It takes one to know...

With Tax day approaching fast, I thought this would be appropriate....

This weekend's message will focus on resolving conflict by clarifying and clearing the air.

In Matthew 18, Matthew describes a 3 step process to clarify a situation and resolve a conflict. The first step is to clarify the situation one-on-one.
The second step is to take a witness and talk through the situation.
The third step is to bring it before the church and attempt a resolution.
The final step is church discipline. "if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him like a pagan or tax collector." Matthew 18:17 (Emphasis mine)

It's in this final step that God revealed to me an insight about this passage.

Matthew (the writer) was a tax collector, admonishing the church to treat someone who refuses to listen to correction as one would treat a tax collector. He would know what it was like to be treated like a tax collector. We always joke that he was the IRS auditor of his day, generally thought of as someone who worked for the enemy and stole money from innocent people. Can you imagine how people would have treated him?

But the emphasis on this passage and all other passages regarding church discipline is that the discipline is instituted to bring a person to repentance and restore fellowship.

I wonder if a little bit of Matthew's autobiography is coming through here? Once he was a
tax collector and treated with contempt by everyone. Then he met Jesus and was called to be one of his disciples. How that call of grace must have changed his life. Now he encourages a process to be used in church discipline. And if it is necessary, a break in fellowship must be made in a corrective and redemptive process. But in the back of his mind, he must be thinking about that grace that was once showed him and how grace and restoration must be the hallmark of church discipline.

Just a thought.