Mutual Accountability

If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault,

- from Matthew 18:15

In today’s passage, Jesus says to “go” and “point out their fault” when we see a brother or sister sin. Can you see both parts of Jesus’ command?

On the one hand, there’s a moving toward. We don’t run away from our brothers and sisters when they sin. We don’t isolate ourselves from them. We move toward them emotionally, physically and spiritually. In doing this, we demonstrate to them the movement God makes, initiating with us while we were still sinners.

The second part of Jesus’ command is to articulate for them what they are doing. This helps our brother or sister push past denial, set aside their rationalizations and abandon their attempts to talk themselves into thinking that what they’re doing is not a big deal. When we take sin seriously, it helps our brothers and sisters do likewise.

Context matters so much for this command. This command is pointed to the people of God. Jesus assumes that these conversations are happening between brothers and sisters in God’s family, people who desire to live by the rules of God’s house. It isn’t that we don’t expect non-Christians to be able to handle conflict. It’s just that we have a different set of expectations for them. (But more on this later in the week)

In God’s kingdom, there’s a mutual accountability that we have with each other. We’re members of the same family. This comes with both a permission to “go and point out” and an obligation.

How willing are you to initiating these sorts of conversations? How willing are you to receive these sorts of conversations?

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