What do Jesus' words teach ?
15“Moreover, if your brother commits a sin, go and reveal his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
Likewise, it is not a desirable thing to my Father who is in heaven for even one of these little ones to perish.15“Moreover, if your brother commits a sin, go and reveal his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two more, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be established. 17If he does not listen to them, speak to the congregation. If he does not listen even to the congregation, let him be to you just as a man of the nations and as a tax collector. Mathew 18:14-17The way justice is administered at present
At present, this need to find at all costs and anyway a guilty one to persecute in order to set an example to the whole congregation, gives rise to a “ righteous crusader” attitude and leads one to think that Jehovah's justice is inflexible, cold and stern, concerned only with passing judgment on wrongdoers. This view does not originate from Jehovah but from the fallen flesh and from the demons who want us to see Jehovah as a inflexible God hard to serve and to please. We do not want to fall into this trap. The present trouble in congregations, is an example of this wrong way of administering justice. Such huge power oj judging others and such “illegal ” directives, as the one of disfellowshipping in case of doupting about the wrongdoer's repentance, show how far the sacred scriptures have been misunderstood. Instead of giving the WRONG view about Jehovah, at present, it is urgent to understand the spirit of MATTHEW 18, that is : doing ALL you can in order to gain the brother and lead him to the right way to life.
The present judicial committees and the consequent ostracism punishment are STRETCHES of the right meaning of Matthew 18. The clear results give supportive evidence to this. Those erring brothers in need of help realize that the desire of saving them is very feeble and weakly felt by the so-called judges. As a consequence they give up , without hope and desperate. Actually it's not absolutely a true story that many of them come back thanks to this “iron” discipline . In fact, if we expanded on the subject, we would find out that on the contrary, it is thanks to lovely brothers who do not follow the present ruthless and inflexible disciplinary directives, if some succeed in staying close to the congregation.
The REAL spirit of discipline is that of helping the wrongdoer to improve and to change and not that of isolating him. It means also being willing to get any sign of repentance and not being inflexible and ruthless according to the spirit of the Pharisees and of the false religion. We wish this way of administering justice in congregation will be reformed as soon as possible in order to sanctify Jehovah's holy name. Matthew 18:14 is often forgotten or ignored . Yet it shows Jehovah' s deep feeling, which sadly, human judges often slight. Still his will is so clear and explicit.
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