Two or Three Witnesses

The Bible has unexpected encouragement in well-known passages and the more obscure.  I found great encouragement in a passage that is often quoted in part, that Jesus said when two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).  Most often this is said to encourage people who gather at church or in a corporate prayer meeting to emphasise God's faithfulness to be among His people, to hear and answer prayer, to guide and direct those who gather.  This is all true and wonderful.  Yet the context of the passage gives encouragement in circumstances that can be disheartening:  when dealing with conflict among believers and administration of church discipline.

Jesus taught if a believer was offended by another Christian, the offended party was to humbly go and tell him the fault that caused offence with the aim of reconciliation.  If the one who did wrong was unwilling to listen to the concern of the offended party, Jesus said one or two more believers should accompany the next meeting that "in the mouth or two or three witnesses every word may be established" (Matthew 18:16).  This was not a new concept for Jewish Christians, for it was written in the Law in Deuteronomy 19:15:  "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established."  The one or two who accompanied the first person needed to be convinced the offender had indeed done wrong--not to simply go along as moral support or as a favour for a friend.  The idea held forth is two or three of God's people, having been guided by God's word and Jesus Himself who was among them, were able to discern right from wrong and make sound judgments.

Immediately following this teaching, Peter asked how many times he needed to forgive a sinning brother.  Jesus then spoke a parable where binding and loosing--in context the ascribing of guilt or proclaiming pardon--is illustrated along with two or three witnesses.  Jesus said one servant owed a king a great debt, and he begged to be forgiven.  His king had compassion on him and forgave him the immense sum he owed.  Then he went out and grabbed a fellow servant who owed him a small debt (by comparison), and he was unmoved by the pleadings of his fellow servant for more time:  the man who had been loosed from a great debt had him arrested and thrown into prison.  Matthew 18:31 then illustrated the intercessory action of two or three witnesses:  "So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done."  The king listened to His servants and took action against the wicked servant who had been forgiven much but refused to forgive his fellow servant who begged him.  The king commanded the man who was loosed to be bound and pay back his debt in full, for he showed no compassion to his fellow servant.

Jesus Christ is the KING OF KINGS, and whether we have done wrong or been offended by others we are to humble ourselves before our LORD and one another, knowing we have been loosed from a debt of sin we could never pay.  As the Judge of all the earth Jesus will always do right, and by faith in Him we can submit to our brethren in love, knowing Jesus is in the midst of our gatherings.  Should we be the one who refuses to forgive or stubbornly continues in doing wrong, we should be circumspect and humble because our King is in our midst.  Those who are grieved when they observe injustice, lack of compassion or corruption can come to Jesus Christ in prayer, knowing He will hear and answer.  Just two or three witnesses is sufficient to establish a matter and begin legal proceedings on earth, and the same is true in a spiritual sense concerning matters of offence and discipline among believers.

Repentance as Needed

Yesterday I went on a bushwalk with friends from church on the Ku-ring-gai track to Berowra Train Station and started from the station.  It was a cool morning, and the canopy of trees prevented the light drizzle from soaking us through.  Our small party encountered a couple lyrebirds, heard the wailing of black cockatoos, saw a wallaby, and removed a couple of leeches as we trudged along the 10km track by a creek that seemed more like a river.  By the end of the walk a decent rain began to fall as we hoofed it to our vehicle.  After a slow drive home through traffic, I was pleased to change out of wet clothes (and ensure my prickly feet were leech free!) and relax.

A couple hours later I scratched my side and felt something strange:  a textured, raised area that was not part of me.  I suddenly realised I had picked up a tick that hitched a ride home with me.  Because of the location I wasn't able to see it clearly or grab it with tweezers, and thankfully my son was able to remove the tick.  After close examination of the tick before and after death, it appeared the tick had not drawn any blood.  Then I had a close examination of my body, ensuring there were no additional ticks.  Thankfully all I have to show for the experience is a small welt and what turned out to be an impromptu sermon illustration.

