You can't deny it! Many sincere and sometimes well intentioned church members try to solve personal issues by taking them public, which very often if not always does more harm than good to those involved and to the church at large. So how should one act, when one has wronged someone or said anything hurtful or harmful against someone who is the least of these? ... The Bible is clear in Matthew 18:15-20, that any personal matter should be dealt with personally, by going and speaking with the person who has committed a sin, and doing a spiritual work to help that person experience God's forgiveness and reconciling Grace. Never should a personal matter be taken public just to "give it to the other person," or to chastise or punish them. That is not the goal of Christianity or of the followers of Jesus. In fact, the Bible goes as far as saying that if we bring our gifts or offerings to the altar, and there remember that someone has something against us, we ought to leave our gift there and go and be reconciled with that person, before giving our offering at God's altar. Amazing! We are called to be imitators of Christ and to carry a ministry of reconciliation. We must go and make things right, even when we are not the instigators, by going in Christian love and talking to that person privately or with two or three witnesses. Then, the love of God and the peace that passes all understanding will be in us and in our churches. May God bless us today as we seek to follow the light who is Jesus Christ, and that we may also be smaller lights that shine in a world where Grace can only be found and given by those who have experienced it in their lives. God speed!
The following is an excerpt from the book "Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, pg. 58-59" for further meditation and study.
"Be reconciled to thy brother." Matthew 5:24.
The love of God is something more than a mere negation; it is a positive and active principle, a living spring, ever flowing to bless others. If the love of Christ dwells in us, we shall not only cherish no hatred toward our fellows, but we shall seek in every way to manifest love toward them.
Jesus said, "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." The sacrificial offerings expressed faith that through Christ the offerer had become a partaker of the mercy and love of God. But for one to express faith in God's pardoning love, while he himself indulged an unloving spirit, would be a mere farce.
When one who professes to serve God wrongs or injures a brother, he misrepresents the character of God to that brother, and the wrong must be confessed, he must acknowledge it to be sin, in order to be in harmony with God. Our brother may have done us a greater wrong than we have done him, but this does not lessen our responsibility. If when we come before God we remember that another has aught
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against us, we are to leave our gift of prayer, of thanksgiving, of freewill offering, and go to the brother with whom we are at variance, and in humility confess our own sin and ask to be forgiven. If we have in any manner defrauded or injured our brother, we should make restitution. If we have unwittingly borne false witness, if we have misstated his words, if we have injured his influence in any way, we should go to the ones with whom we have conversed about him, and take back all our injurious misstatements.
If matters of difficulty between brethren were not laid open before others, but frankly spoken of between themselves in the spirit of Christian love, how much evil might be prevented! How many roots of bitterness whereby many are defiled would be destroyed, and how closely and tenderly might the followers of Christ be united in His love!
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