8/31/08 - Pentecost 16 - Matthew 18:15-20

HOW DOES LOVE DEAL WITH SIN?
- Personally
- Patiently

Love is easy when people are easy to love. It’s easy to show love to our brothers and sisters here when everything is going great. It’s easy to show love to each other when the congregation is running smoothly. It’s easy to show love when everyone is working together and getting along as the Lord intended. But love gets tough when things get ugly: when things aren’t going so well, when people aren’t getting along. And it’s especially tough to show love when someone sins. That’s when your love is tested. That’s when the quality and character of your Christian love is truly seen. When a brother or sister sins - especially when a brother or sister sins against you - your love is revealed by how you react. What do you think, what do you say, and what do you do? The question really comes down to: How does your love deal with another’s sin?
Jesus knew this was an important question that all Christians would have to deal with. And he knew it was a crucial question for all Christians to get right. And so in Matthew 15, sandwiched in the middle of a couple parables in which the Lord elaborated on forgiveness, he takes the time to give us these practical instructions on how love should deal with sin, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” Jesus tells us exactly how love is supposed to deal with sin. Personally. And patiently. And that’s a tough thing to do.
It’s tough to deal with sin personally. We would rather not deal with it at all. In fact, most of the time you try to ignore the sins you see and hear, don’t you? If you hear someone sin or see someone sin - usually one of four things happens. 1) You don’t deal with it and hope it fixes itself. 2) You don’t deal with it and hope it never comes up again. 3) You don’t deal with it and hope someone else ends up dealing with it. 4) You don’t deal with it, but you tell others about it. Of course, none of those reactions stems from love. That is how sin deals with sin, but not how love deals with sin. That is your selfish sinful nature doing what your selfish sinful nature always does: it turns your mind back on itself. So that when you do hear or see someone commit a sin, you don’t think about that brother or sister’s problems or best interests, you only think about yourself. That’s why we don’t like to deal with sin personally. Because it’s awkward for you to go to a brother or sister personally and confront them with a sin. It’s embarrassing for you. It is difficult for you. And so you don’t want to put yourself through that. Thinking nothing about that fellow Christian or what that person needs to hear for the good of their soul.
Where’s the love in that? When we refuse to deal with sin personally - where’s the love? Where’s the love that brothers and sisters in Christ are supposed to show each other? It’s tough love, there’s no question about that. But tough love is the kind of love that is called for in situations of sin. Tough love is what brothers and sisters do. Personally. Without spreading the story to other people. Without telling the pastor the first. Love deals with sin personally because love cares about that person’s soul. And so love does not ignore sin. Love does not avoid dealing with sin. Love does not close its eyes and pretend it will go away. Because what if our Lord had done that with us?
What if the Lord had ignored our sin? What if the Lord had avoided dealing personally with our sin altogether? Where would we be? Where would we be if the Lord decided to close his eyes and pretend nothing ever happened? We would be lost! Because there would have been nobody to bring us back. There would have been nobody to give us forgiveness. There would have been nobody to show us love. And that’s exactly why Jesus didn’t ignore our sin or refuse to deal with it. He loved us. And because he loved us, he dealt with our sins as personally as it gets.
It would have been a lot easier for our Lord to avoid dealing with our sins instead of dealing with it personally. It would have been easier and a lot more pleasant for the Lord to let us rightly suffer the consequences ourselves without stepping in to intercede. But he dealt with our sins personally anyway. Our sins, sins that are so extensive and many that their weight would never allow us to stand up on our own, Jesus personally took and placed them on his own shoulders. He personally went through all of the temptations and evils and pains that this sinful world has to offer. He personally accepted the ultimate result of our sins - death and separation from his Father in heaven. The Lord personally undertook the task of carrying our sins so that we could be forgiven. He got his hands dirty. He did the dirty work himself. He didn’t send someone else to do it. He didn’t refuse to do it. He did it all himself for our forgiveness. And that was and is his ultimate goal: our forgiveness. He had our best interests and our eternal needs in mind the entire time. That’s why he dealt so personally with our sins.
