The Human Sanctuary and Temple of God-16 quotes

“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:15-20.

Christ plainly commands that if a brother or a sister of the faith should commit sin against us, that their sin is to remain contained between us two alone to settle. We all are commanded by our Lord and Saviour to not share with any other person what our guilty brother or sister has done to us until the proper time arrives to go to Step #2. This means that we are not to talk this issue over with any other person except the guilty party themselves. We are not to mention anything about this matter to our pastor, elder, or any other believer; neither are we to mention this matter to our spouse, or family, or friends, etc.; and neither are we to lead another to understand who the guilty party is through the cover of seeking counsel from them on what to do in this particular matter. While it is proper to seek general counsel from others on how to go about pointing out sin in a proper loving manner in order to bring another to repentance, yet we are not to say anything that will in any way lead them to possibly figure out who the guilty party is.

But if we should say anything to any one else about this guilty party, then we would have directly disobeyed this explicit command of our Lord God Jesus Christ. We ourselves would now be guilty of sinning against them in this issue, and then we would need to repent to them for our sin!

In following this first step, we must give sufficient time to allow our guilty brother or sister to honestly see their wrong and then to fully repent of it. How can they honestly repent if they do not first see that they have actually committed sin? So there needs to be ample time given in order to allow the Holy Spirit to work on softening their heart and bringing them to repentance. It would not be showing the guilty party true Godly love if we quickly moved on to Step #2 just because they did not immediately repent after we first pointed out their sin to them! There really is no set time limit involved in following Step #1, because it will all depend on how the guilty party consistently responds to our efforts: which means that you may have to lovingly talk with them several times before the issue can be fully seen by them and then hopefully resolved.

This verse shows us that only those who are spiritually minded, not carnally minded, are given permission from God to follow this first step in pointing out the sins and faults of another against them. If you have not yet fully crucified self and are still carnal, then do not follow this first step until you are converted and are now spiritually minded! Many of us have clearly noticed over the years, and especially more recently, that carnal minded self has been the primary motivating factor behind some following this first step of Matthew 18 against another. And this fact is not hard to spot, because “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). So instead of the innocent party approaching the guilty party “in the spirit of meekness” derived from the spiritual motive of Godly selfless love, they instead dealt with the guilty party in the wrong carnal motive of Satanic self love, and in so many cases the response from the guilty has been full of self as well.

As this has been seen to be true in so many instances, because the innocent party did not properly follow this first step, then they do not have the Biblical right to move on to Step #2 - Step #4 until they first fully crucify self and are converted, and then begin all over again with following Step #1. This means that a lot of so called justified disfellowshipping of brothers and sisters according to Matthew 18 has not been Biblically proper or Scripturally justified at all, because self has gotten in the way! And what possible good is it to try and bring a guilty brother or sister to repentance, while those seeking to restore the guilty are themselves guilty of sinning against them from selfish motives?

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.” Luke 6:41-42.

So if a brother or sister has indeed sinned against you, first make sure that self is fully crucified in you before beginning to follow Matthew 18 in dealing with their sin. That way there will be no self in you to conflict with any self in them, which would just create even greater problems. But with self first dead in you, then Christ in you would be revealed to them, which would then work to help soften their hearts and hopefully lead to a blessed solving of the problem, which in turn will lead to greater unity and harmony among us all.

After you have repeatedly tried in the right spiritual mind to lovingly lead the guilty party towards recognizing, confessing and repenting of their sin against to you, and yet they consistently refuse to do so, then and only then can you move on to following Step #2.

Christ states here that you are to “take with thee one or two” others. This means that you – the innocent party – are to contact one or two other brothers or sisters and reveal just to these few the factual sin which the guilty party committed against you. It would be best if these one or two extras are familiar with the guilty party, and even better if they are from the same home church group, but it is not specified that these have to be such.

These extra few people are not just to automatically believe everything you tell them; nor are they just to immediately join with you in this second step without any questions. Their work involves 3 things: 1) - Determining if the guilty party has in fact committed sin against you. 2) Then determining if you have in fact followed the first step properly and in the right spiritual manner. 3) - Then based upon their findings, they are to work to bring the guilty party, including yourself if you are shown to have done wrong, to repentance, so that peace can again be achieved between you two as well as in God’s church and movement.

This investigative work is necessary because these extra few must know without a doubt whether or not you are correct that sin has indeed been committed against you by this guilty party, and they also need to know without a doubt whether or not you have properly and lovingly followed the first step. Their own reputation and spiritual life is at stake, because they may have to testify before the church regarding this guilty party. So if they are not convinced beyond a doubt themselves that sin has indeed been committed, and yet they testify before the church body that the guilty party has indeed committed sin, then they themselves will be guilty of bearing false witness before the church as well as before God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, and would thereby become a commandment-breaking sinner themselves and thus be in danger of losing eternal life!

