sermon: Dealing With a Sinning Brother
An Attitude of Love and Forgiveness
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 19-Mar-11; Sermon #1037; 69 minutes
Description: (hide)
Richard Ritenbaugh, reflecting on the incident of the blatant sinner in I Corinthians 5, observes Paul’s administrative decision to disfellowship the offender pending his repentance, lest he contaminate the entire Corinthian congregation. Corinth may have been the wickedest city in the entire empire, having tolerance for the most abominable perversions imaginable. Because Paul took swift action, the situation ended positively with the entire congregation repenting—the sinner and the individuals who tolerated the sin. This particular example constitutes the most explicate, extreme example of dealing with a sinning brother in the entire Bible, but it is the exception rather than the rule. Disfellowshiping is only used for the most extreme, blatant forms of perversion, in which the safety of the entire congregation is threatened. We must treat the lower order offenses in a more sensitive fashion, dealing with the sinning brothers and sisters as brothers and sisters rather than sinners, loving them as Christ loved us, a standard often beyond our grasp. We need to esteem others more than ourselves, humbly considering them better than we are. Avoid judging others, but if we must, we must be careful, for it will come back on us; judgment is reciprocal. The Father has committed all judgment to the Son, not to us. We are to proactively forgive others as our Father has forgiven us; our own forgiveness is in jeopardy if we forget this. The extremely rare Matthew 18:15-17 instructions must be followed precisely and delicately, leaving nothing out. We deal with our brother as though we were dealing with Jesus Christ. When following through on Matthew 18, (1) the matter under discussion should be a sin; (2) the sin should be against us personally; (3) we should tell the offender his fault; (4) we must consider whether we want to take it to the next level; (5) If the offender does not repent, we should consider soliciting the aid of 2 or 3 other members who have directly witnessed the fault; (6) if he still persists, we may ta
Topics: (show)
Analyzing others Beam in our eye Caution when judging Choosing our battles Corinth Critic Disfellowship Disproportionately Distrust Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend’s forehead Ephesians 4 Experience Exposing ourselves I Corinthians 5:1-6 Forbearance Forgiveness Golden Rule Good Shepherd Hamartia Hair-trigger disfellowship policy Humble as a child Humility Hyperbole John 5:22; 13:34-35; 15:12 Love one another as I have loved you James 5:19-20 Jude 23 Judge ‘Karma’ Las Vegas Making mountains of molehills Mark 11:25-26 Matthew 7:1-5; 18:15-17; 25 Mote Nit picking Offending Olympic Village Onus on us Parable of the Lost Sheep Parable of the unforgiving servant Philippians 2:3-4 Plank Pointing out another person’s sin Rio II Corinthians 7 Specks and planks Splinter Strings on a pearl necklace III John Sin City Uncharitable judgments
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