This morning, I would like to read again a very familiar passage from the Word of God: Matthew 18. We will read from Matthew 18:15-20.
And if thy brother sin against thee, go, reprove him between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established.
And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.
Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father Who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
In Matthew 16, we find that after Peter confessed the Lord as the Christ, the Son of the living God, our Lord Jesus said to Peter, “Thou art Peter,” a stone, “and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
For the first time, we find that our Lord Jesus used the word church—ekklesia, the called-out ones gathered together. The Lord said, “I will build My church upon this rock.” We know that the rock is none other than our Lord Jesus Himself, the One Whom the Father had revealed and Peter had confessed.
As we receive that revelation from the Father and confess Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, we become living stones. As living stones, the Lord builds us together into a house, a house of God, upon the rock. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
In other words, in the building of the church of God, it will go through many trials, tribulations, attacks, and assaults from the enemy. But the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. God will have His house among His people.
Now, in Matthew 18, our Lord Jesus mentioned the word church for the second time. These are the only two times in the Gospels where the church is mentioned by our Lord Jesus.
But you will see a difference here. In Matthew 16, when our Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church upon this rock, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” He was giving us the spiritual principles concerning the church. He was showing us the church universal.
That is to say, through all the ages, those who have received revelation from above concerning Jesus, and those who have believed in Him and confessed Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, are built together into the church of God—universal—on the principle of revelation and faith. The conflict is a spiritual conflict, but victory is guaranteed.
But in Matthew 18, when our Lord Jesus mentioned the word church for the second time, He gave us a different aspect of the church. He showed us the practice of spiritual principles and the local aspect of the church.
It does not mean that there are two churches, one universal and one local. There is only one church, but this one church has two aspects: the universal aspect and the local aspect.
The reason is that we are still in this body, and because we are still in this body, we are limited by time and space. We cannot be everywhere, and we cannot be at all times. That is the reason why, for the church to be expressed in this world, it has to be expressed locally.
The Lord said, “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.” “Where”—that is locality. “Two or three”—that is the minimum corporality. “Gathered together”—that shows that these two or three are not scattered, but gathered together: the principle of corporateness.
“Unto My name”—that gives such a gathering its uniqueness. In this world there are many gatherings. Some are social clubs; some are fraternities. People are gathered together for different purposes and under different names. But we are gathered together unto the name of our Lord Jesus. That gives us a uniqueness.
This is a gathering different from all the gatherings in the world because we are gathered unto His name. We put ourselves under the authority of His name. We acknowledge Him as our Head and as our Lord. When we are so gathered, the Lord says, “There am I in the midst of them.” That is the church.
So here you find the local aspect of the church. The church has these two aspects. On the one hand, we belong to the church universal. Whether it is Peter, Martin Luther, John Wesley, or whoever it may be, all who have believed in the Lord Jesus are in that one church universal. The Lord is building us together into a holy habitation for Himself.
But at the same time, because we live in this twentieth century and are living here in Richmond, we are gathered together unto the name of our Lord Jesus. We thank the Lord for His promise that He will be present, and that He is present with us.
As I said last time, in Matthew 16 what we really considered was not merely the fact that the Lord was to build His church upon the rock, but how He was to build His church. In Matthew 16, we find that the Lord builds His church by the principle of the cross.
In other words, without the cross there can be no building together. Unless we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the Lord, we will not be able to be built up together into the church of God.
Now this morning, we will do the same thing. Our purpose is not merely to tell you that there is a local church, but to see how the local church functions. In other words, how is the local church built up together?
Here we find another principle: the principle of love. We cannot be built up together unless there is love. Brotherly love—love one another—is the principle and the practice of the local church.
Here our Lord Jesus said, “If thy brother sin against thee.” In other words, as we come together, we come together as brothers. You know, it is a wonderful thing.
Over one hundred and fifty years ago, there was a great movement on the earth. Historians consider that movement as greater in its effect than even the Reformation. It was the Brethren movement of 1828.
When the Spirit of the Lord began to raise up these brothers, the Lord gathered people from all kinds of social backgrounds. Some were people with titles; others were people with great learning, with doctoral degrees and so forth. Yet there were others who were not so learned or who belonged to the lower class.
But when the Lord brought them together, everybody left his social status aside. Nobody was addressed as sir, duke, doctor, or whatever it might be. They just came together as brothers. They left all their titles and came together simply as brothers. There was such love among them, and that is what history tells us of the Brethren movement.
