"Matthew Eighteen": A Viable Contention
Where Principles of the Gospel are Concerned?
by Debra Bouey
Introduction
With the advent of mass media there has been an
explosion over the airwaves of preachers and teachers. Radio and television
shows provide a platform which reaches thousands and thousands of people
daily. Often, less than orthodox teachings proceed from some of these
electronic pulpits. When Biblical apologists comment publicly on these
aberrant, sometimes heretical, teachings, the principals involved, and their
supporters, quickly and repeatedly raise the "Matthew 18 Argument",
contending that the "brother" [or, as the case may be, "sister"] should have
been approached privately, "according to Matthew 18". To that end, it seems
judicious to examine the passages in Matthew 18 in light of the whole
counsel of Scripture. Is Matthew 18 a valid contention in these instances?
Let us go to God's Word and see.
The Passages at Issue --
Matthew 18:15-17:
And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he
listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to
you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three
witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to
them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the
church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer.
Here, in these passages, Jesus sets the standard by which we, as
Christians, are to deal with those who sin against us individually.
These verses relate specifically to sins committed between individual
believers. Jesus is telling us how the conflicts between individual
believers are to be resolved so that the believers may be reconciled with
one another, alleviating strife and dissension. As Matthew 18:35 tells us,
we are to forgive one another from the heart and that forgiveness is not
contingent upon whether or not the believer who has wronged us either
apologizes or makes amends -- we are to forgive unconditionally, as we have
been forgiven.. In the matter of strife and wrongdoing between individual
Christians, a plenarily inspired Paul elaborates further in I Corinthians
5:12-6:7:
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those
who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove
the wicked man from among yourselves.
Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare
to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Or do you
not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged
by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do
you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this
life? If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do
you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this
to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will
be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with
brother, and that before unbelievers? Actually, then, it is already
a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather
be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
I Corinthians 6:7 is a forerunner to chapter 13, "Love...is not provoked,
does not take into account a wrong suffered...". But here, we are dealing
with what a Christian's behavior should be in a situation where one believer
has treated another unjustly and not with a matter concerning the principles
of the Gospel. One is a personal offense, the other is an affront to the
Gospel truth.
Is There Scriptural Precedent for Public Correction?
Yes, there is, in matters which affect the principles of the Gospel. Paul
states in Galatians 2:11-14:
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he
stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he
used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw
and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. And the
rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even
Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they
were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas
in the presence of all, "If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and
not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like
Jews?
Why did Paul confront Peter publicly "before them all"? Because he "saw that
they were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel" and their words
and actions were causing others to be led astray. Therefore, we see a
clear-cut Biblical precedent for public rebuke where it concerns aberrant
teachings which depart from the truth of the Gospel.
In II Timothy 2:15-18, Paul calls false teachers by name ("Among them are
Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth...".) In
Acts 20:29-31, Paul tells us he continued to warn the early church about
false teachers and doctrine for three years. ("Therefore be on the alert,
remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease
to admonish each one with tears.") In fact, the New Testament is replete
with public correction of erroneous teachings within the church.
Why is it Important to Correct Publicly?
As James said,
"Behold, the ships
also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still
directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot
desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body...Behold, how great
a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!" [James 3:4-5]
Words are powerful; God likens the tongue to a rudder on a ship and a bit
in a horses mouth. These, in themselves, are powerful words recorded there
in James for our counsel, caution and exhortation.
Words are so powerful, that when the Hebrew nation went into battle, God
commanded that any man who was "afraid and fainthearted" should be
sent home "so that he might not make his brothers' hearts melt like his
heart." [Deuteronomy 20:8, among others] God knew that if the fearful
stayed in the ranks, they would speak of their fear and act accordingly,
thus causing others to become fearful as well. We often influence one
another with our words, even, perhaps especially, when we are not aware we
are doing so.
Where the straightforwardness of the Gospel is deviated from publicly,
those aberrant words are equally as powerful and potentially influential to
the hearers, particularly to seekers and those who may not be well- rooted
and grounded in God's Word. In such situations, we must not remain silent.
We are as accountable to God for remaining silent when we ought to speak out
as we are for speaking inappropriately or when we ought to remain silent.
Furthermore, God has said in Proverbs 18:21a:
"Death and life are in the power of the
tongue". . .
Throughout Scripture, we see the damage errantly spoken words can do; how
they impact and sway the hearer(s). Therefore, with the potential for
countless thousands on the other end of radios and televisions to be led
astray, correction of aberrant, often heretical, teachings needs to be
equally as public. When erroneous teachings are proclaimed to broad
audiences as Gospel truth, thereby impacting and influencing them, shouldn't
those errant teachings be repudiated to equally as public and broad of an
audience? The issue here is not fault-finding, but addressing public
teaching of false doctrine related to the foundational tenets of our
Christian faith.
