If he wrongs me again and repents, I forgive him again!

Part 1

Jesus had an important topic to teach His disciples.  How should you respond when someone wrongs you?  The way we handle life’s bruised shins says much about our maturity in Christ and our obedience to Him.

“Take heed to yourselves:”
Jesus told His disciples to “pay attention to this!”1  Or we might say, “be careful (use caution) when doing this!”  “Really apply yourselves to this!”  “Do this well, and do it the right way!”  Since Jesus is so concerned that His followers do this correctly, there must be some wrong ways of handling offenses that He wants us to avoid.

“If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him;”
Did you notice here that Jesus didn’t expect His disciples to be “doormats,” to be walked on by their brothers and sisters in Christ?  Jesus desires that we be Christ-like servant leaders, very true, but the greatest servant-Leader Himself handled sin issues between believers.  And we should not just let everything go as though it is not important.  No, when a believer is wronged by another believer, the trust is broken, and there is a clear trespass, Jesus expects us to have a right response to the offense.  Because we love our brother, we want to help him handle the issue scripturally.

The word translated as “trespass” is the Greek word that means “to miss the mark.”  It is a matter of wrongdoing, and the brother has missed the mark, he has sinned against his brother.  This is not talking about a matter of personal taste but of right and wrong.   How can we help our brother?  “Rebuke him.”

“To rebuke” means “to tax upon,” the guilty party, to “censure or admonish,” and then “by implication, to forbid” what he has done.2  The burden of “rebuke” means that we must talk with the offender.  In Matthew, Jesus said to go to the offender like this…, “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone…” (Matthew 18:15).  As we go to “tell him his fault,” we need to go humbly, and in the right spirit, we are going as a counselor, not an inquisitor.  We go cautiously, not accusingly.  We are there to help win a brother, not to win an argument.  We want to show him the problem with his action/attitude, we don’t want to cause another problem because of our poor behavior.

How can you help a brother who keeps on offending?  Tomorrow we will see what Jesus said to do.

1.  See the Greek definitions for prosecete, in the Wave Parallel Bible, iPad application.
2.  “Rebuke,” the Wave Parallel Bible, iPad application. Ibid.