Brothers—dear brothers and sisters—as we gather together, we are all brothers. Why? Because we have all received the life of our Lord Jesus. We share the same life. We belong to a brotherhood.
This brotherhood is even stronger than our natural brotherhood—that is, brothers according to the flesh. I believe that every one of you has had such an experience.
I remember when I first came to the Lord. I came from a family in which we brothers and sisters were very close. Yet after I came to the Lord, something happened. Brothers and sisters in the Lord seemed to be closer to me than brothers and sisters in the flesh.
Sometimes brothers and sisters in the flesh may envy that or be jealous about it, but I cannot help it. There is a brotherhood that is stronger than the brotherhood in the flesh. We belong to each other. We have the same life. We are in the same family. We are members one of another.
It is more than a congregation. If it is a congregation, we can congregate and we can disaggregate. But it is a body, a family. We are a brotherhood. We are inseparable.
In 1 Peter, you find Peter saying, “Love the brotherhood.” We love the brotherhood. We commit ourselves not only to the Lord, but we are committed to one another. We are no longer strangers, sojourners, or foreigners to each other.
In Ephesians 2, we are told that we are no longer strangers and foreigners, but we belong to the family. We are citizens of the heavenly, holy nation, and we are brothers to each other. That is what we are.
Because we are brothers and come together as brothers, let us act as brothers. Sometimes we come together as if we are strangers, as if we are foreigners. We do not behave as brothers.
Do we behave as brothers? Are we really committed to one another? Do we really care for one another? Do we really love one another as brothers?
The passage we read says, “If thy brother sin against thee.” Remember, it is a brother sinning against another brother. Nevertheless, they are both brothers.
If a brother sins against another brother and refuses to be restored, what is the consequence? Then you look upon him as a Gentile and a tax collector. In other words, we are brothers; it is a brotherhood. But if someone violates the principle of the brotherhood and refuses to be restored, then he is like a Gentile, one of the nations, a tax collector—not to be hated, but to be pitied.
Remember, we are brothers, and we meet together on the basis of brothers. Therefore, we need to love one another.
When a lawyer came to our Lord Jesus, tested Him, and said, “What is the greatest commandment?” the Lord Jesus said:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.
In the New Testament, this has not changed. It is still the greatest commandment. We who are in the New Testament must love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our understanding, with all our strength, and with all our mind.
The only difference is that in the Old Testament there was a command, but there was not the supply. In the New Testament, there is a command and there is grace. Grace is supplied to us that we may love the Lord our God. It makes it possible for us to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, and understanding. That is the New Testament.
Then there is the second commandment: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” In the New Testament, you find that it has a new application. Who is your neighbor? Your neighbor is your brother.
Therefore, the Lord said, “Love one another, even as I have loved you.” Brothers and sisters, we need to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and at the same time we need to love our brothers.
But there is a difference. In the Old Testament, the command is, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” We are all self-centered; that is natural. We love ourselves. If you can love your neighbor as you love yourself, that is the utmost you can do. Under the law, you cannot go beyond that.
But under grace, it is different. Under grace, it is not enough merely to love your brother as you love yourself. Under grace, you must love your brother to the point of laying down your life for your brother.
In other words, we must deny ourselves. We must lay down ourselves for our brother. That is the New Testament.
The Lord Jesus loved us and laid down His life for us. Therefore, we must lay down our lives for our brothers. This is brotherly love. Brotherly love is none other than love because he or she is a brother.
One day, our dear brother Watchman Nee said to another brother, “Go and tell the brothers of this and that.” The brother who heard him said, “Brother Nee, whom do you want me to tell—male brothers or female brothers?”
It is true: whether you are male or female, you are brothers. We are all brothers.
We love one another for only one reason: because we are brothers. Not because he is lovely, therefore we love him; nor because he is not lovely, therefore we do not love him.
It is true that we are all different. We have different temperaments, and that is a great problem. We have different backgrounds, different cultures, different upbringings, different education, and different customs. We are different in many ways. Yet the wonderful thing is that, in spite of all these differences, we can love one another. Why? Because we are brothers.
There is nothing that builds the church more than this love. Without this love, the church cannot be built. But with this love, we can build up one another in Christ.
I believe that what we read at the beginning illustrates this point. Oftentimes, when we read, we just read the letter: “If your brother sin against you, do something.” But why?
If your brother sins against you, certainly that brother must be with you, in the same place, at the same time, gathered together with you. Otherwise, how can he sin against you?