And he still does. The Lord still deals with our sin personally. He still reaches out to us through his Word - whether heard or read - to move us to repent, to bring us to our knees, and to offer us that free gift of forgiveness. He does that every day with every one of his children. And so he not only deals with our sins personally, he had to deal with our sins patiently as well. He has to. We sin all the time, we sin in so many ways, we sin the same sin so often, and sometimes we take so long to come back around that he has to be patient with us. He prods us with his law. He covers us with his gospel. And he patiently instructs us from his Word. “Our Lord’s patience means salvation” (2 Peter 3:15) the apostle Peter says. Our Lord’s patience means salvation. Because if he were not patient with us, we would not be saved. We would not be forgiven. He would get fed up with us and immediately send us to hell where we deserve to be sent. That’s why the Lord’s patience with us is so important. He is kind and merciful and works at our hearts time after time to bring us back from our sin and into his everlasting love. That’s how his love treats our sin. And that’s how he asked us to treat the sins of others.
Because as Christians, we not only have to deal with sin personally, we need to deal with sin patiently as well. Remember the 3 steps that the Lord gives us: “Go and show him his fault.” And after we confront our brother or sister with that sin and they refuse to listen, “take one or two others along.” And if the brother or sister doesn’t listen to that small group, “tell it to the church.” This requires patience. It takes patience to go through that process. It takes patience to handle repeated confrontations and excuses. And it takes love to show that patience. Because the ultimate goal is that person’s forgiveness.
Always keep that in mind. When your brother or sister sins, your first thought should be about their soul. Not how offended you are. Not how bad they are. But about the condition of their soul. Does that person realize it’s a sin? Is that person repentant of that sin? Does that person even care if it’s a sin or not? These questions should concern you. These questions should motivate you to deal with that sin personally and patiently. You can’t put it off. You can’t disregard it. Your sibling’s soul is on the line! One sin condemns. One unrepentant sin keeps a person from entering Paradise. And so it is crucial that you deal with that sin. It will be hard to do, of course. It will be difficult to bring up. It will not be easy to say what you have to say. But no matter how hard it is to initiate that conversation, no matter how difficult it is to patiently speak to that person time and time again about the very same sin, the words that you will get to speak when your brother or sister repents, are some of the sweetest words you’ll ever be able to say.
And every week I get to say them. Every week in our worship service, we have a confession of sins. We always confess our sins as a group of Christians before our Lord. And when that is over, when we repent of our sins and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness, I get to speak words to you that should send shivers down your spine. I get to say, “I forgive you all your sins.” What powerful words! What life-giving words! You have been released from the chains of sin and set free in the love of Christ! And I get to tell you that! I get to offer the purest words of gospel known to mankind: your sins are forgiven - completely, fully, absolutely, forever. These words are the most important words I will ever say. These words are the most important words you will ever say. But you only get to say them if you deal with sin first.
Only after you deal with sin personally and patiently will you be able to say these precious words. In fact, you must say them. If you confront a brother or sister with a sin and that brother or sister repents - immediately or somewhere down the road - you must proclaim to them their forgiveness. Don’t just say, “Ah, it’s no problem.” Or “Don’t worry about it.” Or “Just be careful next time.” No! No! Don’t leave your fellow Christian hanging on repentance without hearing the relieving words of forgiveness! Don’t think it’s just implied. Don’t assume they already know it. They need to hear it! Just as they need to hear about their sin, so they need to hear about their Savior even more! And it’s your privilege, it’s your joy to give them that forgiveness! That’s what “the keys” are.
Remember catechism class? The use of “the keys” is forgiving and not forgiving. It’s locking and unlocking. And it’s taken from Jesus’ words right here in Matthew 15. “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Put those “keys” that the Lord has given you to good use. Yes, you may have to “bind,” you may have to lock a person in their sins if they refuse to repent. But you also have the responsibility to “loose,” to release those Christians who have repented. And the way you release your brother or sister is simply by saying those life-giving words: “Your sins are forgiven.” The goal in any confrontation with sin is to be able to say those words in the end. And what a perfect ending to any sin-filled start. It will take some time. It will take some effort. It will take some patience. It will take some love.
Love takes a little bit of work, doesn’t it? If you truly love your brothers and sisters here like the Lord has shown his love to you, it takes sacrifice. It might take some unpleasant effort. But the rewards are worth it. Because you get to speak those glorious words of forgiveness. You get to show a sinner their Savior. You get to play a small part in possibly saving a soul. It is worth making a personal effort for the sake of a soul. It is worth being patient for the sake of a soul. That is how love deals with sin. Because that is the way the Lord of love has dealt with sinners like us.
Amen.

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.” - Rev. 1:5-6