This passage discusses one of the most difficult things we are called to do as followers of Christ, namely forgiving those who have hurt us.
There are five main blocks of teaching in Matthew. This one specifically addresses the community of faith that He is founding, the Church. In this passage in particular, he addresses how to handle sin in the church. Not disagreements or even just conflict, but actual sin.
When we are hurt in this fashion, our goal is to “gain a brother.” He instructs us to go to them, in an effort to create an environment of humility where we can share our heart and they can share theirs, with the end that they are won back to righteousness. We are to partner with God in the process of bringing them back into the fold – the context here is those who have gone astray, along the lines of the parable of the 100 sheep just before.
If this initial attempt is not successful, we are to bring in others. Those others can serve as a check on our own impulses, validating if the sin is real or not and discerning the hearts of those involved.
If that still does not resolve the issue, next you bring them to the church more broadly. If that does not accomplish the goal, then we are to treat them like an unbeliever. But that does not mean a breaking of the relationship – rather a change from brothers in Christ to that of evangelism. We are, from beginning to end here, seeking restoration of the other person’s relationship with God.
Peter pokes a big further. How much do we forgive? The rabbis of the day taught that three times was enough. Peter goes further, with the number of completion, and yet Jesus pushes him even further. There is no end to the forgiveness we should offer, because there is no end to the forgiveness we have been given.
(Note again that the context here is a wayward brother, not someone who remains unrepentant. There is more to say about forgiveness, but that’s the context here.)
Everyone immediately wants to go to the hard cases here, and while that is understandable, it is critical that we first understand the core principle that is being taught. Before we can address the edge cases, we need to understand the central truth Christ is teaching. Namely, we have been forgiven an immeasurable amount and are called to forgive in that same spirit.
The world around us should see grace and forgiveness when they look at the church. This is in some ways our greatest challenge. Let us seek God’s help in carrying it through.
-Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, October 31, 2021