I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 18-20.

    At the beginning and near the end of today’s passage Jesus discusses what it takes to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven, what it takes to be a godly leader. I do not think that I can fully express what Jesus meant when He said that we needed to become like little children in order to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. However, He specifically talks about being as humble as a little child. At least part of what Jesus is talking about is the way that children tend to view all adults as more important, more worthy of respect than themselves. There is more to it than that, but, in light of what Jesus says about what it takes to be a godly leader, that is the core.
    In the secular world, leaders tell others what to do in order to accomplish things which serve the interests of the leader. In the Kingdom of Heaven, leaders direct others to do things which further the interests of those who the leader is directing. Yes, the godly leader will direct people to do God’s will, but the godly leader will seek how he can make you better able to perform your ministry, not how you can make him more effective at his ministry. The true leader will seek how he can help others do their jobs better and more efficiently.

    I want to tie together two of Jesus’ teachings which we often separate. The first is Jesus’ teaching on how to deal with those who sin within the Church Body. This teaching is especially important to follow if you are the victim of that sin (or feel that you are). The second is Jesus’ teaching on how often we should forgive those who have sinned against us. Jesus tells us that if a brother or sister has sinned, especially if it is against us, we should go to them privately and discuss it with them. If we cannot resolve the issue privately, we should take a couple of witnesses with us. Now, sometime back it struck me that this means we should go to them for dialogue to discuss what happened. Perhaps we misunderstood and the person had not committed the sin we thought that they had. Then if when we talk to them they fail to show us how we had misunderstood the situation and fail to understand that they had done wrong, we bring in neutral third parties to hear both of our sides to the story. Then, if we cannot resolve the dispute, we take it to the entire Church. Even at this point, people should not prejudge who is in the wrong. When we think we have been wronged we should be willing to forgive, again and again. An important part of that is recognizing that we may have been the one in the wrong (if for no other reason than that we supposed the other person had sinned when they had not). No matter what wrong others have done to us, it does not add up to the wrong we have done, nor does it justify us doing that wrong. Our goal when we confront another sinner should be repentance and reconciliation. And that repentance should be both ours and theirs.