{"id":258,"date":"2022-12-05T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/?p=258"},"modified":"2022-12-05T11:44:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T03:44:15","slug":"for-a-brother-who-sins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/ptr-art-calaguas\/for-a-brother-who-sins\/","title":{"rendered":"For a Brother Who Sins<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Ptr. Art Calaguas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shalom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 18 \u2013 20 of the Gospel of Matthew contain the 4th<\/sup> major discourse in this Gospel and it deals about the expected nature of the community of disciples in the Kingdom of Heaven. After this teaching round, the Messiah Jesus then proceeds to his final journey to Jerusalem. We shall explore some topics within these chapters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 18 begins with a discussion of the Lord with his disciples on who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord Jesus likens the greatest in his Kingdom to be as a child possessing humility. He then uses hyperboles to warn against those who would be tempted or even cause others to stumble. Matthew 18:6 makes use of a heavy millstone hung around the person\u2019s neck. Matthew 8:8 calls upon them to cut off a hand or a foot; while Matthew 8:9 enjoins them to pluck out an eye if it causes one to stumble and be tempted to sin. Each hyperbole was meant to emphasize that any hindrance to the spiritual growth of the believers and disciples needed to be dealt with decisively. Sin among the Kingdom community members had to be confronted and removed. It had no place in the fellowship of believers. Indeed, in Leviticus 19:2 the LORD God instructed Moses to tell the Israelites that \u201cYou shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in Matthew 18:10-14 the Lord Jesus makes the point clear that each one must look after one another, especially those who are weaker. He reiterates the overwhelming and never-ending love of God for his children and says that any man\/shepherd who has 100 sheep but one goes astray, he will leave the 99 to search for the missing one. The shepherd who finds the stray one will rejoice over it more than over the 99 which did not stray. Likewise, our Father in Heaven is not willing to let one perish. [See Luke 15:1-7 for a similar narrative with a slightly different context.] Is this hyperbole?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  As I\u2019ve mentioned before (in \u201cCaesarea Philippi and the Gates of Hades\u201d) Matthew 18 contains another example of \u201cbinding and loosing;\u201d a periphrastic verb construction as in Matthew 16:19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 18:15-20 talks about a situation when a brother in the community of believers\/disciples sins (\u201cagainst you\u201d phrase added in by later manuscripts). The one who knows must show the offender\u2019s fault in private and hopefully he will listen, repent and reform his ways. If the offender does not listen, the Lord instructs that 1 or 2 others should be called to confront the offender. This satisfies the requirement laid down in Deuteronomy 19:15 to have 2 or 3 witnesses to confirm a sin or iniquity. If the offender still refuses to listen, the church\/assembly\/congregation must then be informed. If even the church is not listened to, the offender is to be treated as an outsider and not a member of the community of believers\/disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this is Matthew 18:18 (in the Greek with my formal translation):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18<\/sup>\u1f00\u03bc\u1f74\u03bd \u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03c9 \u1f51\u03bc\u1fd6\u03bd, \u1f45\u03c3\u03b1 \u1f10\u1f70\u03bd <\/mark>\u03b4\u03ae\u03c3\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5<\/mark> \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 <\/mark>\u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b4\u03b5\u03b4\u03b5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1<\/mark> \u1f10\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f45\u03c3\u03b1 \u1f10\u1f70\u03bd <\/mark>\u03bb\u03cd\u03c3\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5<\/mark> \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 <\/mark>\u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03bb\u03b5\u03bb\u03c5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1<\/mark> \u1f10\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u1ff7.<\/mark><\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen, I say to you, whatever if you<\/mark>(pl) might <\/mark>bind<\/mark> on the earth <\/mark>will have (already) been bound<\/mark> in heaven and whatever if you<\/mark>(pl) might <\/mark>loose<\/mark> on the earth <\/mark>will have (already) been loosed<\/mark> in heaven.