To help these extra individuals to properly fulfill their responsibilities, you are to provide them with any factual evidence and documentation you have proving that sin has indeed been committed against you. But in situations where you do not have any documented proof, but just your own personal testimony that the guilty party sinned against you, then these extra few will be forced to accept your testimony by faith until they can obtain further evidence through following this second step with the guilty party.

You can see that at times there will be the necessity of these extra few individuals needing to prayerfully place a brotherly or sisterly trust in your testimony and then joining with you in following this second step, because of the lack of evidence to either support your testimony against another, or in showing that you did anything improper in following this first step. Obviously, the truth as well as more evidence will come out when discussing the matter with the guilty party, and God will also be working so that the truth will come out, either against the guilty party, or against yourself, or both. So even though evidence may be lacking, this is no reason why these extra one or two individuals should avoid joining with you in following this second step. Because after all, there is already an unsettled problem brewing between two fellow brethren, and it is not going to go away without it being properly investigated into and then properly dealt with.

Now if during the course of investigation, these extra few discovers that you have not correctly followed the first step, then they must reprove you for allowing selfish motives to control you in this issue against another, and they are to refuse to go along with you any further in following this second step until you have properly performed the first step in the correct spiritual manner. But if these extra few do not find any evidence that you improperly followed the first step, and are also convinced that the guilty party has indeed committed sin against you and remains unrepentant, then their efforts are now all focused upon lovingly and unselfishly working along with you in seeking to bring the guilty party to repentance.

Please notice that the plain command of Christ was to “take with thee one or two more”, meaning that you are all together as a group. So this does not mean that each can meet separately with the guilty party, or each can write a separate letter or e-mail to the guilty party. But this command of Christ is for the two or three of you to all meet together with the guilty party in a united loving effort to try and bring them to repentance. So all two or three of you are to go and meet together with the guilty party preferably in person, but it can also occur over the phone, or in an internet chat room. In this way the issue can indeed become established and verified “in the mouth of two or three witnesses” because all of you together saw and heard what took place when meeting with the guilty party at the same time. Besides it is much harder to refuse two or three united together in lovingly trying to bring you to repentance, than it would be to refuse just one.

It is also important to understand that even though this private matter has now involved one or two more, yet it is still to be kept contained among just these few individuals, and is not to be shared with others. And again, this second step, just like with the first, cannot be rushed through, but sufficient time must be given for proper investigation, prayerful contemplation of the evidence, and also to allow the Holy Spirit to work on convicting and softening the heart or hearts of the guilty in order to bring them to repentance. In fact, it would also not be showing the guilty party true unselfish Godly love if we quickly moved on to Step #3 just because they did not immediately repent after the first meeting! So there really is no set time limit involved in following Step #2, because it all depends on how the guilty party consistently responds: which means that you all may have to lovingly talk and even plead with them several times before the issue can be fully seen by them and then resolved, or before you know that all your efforts have failed.

Now if after repeatedly trying to lovingly lead the guilty towards seeing their sin and confessing and repenting of it to you all, and they still flatly refuse to do so, then and only then can this issue move on to taking Step #3.

The church mentioned here is not the whole world-wide church composed of all Remnant brothers and sisters. But it is only referring to the local church. Christ Himself verifies this fact by saying “for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”. He did not say that where the entire world-wide church is gathered together, but just where two or three are gathered together – clearly meaning that this is the local church. So I hope you can see that this third step only applies to members of the same local home church, and not members of the entire world-wide body of Christ.

This means that if the guilty brother or sister is not a member of your local home church, but is only a visitor, or perhaps is a member of another home church, then this third step as well as the fourth step cannot be followed with them. In this case, since you cannot move beyond these first two steps with the guilty party, then you are forced to leave them with God to deal with. But you should continue praying for them until God tells you to stop, and of course, always remain willing to help them overcome their sins in the future once you see a change for the better in them.

If both you and the guilty party are members of the same local home church, then you and the extra few individuals are free to bring this sad issue before the entire membership of your local home church. And this is to impartially occur regardless of who the guilty party is – even if it is the elder or minister who leads out in our church! Because even in that startling situation, the church is permitted and must deal with it.

After all the members of your local church are made aware of the issue, your church itself must first make sure that there is sufficient evidence to show that the guilty party is indeed guilty of sinning against you. Then your church must also investigate into whether or not you have properly followed the first step with the proper spirit and motive, and also that the second step was properly followed in the same unselfish loving spirit. In this way, and only in this way, can your home church membership then give a righteous judgment in this case and be clear before God in this decision.

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21-24.

It is so much easier for the Devil to control and manipulate one person’s mind, or even the minds of two or three. But it is so much more difficult for him to control all minds in a home church. This is why Christ declared that Step #3 was for the whole local home church to become involved in and for all to pass judgment upon the guilty party or parties in any issue occurring between their members.

If your local church discovers that you and/or the extra few individuals did not properly follow either the first or the second step, then they must reprove you all for allowing selfish motives to control you in this issue against another brother or sister in the faith. And further, they must then refuse to continue any further in following this third step until the previous two steps have been properly followed.

