Two or Three

Matthew 18:

15 “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. 16But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." 

Luke 17:

1Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.2It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” 5The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 

1 Timothy 5:

"9 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. 20 But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. 21 I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism."

My voice:

Wow. When is the last time you heard of the conditionality of forgiveness? 

Or are we ignoring 1John 1:9:
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Question: Is God simply unwilling to forgive someone who has not repented, or is He, by the restriction placed on Himself by His own holiness, unable to forgive someone until repentance? 

Some people think that God forgives the unrepentant. You can see this in eulogies of people who have died in the throes of sin, 

either as victims or perpetrators. But does He? 

Now, let’s contrast Matthew and Luke. In Matthew, Jesus was detailing through a step-by-step process of dealing with dealing with sin in the church that was about to be born, would someday be. I suspect this was for two reasons:  

1) To show church leaders how to handle sin in the church.  

2) To show people what to expect when they sinned against someone else in the church. 

Not only did this show God’s holiness, through the different level of confrontation, it also displays His mercy, as forgiveness is possible with confession and repentance. 

In Luke, I perceive that Jesus was teaching church leaders and flawed Christians alike, that God is long-suffering and wants people to repent so they can be forgiven. He also wants the church to be both healthy and growing. To be healthy, the church has to deal with sin, which is like a cancer, but the church also needs to offer forgiveness, for we are all sinners, and the repentant are saved by grace. 

In these scriptures, Jesus was showing the absolute holiness of God, the disgust He has for sin, 

yet it also shoes God’s mercy and what He see at the fulfillment of time, as stated in 1 John 3: 

"3 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as he is. 4 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure. 

This is what Christ looks forward to, and it seems that forgiveness upon repentance is one tool that helps us achieve purity.