ACC ~ Matthew 18 v15 - 17

OVERVIEW:

We should immediately reprove our brother, if he has lost his shame, so that he does not remain in sin. If he refuses to listen, we should summon a brother, and then another, and finally the congregation if he remains recalcitrant (JEROME). A less caring response might have been to let him be if he persisted uncorrected from the first meeting. But instead Jesus shows us how to seek his cure once, twice and many times: first alone, then with two, then with many more (CHRYSOSTOM). Do not make his behavior worse by intensifying defensiveness and rationalization. Seek behavioral change, not shame for itself (AUGUSTINE).

18:15 | Telling About a Fault Privately

THE ART OF RECONCILIATION

CHRYSOSTOM: He does not say “accuse him” or “punish him” or “take him to court.” He says “correct him.” For he is possessed, as it were, by some stupor, and drunk in his anger and disgrace. The one who is healthy must go to the one who is sick. You must conduct your judgment of him privately. Make your cure easy to accept. For the words “correct him” mean nothing other than help him see his indiscretion. Tell him what you have suffered from him.

What then if he does not listen, if he stubbornly flares up? Call to your side someone else or even two others, so that two witnesses may corroborate all that’s said. For the more shameless and boldfaced he is, so much the more must you be earnest toward his cure, not toward satisfying your anger and hurt feelings. For when a physician sees the sickness unyielding, he does not stand aside or take it hard but then is all the more earnest. That then is what Christ orders us to do. You appeared too weak since you were alone, so become stronger with the help of others. Two are sufficient to reprove the wrongdoer. Do you see how he seeks the interest not of the aggrieved party alone but also that of the one who caused the grief? For the person injured may be the one who is more taken captive by passion. He becomes the one that is diseased and weak and infirm.

This effort may occur many times, as he attempts to lead him first alone and then with others. If he persists, then make the effort with the whole congregation. “Tell it,” he says, “to the church.” If he had sought the interest of the aggrieved alone, he would not have told him to approach the sick individual seventy-seven times. [1] He would not have attempted so many times or brought so many treatments to the malady. He might have just let him be if he persisted uncorrected from the first meeting. But instead he shows us how to seek his cure once, twice, and many times: first alone, then with two, then with many more. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 60.1. [2]

[1] Mt 18:22.

[2] PG 58:584-85; NPNF 1 10:372-73.

18:16 | Confirmed by Two or Three Witnesses

SEEK AMENDMENT, SPARING SHAME

AUGUSTINE: If someone has done you injury and you have suffered, what should be done? You have heard the answer already in today’s Scripture: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” [1]

If you fail to do so, you are worse than he is. He has done someone harm, and by doing harm he has stricken himself with a grievous wound. Will you then completely disregard your brother’s wound? Will you simply watch him stumble and fall down? Will you disregard his predicament? If so, you are worse in your silence than he in his abuse.

Therefore, when any one sins against us, let us take great care, but not merely for ourselves. For it is a glorious thing to forget injuries. Just set aside your own injury, but do not neglect your brother’s wound. Therefore “go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone,” intent upon his amendment but sparing his sense of shame. For it might happen that through defensiveness he will begin to justify his sin, and so you will have inadvertently nudged him still closer toward the very behavior you desire to amend. Therefore “tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother,” because he might have been lost, had you not spoken with him. SERMON 82.7. [2]

[1] Mt 18:5.

[2] PL 38:508-9; NPNF 1 6:359.

18:17 | Tell It to the Church

WHEN SIN IS AGAINST GOD

JEROME: If our brother has sinned against us and damaged us in anything, we have the power of dismissing it, in fact the obligation to do so, since we are commanded to forgive our debtors their debts. But if anyone sins against God, it is not in our control. Divine Scripture says, “If a man has sinned against a man, the priest will pray for him; but if he sins against God, who will speak for him?” [1] But we, on the contrary, are lenient over a sin against God but act out our hatred when we ourselves are insulted. Yet we should immediately reprove our brother, if he has once lost his shame and innocence, so that he does not remain in sin. And if he listens, we profit his soul, and through the salvation of another we too acquire salvation. But if he refuses to listen, we should summon a brother; and if he does not listen to him either, yet a third should be summoned in the hope of either correcting him or meeting him with witnesses. Then if he refuses to listen even to these, the congregation must be told, so that they may curse him. Then the one who could not be saved through shame may be saved through their approbation. But since it is said, “Let him be to you as a heathen and a publican,” the person who under the name of faith does an infidel’s works is shown to be more cursed than those who openly are heathen. Publicans, figuratively speaking, are those who pursue the profits of the secular world and exact taxes by business, fraud, theft, crimes and false oaths. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 3.18.15-17. [2]

[1] 1 Sam 2:25.

[2] CCL 77:161-62.

TELLING THE CHURCH

AUGUSTINE: But “if he does not listen,” that is, if he chooses to justify his sin as if it were a just action, “take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed 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.” [1] Don’t consider him now in the number of your brothers. But not even so is his salvation to be neglected. For even the heathen, that is, the Gentiles and pagans, we do not consider in the number of our brothers, yet we constantly pray for their salvation. SERMON 82.7. [2]

[1] Mt 18:16-17, i.e., as one who has chosen to be an outsider among the covenant people.

[2] PL 38:509; NPNF 1 6:359 (Sermon 32).