Judging When Why How by Derek Prince

Author:Derek Prince
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-01-03T16:45:05+00:00

DISPUTES BETWEEN BELIEVERS

What else, besides ethical and moral conduct, are we responsible to judge? We are also responsible to judge disputes between believers. The Scriptures are clear about this. To start with, let's turn to the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:15:

"If your brother sins against you.”

Would borrowing two thousand dollars, promising to pay it back within thirty days, and keeping it six months be a sin? I would say it would. Do Christians ever do such things to one another? They certainly do!

So if this happens to you, what are you to do about it? Go to the attorney? No!

15 Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.

(Matthew 18:15)

The first step is to go to the person privately. Do not go to anybody else!

In my experience, in disputes between fellow Christians, at least fifty percent of us start by doing the wrong thing: we go to somebody other than the offending brother. When we do that, the problem gets out of hand. My first wife, Lydia, was an outspoken person. When she was a missionary in Israel many years ago, before we were married, a certain pastor was very critical of her because she was "Pentecostal." He criticized her to other Christians. Eventually the Lord convicted him, and he came to her to ask her to forgive him. Her answer was typical. "I have to forgive you for my sake," she said. "But go up into a tower with a bag of feathers, and let them out into the wind, and see how many feathers you can get back."

What has been said, in other words, cannot be unsaid. When we misuse our tongues and talk to the wrong people, we are opening a bag of feathers in the wind. How many of them can we get back?

Taking that first step and going to your brother is often surprisingly effective. Years ago, when I was a young Christian, a brother made some unfair remarks about a person very close to me, and I made an appointment to see the brother privately. When we met, his knees were literally knocking with fright! I did not need to scold him or argue with him. In such a case, the scriptural approach can release the authority of God into a situation.

16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ”by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established."

(Matthew 18:16)

Here is another principle: In matters of judgment, everything has to be established by at least two witnesses. I will say more about this later.

If your brother will not hear the witnesses you bring, what is the next step?

17 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.

(v. 17)

Jesus was saying that the one who will not accept the decision of the church forfeits his right to be treated as a Christian.

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