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Preached in Markham Baptist Church,
March 5, 2006
SCRIPTURE'S "ONE ANOTHERS":
PART 3 -
ADMONISH ONE ANOTHER
Matthew 18:15-17
It is with a realization that we are called
together to be the church, Christ’s body that we come to the last in our
series of one another statements, admonish
one another. You could ask – why did you choose such a
remote one another statement? Out of all the one another statements to pick,
why this one? And I chose it for that very reason. It is not frequently
practiced and even shied away from in the church yet it remains an activity
that Scripture says should be prominent in the life of the church.
What does it mean? It means
to correct. It means to instruct.
In fact the New International Version Bible often translates it this way.
But it means more than to instruct or teach. It has a definite goal of
bringing teaching with the view of correcting. Other synonyms are:
to counsel; to warn; to reprove.
The texts that encourage the practice of admonishment are
many.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you
teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing psalms, hymns
and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” (Colossians
3:16)
“And we urge you, brothers, warn [admonish] those who
are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:14)
“I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you
yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to
instruct [admonish] one another.” (Romans 15:14)
And while the word is not used in Galatians, the principle is still there:
“… if someone is caught in a
sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.” (Galatians 6:1)
And all of these are summed up in our Lord’s own words
where he says, “If your brother sins …. Go and show him his fault…”
(Matthew 18:15)
So clearly this whole idea of going to our
brother and sister who is in sin and confronting them with it, with the view
of restoring them is not an elective. It is not an option for the
church of Jesus Christ. We have an obligation to God, to His Word
and to one another to practice this “one another” statement.
We have often heard that we should not judge one
another. Indeed, this is Scriptural. Jesus says in Matthew 7:1 “Do not
judge, or you too will be judged”. But the problem in the church is
that we have taken that verse to mean that we are to accept any and all
behaviour, and that’s not Scriptural. We are to be a people who are able to
discern right from wrong, and we are to stand for the truth and truthful
living. This is only logical. Jesus says that there two paths in life. The
narrow way that leads to life and the broad way that leads to destruction
(Matthew 7:13). We have to be able to judge what behaviour constitutes the
narrow way and what behaviour constitutes the broad way. We are not called
to simply say to the world, it doesn’t matter how you live because we cannot
judge you.
I believe that what Jesus is says in Matthew 7:1
is that we are to be a people who practice grace. We are to be a people who
practice forgiveness. He is not telling us to accept any all behaviour.
Read 1 and 2 Corinthians and you will discover that we are indeed called to
stand for truth and call one another to live for truth.
So, how can we recapture this
biblical mandate of admonishing one another? First, let’s
remember that the church is the body of Christ.
So often, while we love to think of the church as a body
and while we celebrate such passages as Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and
Ephesians 4, we still persist in living lives as individuals. We are
content to be fellowships of independent members with minimal accountability
to God and even less to each other. Often our motto is share with no one,
don’t let anyone in our personal space, to know our pains or joys, our
frustrations, the sins we battle. (Did you know that Scripture calls us to
“confess our sins to one another” in James 5:16? How many of us have been
part of that small group?)
If the conversation in our small group gets too close we
shut the conversation down and say, “That’s too personal”. So we keep
everything on a superficial level - we like the idea of a club more than a
real church. We forget that we are called to be the body of Christ and thus
are members of one another. Romans 12:5 - “So in Christ we who are many
form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
We are interconnected.
So Paul writes to the Corinthians about his sufferings and he writes, “Besides
everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the
churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I
do not inwardly burn?” (2 Corinthians 11:28-29) He had view of the
church as the body of Christ, if one part of the body was weak, “I feel it”
says Paul.
Oh how we need to learn again that we are all one body,
we are all one team, we are all responsible for the other.
Second, we can recapture this biblical principle by
remembering that holiness matters to God.
Do you agree that holiness matters to God?
