Only in relatively rare cases can openly impenitent sinners successfully hide behind Christ’s message of Matthew 18:15-20. The Savior’s instruction for us to deal with manifest sinners simply does not provide any safe refuge for those who seek to keep their sin or their impenitence off the agenda of the Christian community. However, the way that some Christians or churches may misuse the procedure outlined here can in some instances allow this to happen. I suspect that is your concern.

Perhaps the most common way professing Christians misuse this privilege and responsibility is by ignoring it or making it a low priority that seldom gets done. Maybe we assume or hope someone else will do this and save us the effort required. That’s not right. Nor is it right to drop the issue after an initial and apparently unsuccessful attempt to bring about repentance through private admonishment. Trustworthy, suitable witnesses are to be summoned to intensify the call to godly repentance and reconciliation. Truthfully stated, it is our moral duty to identify and expose sin among fellow believers and lead them to godly contrition and joyful reliance on our Savior. But too often we don’t.

It is also counterproductive if we approach a known sinner with a motive or demeanor other than humble love and the desire to serve and win them back to God. If our main motive is to get rid of sinners, shame them, or somehow punish them, they will be on the defensive. The process may turn into a power struggle or a kind of ecclesiastical chess game as they maneuver to circumvent the procedure or look for imagined loopholes. Before speaking with erring brothers and sisters we do well to ponder the parables that precede and follow the instructions in Matthew 18—the lost sheep and the unforgiving servant. Both emphasize how the desire to retrieve and forgive the sinner is at the heart of it all.