Matthew 18:15 ESV / 125 helpful votes

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

Galatians 6:1 ESV / 70 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Galatians 6:1-2 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Colossians 3:13 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Proverbs 29:11 ESV / 36 helpful votes

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

Proverbs 15:1 ESV / 35 helpful votes

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Philippians 2:3-4 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 27 helpful votes

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Matthew 18:16 ESV / 26 helpful votes

But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Galatians 6:1-5 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 ESV / 17 helpful votes

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Matthew 18:17 ESV / 16 helpful votes

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.

Matthew 7:1-29 ESV / 16 helpful votes

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Hebrews 12:11 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

James 5:16 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 9 helpful votes

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

Romans 12:18 ESV / 8 helpful votes

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Matthew 7:5 ESV / 7 helpful votes

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Proverbs 18:13 ESV / 7 helpful votes

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

1 John 1:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 6 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

1 Corinthians 5:12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

Hebrews 10:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

John 7:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

Psalm 34:12-13 ESV / 5 helpful votes

What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Psalm 32:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

James 5:19-20 ESV / 4 helpful votes

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

John 1:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Philippians 3:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

John 15:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit

Thursday, March 17, 2011, Part 3“Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him’ ” (Luke 17:3). “Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more, that, by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:15-17).IDEA: We are to go about the ministry of rebuke with thought and care.PURPOSE: Listeners will understand how to rebuke another Christian for evident sin.Imagine that you have come across someone who has sinned, or is sinning, and seems to be indifferent to what they are doing. What is our responsibility to that person if we are both Christians?Luke 17:3 tells us we are to “rebuke” him. Matthew 18:15-17 tells us the procedure we are to follow.STEP 1: We go to the other person alone in order to restore him.The purpose is “to win him.” What does that mean?

What other purposes might we have that are not legitimate?We might want to demand an apology.If it is serious enough for you to be concerned, then it is serious enough for you to confront. But we must go in the right spirit: to win him, to restore him.You are to do it in the same spirit that a shepherd has who goes out to rescue a lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14).He doesn’t seek it in order to kick it in the stomach. He wants to restore it to the flock.In Galatians 6:1 we are instructed that we should go “in a spirit of meekness,” not self-righteously, not harshly, not with condemnation. We are aware of our own vulnerability.We go to that individual and say, “The Scriptures say that what you are doing is wrong. It is sin. What do you think about it? You read the Bible. What does it say?”We try to lay hold on the individual’s conscience and restore him in a spirit of repentance.This instruction is addressed to all Christians, not merely to Christian leaders. It should be the practice of a healthy, caring congregation.If the sinning Christian repents, then you are to forgive him.The matter is settled. No further action is to be taken. No one else is to know about it, and we are not to talk about it to anyone else. It is “just between the two of you.”