Isn't Public Correction Unloving?
No, it isn't. Quite the
contrary. Proverbs 27:5:
Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed.
It simply isn't Divine love to sit by and do nothing where the
straightforwardness of the Gospel truth is concerned. I am not talking about
wrangling over words and making obtuse arguments about peripheral issues,
but where the Gospel itself has been departed from. It only takes a few
errant words to firmly fix an aberrant, unorthodox doctrine in the minds of
the hearers... "Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small
fire!" [James 3:5b] We are talking about a very "narrow gate" here, as Jesus
Himself stated in Matthew 7:13-14:
Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad
that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the
gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those
who find it.
If we, as Christians, are all one Body [in Christ] as we claim to be,
then we ought to love another enough to speak the truth in these matters...
and to hear the truth and receive correction as well...even when it may be
an unpopular truth. We ought to love one another enough to "contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."
[Jude 3]
The phrase "contend earnestly" in Jude is unique in all of the New
Testament. In the Greek, it means to contend, literally to the point of
agony, as an athlete might in the Olympic games, as competing and contending
to win the prize. That is a very distinctive mandate to vigorously contend
for the faith, for the Gospel truth in the face of aberrant teachings. In
fact, the little epistle of Jude tells us both why [false teachers] and how
[in the love of God] we are to "contend earnestly" for the faith.
Isn't Public Correction Divisive and Harmful to the
Unity of the Body?
We need to understand that if we don't "rightly divide the word of truth"
[2 Timothy 2:15], God's Word will divide us. God always draws a dividing
line between truth and error. We also need to understand that Jesus Christ
did not come to bring the shallow, superficial kind of peace which downplays
the profound differences between truth and error just for the sake of some
kind of specious unity. Any kind of "unity" which calls for unanimity for
unity's sake itself--strange as that may seem--is a false unity if it has
compromised and attempted to unite truth with erroneous, faulty teachings.
Anything we make concessions at the expense of God's truth to get--
including unity, especially unity--we will ultimately lose. What compromise
really means is that nobody gets what they want, doesn't it? God is not
interested in providing solutions "everybody can live with", but, rather,
with truth, holiness and righteousness. Which is precisely what often
separates God's version of "unity" and "oneness" from man's ideas about what
constitutes unity.
Man's version of unity is not
what God wants--and certainly not unity at the cost of compromising the
Gospel. He wants a holy people separated to Himself--this is what Jesus
meant when He said "follow Me". For far too long, many of us have labored
under the misconception that putting on a unified "front", while overlooking
aberrant teaching within the ranks, will usher in revival. Not so. When
God's people really start seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness
[Matthew 6:33]--earnestly seeking to live our lives, worship and pray
according to God's Word, "hating even the garment polluted by the flesh"
[Jude 23], loving His truth and loathing sin and error--then God Himself, by
His beloved indwelling Holy Spirit, will unite and knit together the hearts
of them that love Him and His truth. Then God's light and glory will shine
forth from the midst of such a people and the world will know. We, the
professing Body of Christ, will never know true, Christ-centered unity any
other way. Church history these last 2000+ years has revealed to us that
inescapable fact.
(Sidebar)
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"Rightly dividing the word of truth"
Debra Bouey
In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul is exhorting Timothy to study to
show himself approved before God by "rightly dividing the word of
truth". In the Greek, "rightly dividing" is orthotomeo,
which comes from temno, meaning "to cut" and orthos,
meaning "straight." (1)
We are told in Acts 18:3 that Paul was by trade a
tentmaker. Therefore, it is possible in his use of the compound verb
"rightly dividing", which literally means "to cut straight", he may have
been drawing a metaphorical allusion to his own trade. During New
Testament times tents were made by piecing together animal skins in
patchwork fashion. (2) Each skin had to be
carefully cut according to the pattern or they would not fit together
precisely to make the whole tent as it should be. Paul was telling
Timothy to "cut it straight", to handle correctly and accurately, in a
forthright and scrupulous manner, each part of Scripture or the whole
message would not emerge accurately and reliably.
Just as certainly as a finished tent would emerge in a
haphazard fashion if each skin was not carefully cut, so, too, will the
message of God's Word be perverted by us if we do not take painstaking
care to study it in a principled, straightforward and precise way. After
all, the sum total of what we come away from Scripture with will be no
better than the effort we have put into studying the various parts of it
-- if we are off in the accurate interpretation of any part of
Scripture, then we have failed to "cut it straight", and to that extent
our understanding of the whole will be clouded and erroneous.
In the epistle, Paul is entreating Timothy to accurately
and faithfully teach and convey the truths in God's Word. Paul's
plenarily inspired emphasis on this makes it all the more crucial that
our leaders, pastors and teachers, as well as each of us individually,
"cut it straight" and be found rightly dividing the word of truth.
