10 Guidelines for Biblical Communication - 6

A SIXTH guideline for biblical communication:


"Keep pursuing reconciliation with your brother or sister, no matter how far you have to go in the process: Matthew 18:15-20. Problems don't "die" or fade away. They must be tackled and solved. And...by the grace of God, they CAN be!"


No one has ever said (with a reasonable amount of sanity) that this process is pleasant or easy. However, the fruit it yields is very sweet...my brother or sister's unhindered fellowship.


I have too often gone ONCE to an offended or offending brother and then reasoned, "I've done my job. It they choose not to respond, it's THEIR problem now. That's it. The ball is in their court." What that attitude revealed, however, was that I did not really LOVE my brother. I was only concerned with "checking off the box" of my duty, not with reconciliation.

It may be necessary to go to our brother or contact our brother a number of different times in a number of different ways before we go to the next step in pursuing reconciliation. We should go in private as long as it seems our brother is open and there is further need for communication and clarification BEFORE we ask another couple of brothers to go with us. Once it is reasonably clear that our brother does not intend on submitting to God and His Word, we should proceed to apply more pressure on his heart by bringing other caring brothers with us. This all assumes, of course, that our brother will meet with us. He may flatly refuse to meet with us or speak with us. If that is the case, other means of communication may be tried.

The very fact that Jesus tells us to go to the next step, if necessary, shows His seriousness about pursuing reconciliation with our brother. Even if you have to eventually treat him as a pagan, we are to do it in pursuit of his repentance and return to Christ and His body.

In all of this, heart-felt, crying-to-God PRAYER is to offered on behalf of our brother. A great passage of Scripture to use to guide us as we go and as we pray is 2 Timothy 2:24-26.

May God give us such love that we move into conflict as often as it takes for our brother's sake so that he may be released from the snare of the devil to once again serve the Lord from the heart.