Therefore, Be Reconciled

I have had so many "aha" moments in Bible Study this week I'm dizzy! It never ceases to amaze me how long I can carry a wrong or incomplete understanding of a biblical passage in my head, until the day comes, praise God, the blinders come off! Something I thought I totally understood suddenly opens up to me.

Mt. 5:23-24 is a common counseling passage about being reconciled to a brother. Today I suddenly understood the passage in its greater context . First, I noticed an important word at the beginning of v.23, "Therefore". Hmm... Jesus is about to give a resulting conclusion based on previously given information. Aha....what comes just before this verse? He's teaching about a wider understanding of sin, going beyond the focus on outward actions, as taught by the rabbis, and expanding back into one's thought life (21-22). They had heard rabbis teach that murder is a sin. Jesus now expands upon that teaching to help them understand sinful anger in their thought life is equally worthy of God's judgment! That knowledge gives the worshiper in v.23 a MOTIVATION for being reconciled with a brother who is holding something against him. Love for your brother should motivate you to prevent him from suffering the consequences of sinful anger!

Secondly, I see the verb "be reconciled" is an Imperative of Command in the Greek. There is no personal choice in the matter. The Lord Himself directly gives this command.

Finally, the passage says absolutely nothing about the attitude of the worshiper. It matters not whether the worshiper believes a problem actually exists with his brother. What matters is that THE BROTHER thinks there's a breach. Which leads to an important additional point. The worshiper is commanded to be reconciled to his brother irrespective of the justice or injustice of the brother's judgment! How many of us refuse to take steps to be reconciled with a brother because we consider ourselves to be innocent of any wrongdoing? It's THEIR problem, we say. I haven't done anything wrong. According to this passage, our guilt or innocence doesn't matter. It's the brother's opinion that counts. Remember, Jesus' focus isn't on our guilt or innocence here, but on our brothers sinful anger.

The point is to love your brother enough that you are willing to do whatever is necessary to remove the ground of estrangement from between you, and thereby save him from sinful anger. That's what it means to "build up one another". It's not that believers go around saying, "Good job!"... "Atta boy!" to one another all the time, but that we help each other become increasingly Christ-like, and thereby glorify God!

And we have Christ's own example to follow. "But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." [Rom. 5:8] That's the selfless, loving attitude Jesus is looking for in His people!