SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/16/2023 11:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “The
Authority for Discipline”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 18:18-20)
Message of the verses: “18 Truly, I say to
you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you
agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father
in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among
them.’”
In today’s SD we want to continue in our writings
about discipline, first of all to look at verse 20 “For where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I among them.’”
I believe that this verse is also misinterpreted, but not with the
serious error as in the misinterpretations of verses 18 and 19. Some believers have used this verse (20) in small
prayer groups to say that if two or three are here that God will hear them, or
be in the midst of them. As we look at
the contest of what we have been looking at which is discipline that is how
this verse should be seen, as it is in the context of these verses. The truth is that Christ is always present
with His people, even with a lone believer totally separated from fellow
Christians by prison walls or by hundreds of miles.
The
context here demands that the two or three are witnesses in the process of
discipline. To ask or to do nothing in
God’s name is not to utter His mane but to ask and to work according to His divine will and His
character. MacArthur adds “For the witness
to have gathered in His name is therefore for them to have faithfully performed
their work on verifying the repentance or impenitence of a sinning brother or
sister on the Lord’s behalf. When the
church gathers in the Lord’s name and for His cause and glory, it must be
engaged in self-purifying ministry under His power and authority, and with His
heavenly confirmation and partnership.”
As
we conclude this SD, and conclude what Jesus is teaching about discipline there
is a quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary from a book that Dietrich Bonhoeffer
wrote in his book Life Together.
“Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more
destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved
in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.
Sin wants to remain unknown. It
shuns the light. In the darkness of the
unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen even in the midst of a pious
community. In confession, the light of
the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be openly spoken and
acknowledged. All that is secret and
hidden is made manifest. It is a hard
struggle until the sin is openly admitted, but God breaks gates of brass and
bars of iron (Ps. 107:16).
“Since the confession of sin is made in the presence of a
Christian brother, the last stronghold of self-justification is abandoned. The sinner surrenders; he gives up all his evil. He gives his heart to God, and he finds the
forgiveness of all his sin in the fellowship of Jesus Christ and his
brother. The expressed, acknowledged sin
has lost all its power. It has been
revealed and judged as sin. It can no
longer tear the fellowship asunder. Now
the fellowship bears the sin of the brother.
He is no longer alone with his evil for he has cast off his sin from
him. Now he stands in the fellowship of
sinners who live by the grace of God and the cross of Jesus Christ…The sin
concealed separated him from the fellowship, made all his apparent fellowship a
sham; the sin confessed has helped him define true fellowship with the brethren
in Jesus Christ. ([New York: Harper
&Row 1954], 112-12)”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I read this quotation from Bonhoeffer’s
book it helps me see the awfulness of sin, and also the grace of God who sent
His Son to care for my sinfulness as He took my place on the cross and died for
me, and for that I am eternally grateful.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord, through His Holy
Spirit bring to mind any sins that I must confess to God. Psalm 139:23-24 is where it can be found to
do this.
1/16/2023 12:00 PM
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