Tuesday, May 1

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Tuesday

In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus gives us a brief but clear teaching on how we are to handle confronting a fellow Christian about their sinful behavior (see yesterday’s devotion).  However, just before this teaching, Jesus tells a parable about how God pursues His lost and wandering sheep. 

“See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.  “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. 

–      Matthew 18:10-14

What does this story have to do with the teaching on how to confront a brother or sister in sin?  Most of us tend to think about this parable of the lost sheep in terms of those who are not yet “saved”, or non-Christians.  Certainly God desires to save lost people through Christ.  However, to be “lost”, simply means to be in the wrong place.  In this sense, it is also possible for believers to be in the wrong place spiritually even though they may be saved.

Notice that in His parable, Jesus is describing a shepherd who goes in search of one of his sheep that has wandered off.  When we wander into sinful behaviors, we are certainly in the wrong place (lost), and we need to be brought back to our Shepherd.  The Bible clearly indicates that God pursues us in order to save us, and He continues to pursue us when we wander from Him.  The question is how?  How does God pursue his wandering sheep?  The answer is of course that God pursues us in many different ways.  Sometimes God pursues us through the conviction of His Word.  Sometimes God pursues us through the quiet, inner voice of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes God uses our external circumstances to wake us up to our need for Him.  However, one of the primary ways in which God pursues us when we wander is through each other!  This is why Jesus follows His story about the lost sheep with a clear teaching on how to go after a brother or sister who wanders into sin. 

It is all too easy to think of confrontation as either a means of getting even with someone who has wronged us, or as something difficult and messy and to be avoided altogether.  Jesus is teaching us that when a brother or sister sins against us, it is because they have wandered away from Him, and He wants to use us to help bring them back to Him – what an incredible privilege!  If there is someone in your life that you feel God is calling you to confront because of their sin, remember, it is because He loves His sheep and He may use you to ring them back to Him! 

This concept of the offended person pursuing the offender is at the very heart of the gospel!  Jesus (the one we have all offended) has pursued us (the offenders) all the way to the cross!  One of my favorite hymns of all time is “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”.  This hymn beautifully captures the wandering nature of our hearts and the pursuing love of Christ.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood;

How His kindness yet pursues me

Mortal tongue can never tell,

Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me

I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Jeff Frazier