In our church study of the book of Jeremiah, a recurring theme is how God called to His erring people and sent prophets daily to identify sin, urge them to repent and turn to God--yet they were unwilling.  Jesus came preaching repentance and the kingdom of God, and thus repenting of sin should not be viewed as a one-off thing but to be done as needed.  Like children who are filthy from playing in the yard, we might assume one bath a day is enough.  As kids there were days we didn't have a bath; certainly one is enough!  We felt it was too much to ask for us to bathe after a bath though we were sweaty from running and rolled in the grass.  But washing was needed before bed because we were unclean, and this is why bathing usually happened after playing in the yard.  Jesus said we are not only to forgive one who repents 7 times, but 70 times 7.  What we don't always consider is we are the one who need forgiveness over and over because we sin.  When we do wrong, as needed we should confess our sin, repent and do what is right instead.

Galatians 6:1 says, "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted."  We can be aware of our sinfulness before committing it, and by conviction of the Holy Spirit, God's word and our conscience we can also discover we are sinful in ways we didn't notice before.  As we go through life, we can pick up sinful habits as easily as having a tick latch onto us.  For the sake of our health it is beneficial to remove ticks soon as possible after noticing them, and it is even more important to confess and repent of sin for our spiritual health as needed.  Even as I could not remove the tick myself, we need to willingly expose our sin to the the LORD so sin that clings to us can be removed.  We like to view ourselves as the spiritual ones who seek to meekly see people overtaken in trespasses restored.  We don't always see ourselves as ones needing the help of God and fellow believers to be restored to fellowship due to sin and weights that sap our spiritual vigour.

Knowing there were leeches and ticks on the bushwalk meant thorough examination of the body was important, and realising our fleshly inclination to sin ought to move us to examine our heart, thoughts, motives, words and deeds.  If we will be forgiven of sin we need to repent, and thus we ought to repent of sin as needed--even 490 times a day.

Enter Into Peace

God's thoughts and ways are past finding out, yet He miraculously reveals Himself to those who trust and seek Him.  The Bible is full of revelations from God for people in ancient times as well as today, for God does not change.  His word and wisdom are timeless and will endure forever--even after the heavens and earth pass away.

Today I read a passage that sheds light on God's ways in Isaiah 57:1-2 that we do not naturally consider:  "The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart; merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil. ² He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness."  Though God has created mankind in His image, there is great diversity between each one of us.  We all have bodies with faces, our own personalities and perspectives, and how different they can be from others!  Even as God designed each one of us individually, knitting us together in the wombs of our mothers, God knows when we will be born and the day and hour when we will breathe our last.  God-fearing people have been killed in tragedies, and others died in their beds before tragedy struck.

When we suffer the loss of a godly friend or family member, we can keenly feel the loss.  The prophet Isaiah made the point in his day righteous people perished and they were not mourned.  It never entered into the minds of people the timing of their death was ordained by God to prevent them from experiencing coming judgment for evil.  We see an example of this when the wife of Jeroboam came to the prophet Ahijah to inquire concerning a prognosis for Abijah, her young son who was gravely ill.  Ahijah gave her the bad tidings he was sent to give her in 1 Kings 14:10-13 as a result of Jeroboam's sin:  "...therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹ The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the LORD has spoken!" ¹² Arise therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³ And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam."

God would bring disaster upon Jeroboam, and in days to come the men of his house would be denied the honour of a burial and memorial.  Their carcasses would be scavenged by dogs and carrion birds--with the exception of young Abijah, whose death would be lamented and he would be buried with royal honour.  Why would he die in his youth?  Not because he would grow up to be a vile person, but God saw in him as a child "something good toward the LORD God of Israel" in all Jeroboam's house.  God knew what He had in this little lad, and when everyone wished for his full recovery God was pleased to bring him home--knowing the great evil that would befall the house of Jeroboam on account of sin.  Those who share the perspective of the apostle Paul who preferred to be absent from the body and to be present with the LORD can gladly welcome God's wisdom, mercy and salvation (in His time and way) when He ushers us into peace in God's presence forever, home at last with our Saviour Jesus Christ.

The death of the body precedes being present with the LORD in eternal glory.  Since our righteousness is in Christ who rose from the dead, though our bodies will die our spirits will live--clothed in a new body that will never see corruption.  It is natural to mourn the loss of a loved one, but we never need mourn the present condition of the redeemed, glorified soul who is finally where they belong:  in peace and rest forever.  What peace we have in Jesus who is our Peace!

