[From Pastor Mark] Day 295: From My Readings in Matthew 18 Title: You Are Personally Responsible Scripture: Matthew 18:15 (NIV)--“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. Observation: So youre in the church and youre having a disagreement or conflict with another brother or sister in Christ. How do you handle it? How do you deal with all the complex feelings and issues youre facing while still desiring to honor The Lord? Thankfully we were not left to our own pathetic devices to figure this out. Jesus taught his disciples, the soon to be church planters of the soon-to-be-born world-wide Church, exactly how to go about dealing with conflict and disputes in the body. Since it is God speaking through His Son Jesus this counsel is not only worth listening to but heeding on a daily basis. Application: As an offended or maligned believer you are experiencing heightened emotions. Your fight or flight sensors are pinging in the red and youre ready to do something, anything. First you have to decide who do you want to honor--yourself or The Lord. Next youll have to determine how important is harmony in the Body of Christ to you. For The Lord it was critical to the success of churchs mission in the world. Thats why Jesus carefully laid these steps out for the disciples. In this first step Jesus explained that a person who has been offended must first go privately and point out the fault in the other persons actions. Child of God, very few people like personal confrontations, but a personal confrontation, carried out in sincere love for the other person and the unity of Gods Church, will often afford the sinning person a chance to correct the situation. But be careful of your motivations and intentions for returning to the person who has offended you. Be certain that your accusations are true and that you are confronting the other person with a sincere spirit of humility and a desire for restoration with the other person. This is where God wants misunderstandings and conflict to be handled and restored. But beware: Jesus words are not a permission slip to unload on every person who hurts or slight us. Child of God, Jesus was putting you on alert that its your responsibility, not that of church leaders to deal with your personal concerns. Your personal actions in these matters saves church leaders from having to get involved in every situation in the church. Your unwillingness to take personal responsibility in times of confrontation can lead you to enter into unnecessary gossip by talking to everyone else except the one who offended you. Jesus is saying, Take conflict personally and YOU deal with it. Go to the source and deal with the problem while it can still be solved. Prayer: Father, why do we have to learn this the hard way? I could have saved myself a lot of personal and church-related hardship if I had taken conflict and offenses personally--not personally as in getting angry, but personally by dealing with it personally in a timely fashion. Thanks Lord for all that youve shown me in this area in recent years. Help me to continue to deal with issues in a personal and timely manner.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:40:07 +0000
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