But if the local church discovers that the guilty party has indeed sinned against you, and has also determined that the first and second steps were properly followed in the loving spirit of Christ and still the guilty party refused to repent with sufficient time being allowed them, then and only then can all the members of your local church join with you all in this private matter in trying to lead the guilty to repentance. This can be done by your church requesting the guilty member to personally come to meet with all their fellow brothers and sisters. Or if that is not possible, then all can meet together over a phone conference or internet chat room. But all church members are to be involved together as a group in lovingly and unselfishly working to restore their guilty church member from sin to righteousness through confession, repentance, and reformation. And believe me, it is so much harder for one to resist a whole united church group, than it is to resist just one or a few individuals.

If the guilty one finally repents after their whole church met with them, they are not to be chastised for waiting so long to repent, and neither are any to hold grudges against them. But you are all to fully and completely forgive them.

“Sufficient to such a man is this punishment [having to be reproved and rebuked by all his fellow home church members], which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.” 2 Corinthians 2:6-8.

But if after the whole local home church has repeatedly tried to lovingly lead their guilty member to confess and repenting of their sin, and still the guilty flatly refuses to do so, then and only then can the fourth step be taken.

Through these steps Christ has made it very plain that such a serious action as disfellowshipment cannot be based solely upon the single testimony of just one brother or sister, and neither can it be based upon the testimony of just two or three. But this action is to be based upon the personal knowledge and conviction of an entire home church membership, which can only justifiably occur after all have taken the time to thoroughly investigate into all the issues, viewed and considered all evidence and documentation, as well as having personally met with and pleaded perhaps several time with the guilty individual themselves as a united church body!

If every aspect of the 3 previous steps of Matthew 18 have not been properly followed and carried out in the correct unselfish spirit, then this 4th step is not to be followed by the church body. But if in this situation, should the church body go ahead and follows this 4th step and unjustly judges, condemns and disfellowships the guilty party, yet it is an unmerited disfellowshipment, and thereby holds no weight with God and Christ.

We cannot fool God! He reads all hearts; He marks the motives and intentions of all involved; and He has seen and knows all things which took place throughout the entire issue. This means that God will not and cannot be forced to endorse and uphold any unjust decisions – including those made by an entire church body! In fact, this unjust judgment, condemnation and disfellowshipping action against of one of their own family members would actually place the woe of heaven upon that entire church body, and also plainly reveals them all to be Christless, because by doing so, they have also judged, condemned and thrown their Lord Jesus Christ out of their church as well!

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”. Matthew 25:40-41.

“If any...consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.” 1 Timothy 6:3-5.

But if every aspect of the 3 previous steps of Matthew 18 have indeed been properly followed and carried out in the correct spirit, and the majority of the home church membership is convinced that this 4th step should be followed, then they should disfellowship the guilty unrepentant member out of their church and from their church fellowship.

“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.” 2 Thessalonians 3:6-7.

Being properly and justly disfellowshipped out of a local home church is not a matter to scoff and laugh at, but it is serious! This is because God, Christ and the Holy Spirit will endorse and uphold this just decision of His church.

“Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 18:18-19.

Being properly cast out of a church of God means that you are no longer part of the body of Christ, and thus cannot be saved in that condition! Now it does not mean that your probation is forever closed at that point. But it does mean that you cannot be saved in that Christless condition until you fully repent and again accept Christ as your Saviour.

After the guilty church member has been properly and justifiably disfellowshipped by their local church body, this disfellowshipping action is not to be broadcasted around to the entire world-wide church body, but is to remain mainly confined within the local church. This is because there is still a chance for the guilty party to realize their sins and be brought to repentance and acceptance of Christ once again. But if the matter is broadcasted far and wide, they will be tempted to give up in despair, and will never repent.

It is only in cases where an issue is big enough to affect all the local Remnant churches around the entire world that the world-wide church body should then be made aware of and become involved in that issue, and this would then involve a different set of steps to follow. But with issues occurring between one church member and another church member within the same local home church, this issue is to remain within that local church, and is not to be broadcasted far and wide.

“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Matthew 5:23-24.

If someone has hurt you in some way, or if you know someone has something against you, you are to take the initiative and go to talk with them privately. We all are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ to do this, and not to ignore it and let it go! This is because the issue needs to be quickly addressed and settled before the Devil has much time to meddle with it. The longer time passes without the issue being properly dealt with allows it to fester within our hearts, and the longer it festers just allows the Devil to more and more blow it all out of proportion in our minds, until a small mole-hill has become a giant mountain that absorbs all our attention.

This verse shows us that public sins are to be rebuked publicly, and do not have to be treated in the same manner as private sins would be. This means that with public sins you do not need to follow the Steps of Matthew 18, but are free to publicly rebuke the guilty individual as the Holy Spirit moves you to do, so that all listening may also fear sinning in the same way.

8) “...be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” 1 Peter 3:8-12.

“As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me....And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:18-23, 26.

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us....And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:11-12, 16-17.