Oftentimes we hear people say, “Oh, I love the brothers and sisters in Australia, but I just do not love these brothers and sisters here.” Now, that is natural.
Suppose we come together merely as a congregation. We meet for only an hour, or perhaps two hours—though somebody may think two hours is too long already. We meet perhaps for one hour a week. When we come, we all put on our Sunday best. We may listen to a short sermon—twenty minutes is long enough—and be entertained with some music.
After our so-called worship, we shake hands and say goodbye to one another. We can afford to be very polite and courteous and not sin against each other because we do not see each other very often.
As a congregation, there is no problem. If you do not want to have any problem, meet as a congregation.
But if you meet as an assembly, as the church of God, as a brotherhood, we cannot be so distant from our brothers and sisters. We are closely knit. We are together. We worship together, and we serve together.
Because we are together in such intimacy, there are plenty of opportunities for stepping upon each other’s toes. We rub against each other because we are so close. There is always the possibility of sinning against one another.
It is true, if you read the whole of Matthew 18, our Lord Jesus says, “Be careful not to offend anybody, not even the little ones, because the angels of the little ones often see My Father.” In other words, it is a grievous thing, a grave thing, to offend a little one.
Do not offend anybody. If you offend one of the little ones who believes in the Lord Jesus, you offend the Lord Himself. It is a terrible thing. Do not be so careless as merely stepping on anybody’s toes. It is a serious thing. Do not offend anyone.
But it seems that offenses are unavoidable. So, if your brother sins against you, what then?
We often think that if a brother sins against another brother, now we have a problem. How good it would be if no one sinned against anyone. Then we would all keep ourselves at arm’s length, be very polite and courteous, and no problem would be created.
But brothers and sisters, this is not the problem. The problem is not that a brother sins against another brother. The problem is: is there enough love? If there is love, the problem can be solved.
In solving the problem, the brotherhood is strengthened. The church cannot be built without problems. Problems, if they are met in the right way, strengthen and build.
Therefore, the Lord Jesus said, “If thy brother sin against thee.” It is better not to sin against your brother. But if your brother sins against you, what happens?
When a brother sins against another brother, you find that fellowship is broken. We are a brotherhood; there is a fellowship of the brotherhood. But if one brother sins against another brother, fellowship is damaged. Fellowship is interrupted. A distance is created between these two brothers. Something is damaging the brotherhood.
What will you do?
“If your brother sins against you, an eye for an eye?” Now, that is the law. We cannot do that.
Or perhaps we say, “Well, he is a brother. What can I do? I will just endure it. Unfortunately, I have to suffer, right? I cannot repay him in kind because I am a brother.”
Is that your attitude? If that is your reaction, then fellowship is not restored.
If your brother sins against you, what does the Lord say you should do? I think He tells us to do something that we would least think about, or hardly ever think about doing: “If your brother sins against you, go.”
“Oh, no. If my brother sins against me, let him come. Why should I go? He sinned against me. He should come and apologize to me. I am not going. I will sit here and let him come and apologize. This is my right.”
Well, you may sit until eternity, and he may not come. Why? Because your brother is in darkness. You are in the light, but your brother is in darkness, and being in darkness, he cannot see.
So the Lord says, “If your brother sins against you, you go.”
Go to do what? Reprove him. “Ah, my opportunity has come! I can go and really crush him down, vindicate myself, and pour out my wrath and indignation upon him. How dare you sin against me?”
No, that is not what the word means. To reprove means to expose the truth, to try to convince him. He is in darkness. He may not even know that he has sinned against you. He may not know that he has done anything wrong. He needs to be exposed to the truth and convinced.
You have to take it for granted that he did not do it purposely. One thing I sometimes do not understand—though at other times I do—is that when our Lord Jesus was crucified, He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Sometimes I think they certainly knew what they did. But at other times I think probably they did not know. They did not know actually, really, what they were doing. If they had known that He was the Lord of life, they would not have crucified Him.
Oh, what mercy! Oh, what love! God always thinks that we do not do it purposely. Because we do not do it purposely, He is ready to forgive.
So, if your brother sins against you, go and reprove him. Show him the truth. Try to bring him into the light, that he may be recovered and restored.
Of course, before you go, you must have forgiven him first. If you have an unforgiving spirit, do not go. If you go to vindicate yourself, do not go.
You must have forgiven him already. Not only have you forgiven his offense, but you love him so much that you do not want to see him in darkness. You do not want to see him suffer. You do not want to see him lose fellowship.