“For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a
holy life.” (1 Thessalonians 4:7)
“Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16)
“As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God
and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a
spiritual house to be a holy priesthood…” (1 Peter 2:4-5)
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
belonging to God.” (1 Peter 2:9)
You see, holiness matters to God. It is a wonderful truth
that when we got saved we were given a ticket to heaven. But never, never,
never think that that’s the goal of your salvation. The goal of your
salvation and mine is that we would be transformed from the life of sin and
bear again the image of God in holiness, purity. We are saved to glorify
God and we do that by demonstrating His character in us – by demonstrating
His holiness.
Holiness matters to God. In Hebrews 12 we read of how
God disciplines - that is, admonishes, corrects, rebukes, guides. We read of
how he disciplines his children why? “Our fathers disciplined us for a
little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that
we may share in his holiness.” (Hebrews 12:11)
Holiness matters to God so
much so that He disciplines us in order to bring it about.
We are called to be a pure people. It matters to God how
you live. Are you gambling? Purchasing lottery tickets, playing the office
pool? Stop. You are called to be a holy people. Are you cheating
on your taxes? Stop. Are you a gossip? Stop - it’s not
becoming of a Christian. Are you watching pornography? Stop. Are
you thinking of moving in with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Don’t do
it. We are called to live holy lives.
Your holiness matters to God. No, it doesn’t win us His
favour, but our holiness is the primary way in
which we demonstrate our worship, our love for God. Our living
holy lives demonstrates to God that He is number one in our lives and we are
living for Him.
“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us
purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit,
perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1)
The holiness of His church matters to God. A holy
church, living purely and fully for God, is a potent force in this world
because it receives His full blessing. (Read the history books of the Old
Testament and you will see how God blessed the people when the kings tore
down the false idols in the high places and the people sought to live
according to God’s Word and in dependence upon God.)
So admonishment is not an elective for the church of
Jesus Christ. It grows out of an understanding that we are members of one
another and that holiness matters to God.
And it from these two truths that we discover
two motivations for practicing admonishment in the
church.
It comes from the realization that we are the body of
Christ. So we have a deep love for one another.
Admonishment, correction grows out of a deep love for one another. I don’t
have time today, but if you want to see the heart of a true admonisher read
1 and 2 Corinthians - it is amazing! The Corinthian church was a mess - it
was filled with factions, anger, sexual immorality, disorder, pride,
gossip. It was a mess. And Paul writes three times to correct the mess (we
don’t have one of his letters.) He visits twice and all is done with this
feeling: “I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with
many tears not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for
you.” (2 Corinthians 2:4)
It is out of love for one another that we seek to go to a
brother or sister who is in sin and confront them with it. We sometimes
think that it is unloving to confront a brother or sister with their sin,
but that is wrong thinking. The very opposite is true. It is unloving not
to confront a brother or sister with their sin. Oh Lord, may it never be
that we be so unloving toward one another that we refuse to admonish one
another.
Paul says to the church in Ephesus - do you remember how
for “three years I never stopped warning (admonishing) each of you night
and day with tears.” (Acts 20:31)
I love what he says there, with tears. It’s the
heart of a true pastor for his flock. It’s the cry of every member of the
body for every other member of the body.
The second motivation comes from the realization that
holiness matters to God. So we seek to admonish
one another with the view of seeing Christ formed in others.
This is to be our motivation - the desire to see others grow in the maturity
and Christ likeness. That’s why we go to our brother or sister who is in sin
and seek to correct him or her. Listen to Paul writing to the Galatians
where he says, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of
childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (Galatians 4:19)
Do you have that kind of desire for one another? Do you
have that kind of agony that Christ would be formed in each person here? Or
are you saying – “O well, I hope so and so gets along okay. But if not, oh
well.” You see, holiness matters to God and it should matter to us. We are
not called to live individually separate lives uninvolved, unconcerned for
one another.
Holiness in each one of us matters to God. Just think -
if you admonish another, you could be the instrument through which you bring
another that much closer to maturity in Christ.