<\/mark><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both \u03b4\u03ae\u03c3\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5<\/mark> <\/em>(verb in the subjunctive mood) <\/em>and \u03b4\u03b5\u03b4\u03b5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1<\/mark> <\/em>(perfect middle\/passive participle) are inflected forms of \u03b4\u03ad\u03c9 <\/em>(verb meaning \u201cI bind\u201d). On the other hand, both \u03bb\u03cd\u03c3\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5<\/mark><\/em> (verb in the subjunctive mood) and \u03bb\u03b5\u03bb\u03c5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1<\/mark><\/em> (perfect middle\/passive participle) are inflected forms of \u03bb\u03cd\u03c9<\/em> (verb meaning \u201cI loose\u201d). As I wrote before, \u201cbinding and loosing\u201d are legal technical terms (as in a court room) used in the 1st<\/sup> century. To bind means to prohibit, restrict, limit, confine, forbid or not allow something. To loose means to unbind, free, release, permit or allow something. The prohibition (binding) or permission (loosing) is presumably based on the Torah and what the rest of Hebrew\/Old Testament (OT) scriptures teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jewish\/Roman historian Flavius Josephus used these terms when he wrote about the Pharisees being given the authority by the Hasmonean Queen Salome Alexandra of Judea \u201cto loose or to bind\u201d during the Maccabean era of the 2nd<\/sup>-1st<\/sup> century BC (https:\/\/etc.worldhistory.org\/interviews\/the-forgotten-ancient-queen-salome-alexandra-of-judea\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out, Matthew 6:19, which we saw earlier, and now Matthew 18:18 are the New Testament (NT) witnesses of an older authentic Jewish exposition of \u201cbinding and loosing\u201d as documented by Josephus in his \u201cWars of the Jews,\u201d Book I, Chapter 5, Section 2. William Whiston translated and published this Josephus book c.a. 1700\u2019s. The ebook edition of this was created and published by Global Grey in April 25, 2022 and can be accessed at https:\/\/www.globalgreyebooks.com\/wars-of-the-jews-ebook.html<\/a>. It is the opinion of the translator, that in the context of Josephus, binding and loosing were about punishing and absolving the accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I wrote the last time, our Biblical Greek textbook contained this explanation: \u201c\u2026the heavenly decree confirming the earthly one is based on a prior verdict.\u201d (Craig S. Keener, \u201cExegetical Insight\u201d in Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar<\/em>: Third Edition by William D. Mounce [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009]; 122.) This is brought out by the Greek grammar that uses future perfect passives for heaven\u2019s actions. Furthermore, in another section of our textbook, it is pointed out that these perfect passives are in the form of participles combined with the future active of \u03b5\u1f30\u03bc\u03af <\/em>(verb meaning \u201cto be\u201d; inflected as \u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9<\/mark><\/em>, meaning \u201cit will be\u201d) in what is called a \u201cperiphrastic verb\u201d construction. (Paul Jackson, \u201cExegetical Insight\u201d in BBG Grammar<\/em>: Third Edition by William D. Mounce [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009]; 275.) Hence, what Matthew 18:18 means is that what is bound\/prohibited or loosed\/permitted on earth already had the prior mandate of heaven.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, a few Bibles translate Matthew 18:18 accurately (e.g., Berean Literal Bible, NASB, Amplified Bible, Christian Standard Bible, Aramaic Bible in Plain English, International Standard Version, Literal Standard Version, NET Bible, World English Bible, and Young\u2019s Literal Translation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision of the earthly court (church), when based on the right understanding of God\u2019s Word; and as may be evidenced by prior verdicts, is assured of Heaven\u2019s authority. The context of Matthew 18:15-20 points to this. When cases are decided regarding discipline in the believers\u2019 community, the church puts into practice the authority that God has given for these matters that have already been decided in Heaven before (as written in Scripture).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 18:19-20 further states that when a matter is agreed upon by 2 members of an assembly of believers, in accordance with God\u2019s word and will, whatever they ask will be done for them by God. And whenever 2 or 3 are gathered in the Lord\u2019s name, he promises to be in their midst. That place then becomes holy gr0und.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will continue next week on a related topic from Matthew\u2019s Gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God bless us all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ptr. Art Calaguas Shalom.  Chapter 18 \u2013 20 of the Gospel of Matthew contain the 4th major discourse in this Gospel and it deals about the expected nature of the community of disciples in the Kingdom of Heaven. After this teaching round, the Messiah Jesus then proceeds to his final journey to Jerusalem. We…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6,7,9,8,5],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ptr-art-calaguas","tag-church-of-the-risen-lord","tag-crl","tag-spiritual-refreshment-of-the-day","tag-upcemi","tag-upcrl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}