Daily Devotional For Friday, January 12, 2024

Another passage that people misuse (because they do not understand the context) is where Jesus says this in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (ESV). Wow, what a promise this seems on the surface. You get the feeling or impression that if you get 2-3 Christians together that God is there to do some mighty things either through prayer for effort. 

But that is not the context for Matthew 18:20. The context is church discipline based on Matthew 18:15-20, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. (16) But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. (17) 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 collector. (18) Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (19) Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. (20) For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them” (ESV).

God’s desire for His people is that they should be pure. If you are a student of God’s Word, you know that God is passionate about His people being holy. Sin breaks God heart. He grieves over our sin. Look at Leviticus 11:44a, “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” (ESV). Peter basically quotes this in his letter in 2 Peter 1:16, It is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (ESV). My question is this, since God is extremely concerned with holiness, shouldn’t we His children have the same concern? 

It is hypocrisy for the church to attempt to preach and/or teach part of God’s Word that we do not personally obey and live out in our own lives. It’s called integrity. Yet many church say they are for holiness, godliness and purity in theory but not in actual every day life. They tolerate sin. God never does. Just read about Sodom and Gomorrah. When the church is not much different from the world, then we have lost our witness.

And one of the areas the church has divorced itself from is church discipline for sin. When we have no desire for purity, there will be a desire for impurity. And when we attempt to do this, then others throw into our faces Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:1-2 as a justification for sin. This is one of the misused verses I wrote about in a devotional on January 28, 2024. Yet, in the New Testament we see the God used the Apostles to prove He never tolerates sin. Go to Acts 5 and read about a couple named Ananias and Sapphira. God killed them for such unholiness of greed and attempting to lie to the Holy Spirit and the Apostles. Though this was rare in the early church, it still occurred.

If you don’t think God has always disciplined His children, just read the Old Testament. Why? As His children it is not enough to tell us what is right to do, we must be led to do it. Every great parent understand this. When we read Matthew 18:15-18, we see this issue of church discipline being encouraged by God. Yet, when we come to Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:18-19, His words have suffered serious misuse due to great misunderstanding. 

Look at the phrase “Whatever your bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” The idea here is that when any church follows church discipline when needed, it will conform its actions to what God has already done and in the process, receive heaven’s blessings.

So, who are the 2 or 3 mentioned here? The witnesses in verse 16. The thought is when the church initiates church discipline according to God’s Word, the God jumps in and acts on the behalf of the church. When these 2 or 3 witnesses in verse 16 gather in His name, they have gathered to verify if the person actually repented or did not. Therefore, Matthew 16:20 is not about 2-3 in a small group, or a connect group, or Sunday School Class who have gathered to study God’s World and pray. No. These are those who have come to participate as witnesses in church discipline. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a German pastor who went back to Germany to oppose Hitler and Hitler had him killed. But before he was executed, he wrote this book called Life Together and in it he wrote these words: 

“Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen even in the midst of a pious community. In confession, the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be openly spoken and acknowledged. All that is secret and hidden is made manifest. It is a hard struggle until the sin is openly admitted, but God breaks gates of brass and bars of iron (Ps. 107:16).

Since the confession of sin is made in the presence of a Christian brother, the last stronghold of self-justification is abandoned. The sinner surrenders; he gives up all his evil. He gives his heart to God, and he finds the forgiveness of all his sin in the fellowship of Jesus Christ and his brother. The expressed, acknowledged sin has lost all its power. It has been revealed and judged as sin. It can no longer tear the fellowship asunder. Now the fellowship bears the sin of the brother. He is no longer alone with his evil for he has cast off his sin from him. Now he stands in the fellowship of sinners who live by the grace of God and the cross of Jesus Christ. . . . The sin concealed separated him from the fellowship, made all his apparent fellowship a sham; the sin confessed has helped him define true fellowship with the brethren in Jesus Christ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Row, 1954, pp. 112-113).

Scripture To Meditate On: Proverbs 10:17, “People who accept discipline are on the pathway to life, but those who ignore correction will go astray” (NLT).

Prayer to Pray: “Dear Jesus, I can be stubborn to admit to my sins. I do not want to be this way. I want You to use Your people to confront me when I sin. Help me not to get defensive, but to accept it as coming directly from You. Lord, I need You and I need Your discipline through Your church. Thank You Lord, in Jesus’ name, Amen!”