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NASB | Matthew 18:15 ¶ "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 18:15 ¶ "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens and pays attention to you, you have won back your brother. |
Bible Question: Based on Matthew chapter 18 versus 15 through 20. Should I confront the man my biological sister is having an affair with. He is divorced and she is separated. Her marriage is over but family is beginning to accept this new man. I feel I cant and feel I should follow the above mentioned scripture. However, Ive been told to allow God to deal with him and was directed to Romans chapter 12 versus 17 through 21. Id like Godly counsel on this matter from folks not directly involved. I will mention that all people involved are professing christians. Thanks |
Bible Answer: Dear His alone, Below are some citation from a transcript of John Mac Arthur's on the passage. Hope they are helpful: verse 15. “If your brother sins, go and reprove him in private.” Anybody have a hard time understanding that? If your brother sins, implied your sister as well. People say, “What sin? To what degree?” Well the whole point here is it doesn’t tell us what sin and it doesn’t tell us to what degree because any sin to any degree is a defilement. If your brother sins, go and reprove him in private. Don’t talk about it to other people which is the tendency, isn’t it? “Whoa! Did you hear about what she did?” That is not according to Scripture. That is in itself a sin. If your brother sins...any sin is a defilement, any sin not only defiles his life, not only because it may involve you personally, defiles your relationship, but any defilement of any believer becomes a defilement of the whole because we are one body. So, you go in private. And then verse 15, “If he listens to you,” which would mean, “I understand that. I regret that. I want to turn from that.” That’s what you’re looking for. I love this, “You have won or gained your brother.” Look at Galatians chapter 6 and just the opening couple of verses. “Brethren, even if a man is caught in an trespass,” here again the general character of this instruction is notable. Any trespass, any sin, “You who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself lest you too be tempted.” Look, we all understand what it is to be tempted and to sin. This is not hard for us to grasp. Understanding human frailty, understanding the power of temptation, understanding the residing flesh, we go after these people, desiring to restore them because they have value. The word restore, katartizo, means to repair. It’s actually a medical term used of resetting fractures, or mending bones, putting dislocated limbs back in place. The idea then of this dealing with sin is certainly not to put people out. It’s to restore them because they have so much value. And you do it in a spirit of gentleness. Never should this be harsh. Always it should be bathed in compassion, tenderness, sympathy, patience, mercy because you understand fallenness. It’s our universal experience. Our model for this, go back to Matthew 18, our model for this is actually God. And He set that model in the prior verses. Go back from verse 15, just a few verses, to verse 12. “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it with...rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.” And who is that talking about? Verse 14, “Thus it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” To read more, please go to: http://www.gty.org/Resources/transcripts/90-348 Shalom Azure |