Furthermore, we are exhorted and admonished, through the indwelling Holy
Spirit, to guard, watch and defend this entrusted, unchanging truth,
which has been delivered once for all time to the saints [2 Timothy
1:14; Jude 3]. May we always encourage and exhort one another to
continuously do so.
Endnotes:
1. Wuest, Kenneth S., Word Studies in
the Greek New Testament, Volume II, p. 135; and Vine, Unger, White,
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, p.
178.
2. Grower, Ralph, The New Manners and
Customs of Bible Times, p. 160; and Smith, Dr. Willaim, Smith's
Bible Dictionary, pp.685-6. |
We need to be separated from error. Where there is ongoing denial of, and
unwillingness to clearly and soundly repudiate false teachings, rather than
attempting to unite truth with error under the guise of misguided "unity"
and "love", we need to understand that division is not an undesirable thing
in that context, but a needful thing and we should take action according to
the Biblical criteria. Consider carefully why Paul uses such strong and
forceful language in Galatians 1:8, then goes on to reiterate and
reemphasize the point in verse 9:
But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a
gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be
accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is
preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be
accursed.
Paul is referring to any perversion of the Gospel The message, Paul is
saying, must not change, and must not be changed, even by him, because the
absolute truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ never changes--this is "the
faith which was ONCE FOR ALL delivered to the saints." [Jude 3] and any
deviation therefrom is to be insufferable. It does not matter to Paul here
whether the one who might come preaching "a gospel contrary" was doing so
out of the best of, albeit misguided, intentions or not. There is no
qualification here whatever...because the Gospel deals with the eternal
destiny of souls and so, therefore, it is a life and death matter. Simply,
an extraordinarily strongly-worded "...if any man is preaching to you a
Gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed."
In a brief aside, it occurs to me as I have been pondering over the
various passages dealing with these matters, if Paul was here today, he'd
likely be called "unloving" and "divisive" for his preaching regarding
aberrant teachings. He rebuked and offered correction publicly in Scripture
and I expect he'd do so equally as publicly if he was here with us today.
Proverbs 28:23:
He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor Than he who
flatters with the tongue.
Closing Thoughts
How the individual reader views the "Matthew 18 Contention" and contending
earnestly for the faith is highly dependent upon what place one gives the
written Word of God. Do you view Scripture as God's absolute, objective
truth? As the gauge by which all teachings and subjective spirituals matters
are to be measured?
Today, some would have us believe that "God is bigger than His word" in
an attempt to elevate a subjective, experience-oriented faith above a sound,
Bible-based Gospel. Consider Psalms 138:2b, where God tells us He has
equated His Word with His name; with His very character:
"For Thou hast magnified Thy word according
to all Thy name."
There is today a group of people who believe themselves to be "apostles
and prophets", claiming there is a "new move of God", a "third wave" and
"fresh [extra-Biblical] revelation" through dreams and visions. In fact,
some have gone so far as to equate those who do not agree with their
assertions with "Saul", while likening themselves to "Davids". Whether there
are prophets in the church today is not the issue at hand. The crux of the
matter is this: Is our standard for the personal practice of our Christian
faith going to be determined by the accumulative evidences of the objective
Word of God--the Bible--or shall we make our criteria for the practice of
our faith dependent upon the personal, subjective spiritual revelations and
prophecies of an exclusive, modern-day cadre of self-professed apostles and
prophets?
Are we going to view personal spiritual revelations through the lens of
God's Word or are we going to view God's Word through the lens of personal
spiritual revelations? The former--God's Word--is objective and absolute
truth. It is as applicable to your life as it is to mine and has been to
countless other dear saints who have preceded us. The latter--personal
spiritual revelations--are subjective, not absolute...and not always
accurate. Acts 17:11:
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for
they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures
daily, to see whether these things were so.
Paul not only didn't object to the Bereans "examining the Scriptures daily,
to see whether these things [Paul was teaching] were so" [Acts 17:11], but
he highly commended them, calling them "more noble-minded than those in
Thessalonica". If we wish to avoid error and deception, we all should be as
"noble-minded" as the Bereans were. In evaluating all teachings and
subjective spiritual revelations, we should never forget Isaiah 8:20:
"To the law and to the testimony: if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
"Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason, my conscience is
captive to the Word of God....God help me. Here I stand. I can do no
other." [Martin Luther]
Except where otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from
the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971,
1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California.
This
article first appeared in the April, 1996 issue of The Christian
Conscience. For information regarding this article please email us at
conscien@nacs.net or write to us at:
Iowa
Research Group, Inc.
PO Box 449
Ravenna, OH 44266
© 1996 The Christian Conscience. All Rights Reserved. Permission to
reproduce or republish these articles must be obtained in writing at
conscien@nacs.net or at the address above.
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