Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Lesson 32: Reproving A Believer - Part 1 of 2

Brief 4-to-5 Minute Teaching Lesson

Why? and What is the Purpose? in My Life SERIES

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Lesson 32 of the Discipleship Making process.

I left you last time with this question, “What is the goal of dealing with an offending believer?”

Recognizing that children are prone to making mistakes, Jesus transitions His teaching from not causing stumbling blocks to dealing with a believer who is straying from the truth by engaging in sin. He was not talking about petty offenses, the little things that so easily annoy us: a person’s habits, social skills, manners or politics.

Read: Matthew 18:10-15

Jesus begins the teaching with this statement: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones,” (Jesus equates little ones or children to Christians).

To despise someone means to look down on them or to think less of them. There are many reasons people despise others. For example, they are not smart enough, they are poor, they have failed in some way or their moral standards are not up to par. In each case, the despiser is behaving in a prideful manner and is in fact passing judgment on the other. Jesus had instructed the disciples previously on this issue: “Do not judge lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1) and first take the log out of your own eye (Matthew 7:5).

Having addressed the two issues of 1) judging one’s own heart before reproving a fellow believer and 2) having as a goal to restore the offending believer, Jesus then outlines a four-step process in dealing with the offender. Each step in the process is based on the law of love: “However you want people to treat you, so treat them,” (Matthew 7:12). And as such, each step in the process is designed to give the offender an opportunity to repent. The way the offender is treated is based on whether he repents of his sin or not. This lesson deals with those who do not repent while the next lesson deals with those who do.

The first step involves the person who observes a believer sinning. He is to go to the offender and reprove him in private. From this we can see that it is always the responsibility of the offended party to reprove the offender. If he does not do this he is guilty of not fulfilling the law of love himself. In other words, he would rather see the offender continue in sin and suffer punishment from God then reprove him. It also shows a lack of love and concern towards others who may be affected by the sin.

In approaching the offender privately the offended individual is demonstrating that he desires to prevent further embarrassment to the offender by covering his shame. Two Old Testament examples of covering another’s shame are: 1) When God provided animal skins for Adam and Eve to cover the shame of their nakedness after they had sinned (Genesis 3:3, 22) and 2) when Japheth and Shem covered their father, Noah’s nakedness (Genesis 9:23). Wisdom from the book of Proverbs supports this action as well: Proverbs 10:12, 12:16.

If the offender does not repent it is an indication that he is being stubborn.

In part 2 of this lesson, we will see the conclusion of Jesus’ instruction on “Reproving A Believer”.

Until next time . . . Godspeed!

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