Read Matthew 18:15-20
Wouldn’t you prefer someone told you when you had some noseâ€gold showing? Sure, it would be a bit embarrassing, but not as much as if you walked around that way all day! The same is true for Christian living. Too many people excuse themselves from confronting a friend over doing something wrong with the phrase, “Don’t judge.†Judging someone means telling them they’re going to hell, not telling them when something is wrong.
Christians are called to confront one another in love (Matthew 18:15ff; Galatians 6:1). If you say nothing about sin in a friend’s life, your nonâ€action is as unloving as being mean-spirited and judgmental. We need each other in a world influenced by sin and the devil. Friends don’t let friends take sin casually.
Today’s passage provides four stages for loving, Christian confrontation:
The fact is that most modern people caught in sin would not stay around a church that practiced these stages of accountability. At best they’d go to another church and at worst they’d not go anywhere. So you need to identify Christâ€followers you trust and give them permission to tell you when you have a booger in your life.
Wouldn’t you prefer someone told you when you had some noseâ€gold showing? Sure, it would be a bit embarrassing, but not as much as if you walked around that way all day! The same is true for Christian living. Too many people excuse themselves from confronting a friend over doing something wrong with the phrase, “Don’t judge.†Judging someone means telling them they’re going to hell, not telling them when something is wrong.
Christians are called to confront one another in love (Matthew 18:15ff; Galatians 6:1). If you say nothing about sin in a friend’s life, your nonâ€action is as unloving as being mean-spirited and judgmental. We need each other in a world influenced by sin and the devil. Friends don’t let friends take sin casually.
Today’s passage provides four stages for loving, Christian confrontation:
- Talk about it just between the two of you.
- Take an objective person along if s/he won’t listen.
- Bring the issue before the whole church if s/he still doesn’t acknowledge what is wrong.
- Excommunication—which means not to serve communion to him/her until s/he expresses desire to change with God’s help.
The fact is that most modern people caught in sin would not stay around a church that practiced these stages of accountability. At best they’d go to another church and at worst they’d not go anywhere. So you need to identify Christâ€followers you trust and give them permission to tell you when you have a booger in your life.