The Wednesday after the Fourth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 16, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 18:15-20 (NKJV)
18:15 “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 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.’ 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.
18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Devotion
Today’s reading describes the godly procedure of Church discipline and its goal of bringing back the straying member of the family of God. It follows the Scriptural formula of requiring two or more credible witnesses’ testimony regarding the facts of the case prior to any action being taken.
Leaven will eventually leaven the entire lump if it is not removed effectively and promptly. The fault or offense committed against one member is committed against all members (the whole body). This testifying is a judicial presenting of the evidence, that a binding judgment may be arrived at for the sake of the offended and the offender.
Additionally, how would a lack of Scriptural discipline look regarding what we are to be in the world and confess to the world by our words and actions? The judgment is officiated through the Office of the Keys and excommunication, in the hope of bringing the offender to repentance and eventually reconciliation with the offended brother, and the body as a whole.
Christ is in the Church and the Church is in Christ; the two cannot be separated without doing harm to salvation. Also, where you have one person of the Holy Trinity you have all three, thus if the body is full of sin, it cannot be the body of Christ, for the Holy Spirit will not dwell in an unclean temple.
Collect: Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by Thy governance, that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