The Steward and Young John

Yesterday I leafed through a book by C.S. Lewis titled The Pilgrim's Regress, and it is one of the more clever and thought-provoking allegorical tales he wrote.  Perhaps the most memorable moment for me is when young John is brought to meet the "Steward" (a minister) who spoke concerning the "Landlord" who represents God.  Lewis presents a scene which brilliantly conveys how confusion, hypocrisy and lack of integrity are blights that obscure the Gospel message and the love of God from people.  With supreme focus on behaviour rather than the heart, using fear to control rather than sharing God's love which liberates, it is a masterful presentation of legalistic religion without a relationship with Jesus.  All I can say is, enjoy--and take it to heart so we as Christians do not resemble the Steward to the young Johns in our lives.

"...The Steward lived in a big dark house of stone on the side of the road.  The father and mother went in to talk to the Steward first, and John was left sitting in the hall on a chair so high that his feet did not reach the floor.  There were other chairs in the hall where he could have sat in comfort, but his father had told him that the Steward would be very angry if he did not sit absolutely still and be very good:  and John was beginning to be afraid, so he sat still in the high chair with his feet dangling, and his clothes itching all over him, and his eyes starting out of his head.  After a very long time his parents came back again, looking as if they had been with the doctor, very grave.  Then they said that John must go in and see the Steward too.  And when John came into the room, there was an old man with a red, round face, who was very kind and full of jokes, so that John quite got over his fears, and they had a good talk about fishing tackle and bicycles.  But just when the talk was at its best, the Steward got up and cleared his throat.  He then took down a mask from the wall with a long white beard attached to it and suddenly clapped it on his face, so that his appearance was awful.  And he said, "Now I am going to talk to you about the Landlord.  The Landlord owns all the country, and it is very, very kind of him to allow us to live on it at all--very, very kind.'  He went on repeating 'very kind' in a queer sing-song voice so long that John would have laughed, but that now he was beginning to be frightened again.  The Steward then took down from a peg a big card with small print all over it, and said, 'Here is a list of all the things the Landlord says you must not do.  You'd better look at it.'  So John took the card:  but half the rules seemed to forbid things he had never heard of, and the other half forbade things he was doing every day and could not imagine not doing:  and the number of the rules was so enormous that he felt he could never remember them all.  'I hope,' said the Steward, 'that you have not already broken any of the rules?'  John's heart began to thump, and his eyes bulged more and more, and he was at his wit's end when the Steward took the mask off and looked at John with his real face and said, 'Better tell a lie, old chap, better tell a lie.  Easiest for all concerned,' and popped the mask on his face all in a flash.  John gulped and said quickly, 'Oh, no, sir,'  'That is just as well,' said the Steward through the mask.  "Because, you know, if you did break any of them and the Landlord got to know of it, do you know what he'd do to you?'  'No, sir,' said John:  and the Steward's eyes seemed to be twinkling dreadfully through the holes of the mask.  'He'd take you and shut you up for ever and ever in a black hole full of snakes and scorpions as large as lobsters--for ever and ever.  And besides that, he is such a kind, good man, so very, very kind, that I am sure you would never want to displease him.'  'No, sir,' said John.  'But please, sir...' 'Well,' said the Steward.  'Please, sir, supposing I did break one, one little one, just by accident, you know.  Could nothing stop the snakes and lobsters?"  'Ah!...' said the Steward; and then he sat down and talked for a long time, but John could not understand a single syllable.  However, it all ended with pointing out that the Landlord was quite extraordinarily kind and good to his tenants, and would certainly torture most of them to death the moment he had the slightest pretext.  "And you can't blame him,' said the Steward.  'For after all, it is his land, and it is so very good of him to let us live here at all--people like us, you know.'  Then the Steward took off the mask and had a nice, sensible chat with John again, and gave him a cake and brought him out to his father and mother.  But just as they were going he bent down and whispered in John's ear, 'I shouldn't bother about it all too much if I were you.'  At the same time he slipped the card of the rules into John's hand and told him he could keep it for his own use."  (Lewis, C. S. The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism. 3rd ed., Fount, 1990. pages 29-31)