May 25, 2010
Between You and Him Alone
When we feel slighted, abused or sinned against, we often want more than just a resolution; we want the world to know of our mistreatment. I’m not so sure that we ever lose that childhood need to tattle. The Lord however has a pattern to take the tattle out of the tattler, “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. 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. 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.” (Matt 18:15-17 ESV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----The Indians recognized the great circle of life. Do we Christians recognize it as well? Jesus told the wronged man to go to the one who did him wrong because the affairs of life begin at intimacy with God. Survival depends upon consumption, and much of consumption depends upon the death of another. Every hamburger and chicken finger we eat are processed from the death of another living creature. Then we make belts and handbags and shoes with their hides. We are little bothered by all of this because we see bugs eating each other, birds eating the bugs, cats eating the birds, and coyotes eating the cats. It is so natural that we even consume each other with hardly a thought, of course, not at the dinner table, but by our weights and measures, at our property lines, and over our water rights. For our own survival and pleasure we encroach upon things and situations and opportunities that rightfully belong to others. But the values and concerns for the rights of others are to grow through our individual relationships with God. These are conscience. They are brakes for applying to the consumption process so neighbors can survive and enjoy as well. The call of the wronged man upon the wrongdoer is a call for him to engage his brakes. It is a call upon his intimacy with God out of respect for the survival of even the wrongdoer’s identity.
-----But if the wrongdoer does not himself complete the circle through intimacy with his victim, then the victim must broaden the circle slightly by calling forth witnesses to both argue the case and provide more incentive for the return of respect. If a relationship with even the witnesses is not a sufficiently valuable incentive, then more of the predator’s identity will be consumed by the matter being made known to everyone else who is intimate with God. If this final result fails, then the last of the villain’s identity dies by his display of refusal to respect the rights of others.
-----And all of the intimacy which came from God for having with one another returns back to God. We are all witnesses before God of the wrongs done to us and of which we have seen done to others. Not so much that we will stand before God in His court of judgment and testify of what others did during this life, but that what gets done to anyone in this life gets done to Him (Matt 25:31-46). That is a very intimate return of our regards to God, and a definite completion of the circle.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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