You want to restore your brother. You have prayed for him. You are burdened for him. You care for his soul. Because of that, you go with the spirit of love. You try to restore him by showing him wherein he has done wrong, that he may repent and be recovered.
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. The brotherhood is saved. The fellowship is restored. There is no shadow and no shade. Oh, how blessed is such fellowship!
It is not a matter of duty; it is a matter of love. Oftentimes we live on the principle of duty: “If it is my duty, I will do it.”
But dear brothers and sisters, in the brotherhood, it is not governed by duty; it is governed by love. Love always goes the second mile.
“If your brother sins against you, go and reprove him. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” But suppose he does not listen. Is it because he does not listen that your duty is done and your responsibility is finished? No. Love never lets go.
Even after you have gone to him between you and him alone, and he will not listen to you, remember that the Lord says: if your brother sins against you, go and reprove him between him and you. Nobody else.
You know what we do. If my brother sins against me, and I know that, being a brother, I cannot repay him in kind, then I will do this: I will go around the whole assembly and tell every brother and sister how he has sinned against me—but I will not tell him. This is the way I try to repay him.
Everybody knows except that brother. This is the trouble in the church today. When your brother sins against you, you tell everybody but that brother. That is vengeance. That is not love.
Do not tell anyone. Tell him first.
Oh, if we only knew this: unless we tell the brother who sinned against us, we should not tell anybody. More than half the difficulties in the church would be solved.
The church is too often a gossiping house. Gossip does more damage than the offense. Gossip aggravates the distance between brothers and sisters.
Oh, that God may have mercy upon us and stop all this gossiping. Unless you have the love and the courage to go to your brother and try to restore him, keep your mouth shut. You may tell God, but do not tell anybody. And when you are telling God, do not accuse your brother.
Go to your brother, between him and you alone. Let nobody else know about it. Have this matter cleared up right away so that it will not affect the whole family.
But if he does not listen, what will you do? You have to go the third mile. You get one or two other brothers and go to him together. By the word of two or three witnesses, everything will be established. Hopefully, by that means, that brother will be convinced.
He would not listen to you alone because his heart is so hardened. But with two other brothers there, perhaps he will be softened.
Of course, when you get the one or two brothers, you do not get someone from England to come and help when he does not even know the situation. The one or two should be right there in the same assembly.
And do not merely get one or two who are your close friends, those who sympathize with you and always agree with you, right or wrong. No.
What the Scripture means by getting one or two brothers is that these brothers have spiritual weight. They are respected in the church, not only by you but also by that brother. Because they have spiritual weight, their words carry weight, and that brother will have to listen to them.
If they too see that the brother is in darkness, then he should consider very carefully. So you take one or two with you, and hopefully that brother will repent and be restored.
Now, suppose that brother is so hardened that he refuses to see and refuses to repent. Then what? It is not until then that you tell the church.
The church is the last resort—not the first, but the last.
By telling the church, of course, you do not tell the church universal. That is impossible. How are you going to tell the church universal? Those who have gone ahead cannot hear you. Those who have not been born yet cannot hear you. Even if you tried to go on television, perhaps in some village there is no television. How can you tell the church universal? You cannot. It is too big.
Even the action of the local church is serious enough. The discipline of the local church is so serious that in 2 Corinthians, Paul says concerning that brother who was under the discipline of the whole church, “He has suffered enough. He has repented. Now forgive him. Love him, that he may not be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow. We are not ignorant of the devices of the enemy.”
The church universal is too large to exercise discipline. The hand would be too heavy for everyone. Therefore, it must be the local church, where all these brothers are gathered together.
To tell the church does not mean that at a church meeting you stand up and declare, “Brother So-and-so sinned against me,” while that brother sits there. No. To tell the church means that you tell the brothers who bear responsibility for the church.
These brothers take care of the responsibility of the whole church. They will go and try to restore that sinning brother.
Think of the love behind it. It is not only your love; it is also the love of the one or two other brothers. It is not only the love of the one or two other brothers; it is the love of the whole church. The whole church loves that brother.
It is just like your body. When something pricks your finger, you find that the whole body rushes to the rescue. Here the whole church comes, trying to restore that brother. Oh, the love that is behind it!
But if he does not listen to the church, what happens?
Let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.
Think of that. A brother has fallen so low that he is looked upon as one of the nations and as a tax collector. Think of it.
