09/05/2026
WHEN SOMEONE WRONGS YOU - Matthew 18:15-20
"If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you..."
Jesus lays out a path for handling conflict inside the family of faith: Go privately. If someone sins against you, go to them alone first. Not to a friend, not to online, no to them. Bring witnesses if needed. If they won't listen, bring one or two others so the matter is established fairly. Tell the church. If they still refuse, bring it before the community. Release them. If they refuse even the church, treat them "as a Gentile and a tax collector" not as an enemy to be crushed, but as someone outside the fold Jesus still pursued relentlessly.
Then Jesus adds two striking promises: what is bound and loosed on earth is bound and loosed in heaven, and where two or three gather in his name, he is there among them.
What's really going on here?
It's easy to read this as a conflict-resolution flowchart and miss what's underneath it. This isn't primarily a procedure, it's a picture of how seriously Jesus takes both truth and people.
Most of us handle being wronged in one of two unhealthy ways: we swallow it and let resentment build, or we broadcast it, to everyone except the person who actually hurt us. Jesus offers a third way. Go directly. Say the hard thing to the person's face, not behind their back.
The goal from the very first verse is not punishment, it's that you have won your brother or sister back. Restoration is the target of every step. Notice, too, how patient the process is. Jesus doesn't say "go public immediately" or "cut them off at the first offense." He builds in layers: one voice, then a few, then the whole community. Each step giving room for repentance before things escalate. Confrontation, in Jesus' hands, is an act of love before it is ever an act of justice.
Living It Out This Week
Is there someone you've been avoiding instead of talking to? Consider what it would look like to go to them directly, in a spirit of restoration rather than accusation.
Have you been talking about someone instead of to them?
This passage is a quiet challenge to gossip and triangulation, even the well-meaning kind.
Where do you need to trust that Christ is present in a conversation you've been putting off?
Let us pray...
Lord, give me the courage to go directly to the people who've hurt me, and the humility to hear it when I've hurt someone else. Teach me to seek restoration, not just being right. Thank you that you're present even in the hard conversations. Amen.
See you Sunday!
Pernilla Håkansdotter Olsson
