OUCH!!!

I was exposed to a passage in scripture a few years ago that quite literarily changed my life.  It’s found in the book of Matthew chapter 18 verses 15-20.  The person sharing this passage with me refered to it as an “ouch” passage.

“If a believer does something wrong, go, confront him when the two of you are alone. If he listens to you, you have won back that believer. But if he does not listen, take one or two others with you so that every accusation may be verified by two or three witnesses. If he ignores these witnesses, tell it to the community of believers. If he also ignores the community, deal with him as you would a heathen or a tax collector. I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you imprison, God will imprison. And whatever you set free, God will set free. “I can guarantee again that if two of you agree on anything here on earth, my Father in heaven will accept it. Where two or three have come together in my name, I am there among them.”

(Mat 18:15-20)

 

I think of myself as a pretty simple man.  I like my coffee black and strong, I enjoy my children’s laughter, I appreciate straight forward conversation and the list goes on.  This approach to life, I admit, bleeds over into the approach I take towards understanding scripture and applying it to my everyday walk.  I think that the most effective approach to “interpreting” scripture is to usually go for the most obvious meaning.  This is especially true to this scripture.  When someone does something that we believe to be wrong then we ought to talk to them about it.  I don’t think God is calling us to go around pointing fingers day in and day out.  I don’t believe He’s called us to operate like this in order to live in continual conflict…just the opposite.  When I treat people this way and people treat me the same, I find that it leads to reconciliation…to a deeper relationship filled with mutual respect, honor and love.

I also combine Matthew 18 with an approach that I received from a book I read called PeaceMaker.  It’s a book about conflict resolution and one of the things the author brings out is a “48 hour” rule.  Basically, if I can over look it and get over it within two days I ought to simply overlook the “wrong”.   On top of this I am trying to assume the best out of people whenever possible.  In other words, assume they didn’t mean anything so hideous as my mind can imagine. 

If you read further in Matthew 18, you’ll find Christ very quickly begins to talk about forgiveness. 

The bottom line for me is that love takes risks.  This can get messy and there will be some “ouches” along the way, but the end result is usually something quite beautiful…a community of believers who love and respect one another.  This sounds pretty cool to me.  The clincher is that we all have to challenge each other to live it out.