Matthew 18 Lies And Distortions
Matthew 7 Series - Part 7

This is part 7 of the Matthew 7 Series. These articles are concerned with Matthew 7:13-29 and how the soft-marshmallow approach of the last several decades is failing us. It is past time to stop acting like Pharisees and start to act like Jesus, Paul, John the Baptist and Moses. It is important to read this series in order, especially the first three parts.

Wolves in sheep's clothing distract from, twist, and even lie about scripture. Almost every fake church will lie about Matthew 18:15-17. And they certainly don't follow it. In fact, almost all churches don't follow all of this direct command from Jesus Christ, even those that are led by a pastor with a biblical worldview. In this article the real meaning of these verses is covered in detail, as well as the most common ways it is misused. This way you can identify the wolves in sheep's clothing by the fact that they twist and lie about Matthew 18.

Matthew 18:15-17 "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

These verses should be plain to understand. But for some reason people believe a person on stage of their church without question and even over their own Bible. They do nothing to check if this person they listen to is of God or not. If that speaker twists, distorts and/or lies about Matthew 18 they are almost certainly a wolf in sheep's clothing. The only alternative is they are actually a sheep masquerading as a shepherd. Which means they are a bad scholar and/or are accepting the lies of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Regardless of which it is, their failure to speak the truth about Matthew 18 proves they cannot be trusted, should not be in a leadership position, and should not be listened to. If this is a pastor in your church it is not a good church and you should find one that teaches God's word.

Before digging into these verses one thing needs to be made clear. Matthew 18 is for privately confronting a private sin. Public sin, like teaching heresy from the stage of the church, must be publicly confronted. False teachers, preachers, and others who publicly mislead others will wrongly accuse someone of not following Matthew 18 when an accuser publicly confronts their public sin. The sinning leader will try to flip the table and say their accuser is the one in the wrong for not confronting in private like Matthew 18 says to do. Ironically, these false preachers never follow Matthew 18 themselves. In fact, a good response is to ask them when and where verse 17 is followed, and when was the last time it was done in their church. The true answer is always never and nowhere. I have yet to find a church that does steps three and four which are the commands of verse 17.

For a private sin Matthew 18 is appropriate. But for one who has publicly sinned the confrontation must also be public. To privately confront blatant public sin does not fix the problem of misleading others. That is why in Galatians 2:11-21 Paul publicly confronted Peter in front of the whole church for his misleading the whole church with his sinful behavior of segregating from gentile Christians. Twisting and lying about Matthew 18 enables a culture of covering up the sin of the leaders. If someone were to confront them in private the sinning leader has time to conduct a campaign of false accusations against their accuser to discredit them. They could even go so far as to trespass their accuser so they cannot legally return to the church property. And they could even get a restraining order against them. Any of those would prevent Matthew 18 step three from ever happening.

Verse By Verse Study Of Matthew 18:15-18:

Verse 15 is clear that we are to confront the sin in others. Of course, people in sin will twist scripture to deflect the conversation away from their sin. If possible, they will try to turn the tables and accuse their accuser. The most common tactic is the lie, "You're not supposed to judge!" Which is a ridiculous thing to say as it's a self-contradictory statement. It is itself judging that the accuser is judging. Of course, the statement is anti-biblical. We are called to judge by scripture. But we are to judge rightly. (See the article "Are We To Judge?") Not to mention we can't follow Matthew 18 unless we judge that a brother is in sin and judge that he has repented.

The end of the verse states that if they listen you have won your brother. It is important to note that it is not that you have won him to yourself. You will have won them back to God. Sin separates us from God. Winning them back means helping them reconcile with God.

Verse 16 is step two in the process. If the sinner doesn't listen privately, we are to bring one or two others as witnesses to the second confrontation. This is the standard for witnesses in the Bible. In the Mosaic Law and the New Testament a single witness is not reliable. (Deuteronomy 19:15, 1 Timothy 5:19, John 8:17.) With witnesses to confirm that the person is in unrepentant sin we are equipped to do step three. Hopefully, the presence of others will convince them of their sin and they will turn away from it without having to go to step three.

Verse 17 has steps three and four. Step three is we take the witnesses and tell the sin to the congregation. This is to the whole assembled church. This is not in private. This is not just to the leaders. It is in front of everyone in the church so all will be informed of the sin and be equipped to exhort the sinner to repent. And the church will be warned against committing that sin as well. By the many challenging them to repent it is hoped that they will change. Also to do step four the entire church needs to know about step three.

The fourth step is used If the sinner won't listen to the congregation. This step is to remove the sinner from the church. To be clear, to treat them as a Gentile and a tax collector does not mean to shun them. We are still to try to win them to God just like we should with any outsider to the church. What this really means is that they are no longer allowed to be part of the fellowship of the church. We are still to meet with them outside the church if we can, with the goal of influencing them to restore their relationship with God. But restoration back into the church fellowship only happens when they have proven they have repented of their sin, which means to turn away from it. And to do that they first have to admit that their sin is a sin. Most people refuse to acknowledge that and try to justify why what they are doing really isn't a sin. That someone occasionally fails and does the sin but repents and turns away again it isn't the same as denying it is a sin or living in unrepentant sin. The key is that they acknowledge it is sin and turn away, even if they sometimes fail.

Step four is never done by almost every church in the world, especially in the west. This is because church discipline is uncomfortable. And most people are unwilling to follow God's commands to do it. That is why most churches are indistinguishable from the pagan-secular culture around them. In divorce, cheating on spouses, abuse, criminal acts, bad language, and every other area of sin, people in the church are statistically the same as the secular culture outside the church. The result is the church appears irrelevant and useless, and in many cases is irrelevant and useless.

Another lie false preachers and teachers will say is that step three in verse 17 means taking it to the church leaders. This is a blatant and bald-faced lie. In the New Testament the word church, ekklesia in Greek, always refers to the congregation. Most translations use the word church. But the New Testament definition of church is the congregation and not a building. Most importantly it is absolutely in no way referring to the church leadership. There is no possible way of translating it this way. If this verse meant we should take it to the church leadership it would have said elders, presbuteroi in Greek. If a pastor in your church teaches this lie you need to leave and find a real Christian church. This is deliberate twisting of this verse is to protect the fake church leadership from any accountability. It allows them to coverup the sin, hypocrisy, and heresy of the leaders and staff of that church.

To be fair, the one speaking it may be doing so out of ignorance. They may have been told this lie by the senior pastor, another pastor, or by the writings of a false teacher. Regardless of the reason why they are saying it, to contradict the Holy Spirit by teaching such a blatant lie about His scripture is a heresy. Unknowing or deliberately, that pastor has disqualified themselves from preaching and teaching. Unless the church removes them that church is not to be trusted either. This is because every pastor there is contributing to heresy by not calling it out like Paul did. To be clear, this cannot be removal for a short time like a few months or a year but for many years, like ten or more. And they can be restored only after proving they are able to teach the truth of scripture and discern false teaching for an extended period of time.

Most people will not leave their church no matter how many examples of heresy and sin there are. Some will say it's because they like the church. This is beyond stupid. It is like staying in a burning house because they cannot bear to leave, even though they will be killed by the fire. Others will use the excuse they are trying to make things better from the inside. This is as foolish as a single man trying to witness to strippers inside a strip club. It is many, many times more likely they will pull you into sin and away from the true gospel than you will save them. Church leaders willing to defy God and scripture to teach heresy will not listen to you. Anyone in a church like this should think about whether they really love God with all their heart, soul, and mind or not. If they really do put God first they need to leave and find a good church that teaches what God's word says.