the words “against you” are probably a later addition (cf. NEB): it is the duty of a disciple who sees his brother commit a fault to try to put the matter right privately or, failing that, in the company of one or two others. (The reference to “two or three witnesses” in 18:16 is a quotation from Deuteronomy 19:15). To ignore the fault would be unfair both to the offender and to the community as a whole (cf. Leviticus 19:17 for an Old Testament precedent and Galatians 6:1; James 5:19f. and 1 John 5:16 for New Testament applications of the principle). But publicity must be avoided if at all possible. Only if the offender remains obdurate must the community at large be informed.
The “church” in 18:17 is (unlike that of 16:18) a local company of disciples. The situation envisaged is one that would arise after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Refusal to accept the verdict of the Church amounted to self-exclusion from its fellowship. If we reflect on Jesus’ attitude to Gentiles and tax collectors, we may conclude that the Church would consider it had a duty to win this self-constituted outsider back into its communion. But the verdict of the Church, reached in accordance with Jesus’ teaching, was assured of heavenly validation (18:18); the authority conferred on Peter in 16:19 is here extended to the whole body of disciples.
The mention of “two or three witnesses” (18:16) is followed by an assurance given to “two or three” united in prayer in Jesus’ name: their concerted petition will be granted by God, for Jesus himself is among them (18:19f.). The reference is to his unseen presence after Easter rather than to his visible presence during his ministry, when he could be only in one place at one time. We may compare the dictum of an early-second-century rabbi: “When two sit and the words of the Law are between them, the Shekinah rests between them.” It would be incredible, if it were not confirmed by experience, that any single group should try to monopolize the Lord’s assurance of 18:20, which was intended for all his disciples.
Peter’s question about the limits of forgiveness (18:21) suggests (what is perfectly true) that to forgive the same person seven times would be a mark of exceptional patience (cf. Luke 17:3f.). Jesus’ reply, counselling unlimited forgiveness (18:22), perhaps expresses a deliberate antithesis to the “seventy-sevenfold” (or seventy times sevenfold) vengeance of Lamech’s song (Genesis 4:24). The disciples must emulate their heavenly Father’s all-embracing forgiveness (cf. 5:43-48; 6:12).