He does not behave as a brother. Therefore, he will be looked upon as an unbeliever. No, he is a believer, but he will be looked upon as a foreigner, a Gentile, a tax collector. He has fallen out of the fellowship of the brotherhood.
But the Lord does not say that he is excommunicated. The Lord says, “Let him be unto thee.” In other words, he is only so to you. He has sinned against you; he has not sinned against the whole assembly. He has not committed a serious sin that requires excommunication.
He has only sinned against you. Because he has sinned against you, you look upon him as one of the nations and as a tax collector. He may still remain in the assembly. He is still in the brotherhood. He is still gathering with the brothers and sisters.
But as far as he is concerned in relation to you, you look upon him as a Gentile, as a sinner. How do we look upon the Gentile and the sinner? Do we look upon them with hatred? No—with pity.
You still need to love him. You pity him. You still pray for him. Therefore, brothers and sisters, you find that this is brotherly love.
It is very striking that in connection with this, you find the following verses—Matthew 18:18-20:
Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father Who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
Do you see any connection between what goes before and what follows? The Lord is talking about a brother sinning against a brother, and what you should do. You love him and love him and love him, until you love him to the point that, though you cannot receive him in the full fellowship of a brother, you still can love him as a sinner.
Then suddenly the Lord says, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. If two of you agree on earth concerning any matter, whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be given unto them.” What is the connection between these two things?
I think it is clear. There is a problem in the church. On the one hand, that problem has to be solved by love. On the other hand, that problem has to be solved through prayer.
It is not merely a matter of you going, then one or two going, then the whole church going. At the same time that you go, at the same time that one or two go, and at the same time the church goes, you find that you are praying, one or two are praying, and the whole church is praying.
All the problems in the church are solved, on the one hand, by love—and love is active—and, on the other hand, by prayer.
If it is only a matter of going and there is not that prayer behind it, you will find that the going will not be effective. Why is the going effective? It is because behind the going, there is praying.
Oh, how we need to pray!
As we pray, whatsoever we bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever we loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Some translations say, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Whatever the rendering, here you find heaven and earth joining hands.
When do heaven and earth join hands? When God’s people get down on their knees and pray.
Here is a situation: a brother needs to be loosed. Get down on your knees and pray that he may be loosed. It is the will of heaven that he be loosed.
Or sometimes you find that a brother needs to be bound. In other words, he needs to be disciplined. Because this is the will of heaven, we can pray that he may be bound in order to be freed.
“If two of you shall agree on earth”—now, how can two ever agree on earth? I find a real problem here. No two persons on earth will perfectly agree. We can compromise. We can give and take a little bit. But as to truly agreeing—no.
The word agree in the original means to be in harmony, just as in a symphony. There are different instruments with different sounds, and yet they are harmonized into one. That is what agreement means.
We are all so different, and yet we are so harmonized that we are one. How can this be? It is not that you agree with me or I agree with you. It is that we all agree with the Head.
The Lord says, “There am I in the midst of them.” So agree with Him. If you agree with Him and I agree with Him, then we agree.
He is like the conductor. Look at the conductor. Follow His direction. Then you find all these instruments playing together in perfect harmony and giving beautiful music.
Brothers and sisters, this is what it is. We do not pray because I want it that way. We pray because the Lord wants it that way.
When we agree with the Lord and give ourselves to prayer with other brothers and sisters, the power of prayer is unlimited. Brothers and sisters will be loosed from their bondages, and brothers and sisters will be bound if they are too free.
This is the way that the church is built. So, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember this: How is the church built? How should we behave in the church as brothers? How are church problems solved?
They are solved by two principles: love and prayer.
If we know how to love one another, and if we know how to pray, the church will be built. The brotherhood will not only be preserved, but it will be strengthened.
May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Oh, heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast brought us into a brotherhood which is heavenly, beautiful, and wonderful.
Oh Lord, we do desire that we may know how to behave as brothers. Do not allow us to be as strangers and foreigners to each other. We pray that we will commit ourselves one to another, care for one another, love one another, and restore one another in love.
Lord, we pray that we may not stand upon our own rights, but that we may be willing to give ourselves, even our lives, for our brothers. Oh, we do desire to see the brotherhood not only preserved, but strengthened.
Lord, teach us how to pray, that we may agree with Thee and bring Thy power from heaven upon the earth for the building of Thy church.
We ask all in the name of our Lord Jesus and for His glory alone. Amen.