If your Brother sins against you

The sermon today was mostly about Matthew 18:15–20 and the order Christ gives for dealing with serious problems between people, beginning with "If thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone." The first response is supposed to be private, you speak to the person involved before turning the problem into something everybody else knows about, and the purpose isn't simply establishing who was right because Christ says that if the person hears you, "thou shalt gain thy brother." The desired result is reconciliation, not victory There is a clear order to it as well, first you go to the person alone, then if they won't listen you take one or two others so that the matter can be established with witnesses, and only if that also fails does Christ say to bring it before the wider community. I like that there are steps because it gives somebody several opportunities to listen and respond before their failure becomes public, while also recognizing that two…