(I originally wrote and posted this to my previous blog on 03/05/2007.)
Reading: MattithYahu (Matthew) 17-20
In chapter 18 Yeshua teaches what we are to do if our brother sins against us. This procedure involves going to our brother and reproving him in private first, but if he won't hear us, then to take 2 or 3 witnesses so that "every word might be established", then if he still refuses to hear, we are to say it to the assembly, and if he refuses even to hear the assembly, then he is to be as a gentile and a tax collector.
This means the erring brother has at least 3 chances to hear reproof (repent), but if he still refuses, he has to be put out of the assembly. The Corinthian assembly failed to do that with an unrepentant brother, and Shaul rebuked them for it:
1Co 5:5 deliver such a one to Satan for destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit be saved in the day of the Master Yeshua.
1Co 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the entire lump?
It is the loving thing to do and actually for the unrepentant brother's good as well as the entire assembly's good for us to follow the instructions we have been given from the mouth of Yeshua Messiah.
In recent years I have seen a teaching that we are to forgive unconditionally and that this is somehow the loving and righteous thing to do, and that we are doing wrong if we fail to forgive an unrepentant person. However, this is not what the Scriptures teach:
Luk 17:3 "Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
Luk 17:4 "And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day comes back to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."
No matter how many times a brother sins against us, IF he repents, we are to forgive him. We are to forgive our fellow servants the same way the Master forgives us. We are forgiven when we repent. YHWH does not forgive the unrepentant ever:
Rom 2:5 But according to your hardness and your unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of Elohim,
Rom 2:6 who "shall render to each one according to his works"
There's a country song that talks about forgiveness with these lyrics:
God does, but I don't
God will, but I won't
And that's the difference
Between God and me
--God Will by Patty Loveless
Obviously the sentiment in this song is wrong, but so is the opposite, and if we follow the popular forgiveness teaching, we are saying to YHWH:
You don't, but I do
You won't, but I will
If we do this, we are telling YHWH that He is wrong and we are right--essentially saying that we are more loving than He is because we forgive everybody no matter what. The bottom line is that it is arrogance, and it actually deceives the unrepentant into believing that they do not have to repent, thus robbing them of the opportunity for forgiveness by the one they have really sinned against--YHWH Himself.
We need to trust that our Creator knows what love is and then love each other as He instructs us to. How could we possibly improve on the love of Yeshua Messiah?
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
0 comments:
Post a Comment