We are members of one another. This is not a club. This
is the living body of Jesus Christ and we are to have regard for one another
– be as in the pains of childbirth for one another until Christ is formed in
each one. And if one of us is committing a sin we need to care for one
another enough to confront them with it.
I know it’s hard. I will never forget going the home of
a parishioner in my previous pastorate. He was divorced and the church
walked with him through that. But then he went and lived with a woman who
was part of another church in town. I had to confront him. It was ruining
his reputation as a Christian, it was destroying his witness for Christ, it
was blatant disregard to God’s call to holiness. We talked and he said,
What do you want me to do, pastor?” I said you need to live apart. He
wouldn’t do it. He said, “We’re adults and we can do what we like. Besides
that the there are benefits to living together.”
But what about holiness? Whatever the physical,
emotional and financial benefits there are, surely they do not outweigh the
benefit of living a holy life and receiving God’s blessing? I pleaded with
him for two and half hours. He wouldn’t budge. So I asked him not to
return to worship.
It’s hard and it’s risky but it’s what we are called to
do as a church of Jesus Christ.
So that is the foundation and the motivation for
admonishment. The question now is how do we
admonish one another?
Do we go searching for sin in everyone? Do we go on the
proverbial witch hunt looking for sin? No, no, no. That’s not what
Scripture calls for. But when we are aware of sin in a brother or sister’s
life we are to admonish one another. How?
First, do it out of love,
seeking to move another toward maturity in Christ.
Second, let’s be sure to
practice admonishment along with the other “one
another” statements. The danger for the church is to neglect
admonishing one another. And the other danger is practicing admonishment in
isolation from the rest of the “one anothers”.
Admonishment is one of the body functions that we
are to carry out. It is one that we must not neglect, but it is also not
one that we are to practice without encouraging one another, serving one
another, building one another up, loving one another, offering hospitality
to one another, honouring one another. It has been a trap that the church
has fallen into in the past – so that it is seen as a people who are always
wagging the finger but never washing the feet.
Third, admonishment must be
practiced with self-awareness. Jesus said, ‘Why do you look
at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the
plank in your own eye? … First take out the plank out of your own eye and
then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
(Matthew 7:3-5)
I find it interesting that Jesus never says we should not
take out the speck out of our brother’s eye. It’s not that should never
correct a brother or sister, it’s that we are to be sure that we are living
holy lives - that the very thing we are seeking to correct in others is not
something that we are guilty of ourselves.
Then admonish privately.
This is what Jesus says in Matthew 18:15. “If your brother sins against
you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” Do you
see that? Jesus doesn’t say, share it with other like-minded people. Don’t
ask your small group to pray for you because you are going to admonish a
specific person. Don’t send it out on the prayerpost that you are doing
this. Don’t gossip about it - go privately and do it.
That also means we must
admonish courageously. Many of us lack courage when it comes to
admonishing one another. But Christ calls us to it, out of love and out of
a desire to see the other grow in their relationship with Christ.
It also means that we must
admonish honestly. Show him his fault. Don’t beat around the
bush, but lovingly bring it to the person.
And it means that we must
admonish personally. YOU go to him and show him his fault.
Don’t send the pastor, don’t send someone else. You go.
Jesus goes on to say, in Matthew 18: “If he listens to
you, you have won your brother over.” That has nothing to do with your
opinion trumping his opinion, it has everything to do with bringing your
brother or sister back to holy living, back to living the Christ way.
In the rest of those verses Jesus says, “If he will
not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be
established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
This is based on the truth of the law of Moses (Numbers
35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6) and it also makes perfect sense. The person might
not be able to see the wrong he is doing, or the person who is admonishing
may have the facts wrong. Either way, bringing
two others will bring impartiality to the case.
Then, if he refuses to listen,
tell the church. “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to
the church.”
Some may say this is a bit harsh – but consider it comes
from the lips of our loving Lord. Again we are members of one another.
Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - March 2006 |
