Matt 18:12–20 — Discipleship In Community, Part 2: Discipline

Matthew 18 is the fourth major block of teaching in Matthew’s Gospel. Its central point is that discipleship takes place not only individually but also in community, within our relationships as fellow disciples of Christ.

The first part of the chapter teaches that life together must be characterized by humility. Humility enables us to love, receive, and accept one another as Christ’s disciples. Verse 10 summarizes that teaching: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones.” Jesus even uses the severe imagery of cutting off a hand or tearing out an eye to show how seriously we must resist the sins that create stumbling blocks for fellow believers.

Yet receiving one another does not mean ignoring sin. Discipleship in community also means accountability within Christ’s church. In some cases, a person who claims to be a disciple may so stubbornly reject the church’s correction that he must be removed and regarded as “a Gentile and a tax collector.” Before explaining that process, however, Jesus establishes the pastoral spirit in which all discipline must be conducted.

The Shepherd Who Seeks the Lost

Jesus begins with the parable of the lost sheep:

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

Jesus presents himself as the Good Shepherd, a theme woven throughout Matthew. The birth narrative quotes Micah’s promise that a ruler will come from Bethlehem to shepherd God’s people Israel. In Matthew 9:36, Jesus sees the crowds as harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He sends the apostles to the lost sheep of Israel in Matthew 10:6 and describes his own mission in the same terms in Matthew 15:24. Later, at his arrest, the Shepherd will be struck and the flock scattered.

John’s Gospel makes the point explicit: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Jesus seeks wandering sheep and brings them back to the fold. Those who belong to him by election will finally return.

The parable concludes, “It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” The phrase “one of these little ones” connects the parable with the preceding section. Christ’s little ones are his disciples, those who humble themselves and believe in him.

Church discipline must therefore be pastoral—shepherd-like—in spirit. It must never be conducted with the attitude, “Good riddance; we are glad that person is gone.” Its desire is always that the wanderer repent and be restored. If Jesus seeks wandering sheep, then pastors and elders, as his under-shepherds, must do the same.

When a Brother Sins

Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.” A textual question arises immediately. Some Greek manuscripts include “against you,” as reflected in the ESV; others omit it, as do the NIV and NASB.

The difference affects the passage’s scope. If “against you” is original, Jesus may be outlining a process specifically for personal grievances between believers. If the words are omitted, he gives a broader procedure for responding to sin in the church. The broader reading is preferable: “If your brother sins, go and tell him his fault.” The passage concerns church discipline generally, not only interpersonal disputes.

The word “brother” is significant. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commands a worshiper to seek reconciliation when his brother has something against him. He also warns against focusing on the speck in a brother’s eye while ignoring the log in one’s own. Later in Matthew 18, Peter asks how often he must forgive a brother who sins against him.

Matthew emphasizes the church more explicitly than the other Gospels and is the only Gospel to use the word church. After Peter’s confession, Jesus promises, “On this rock I will build my church.” The Gospel recounts the same person and work of Christ as the other three, but it repeatedly draws out how his followers must live as his gathered people.

Jesus often begins with circumstances during his earthly ministry and then looks ahead to the church after his resurrection and ascension. That happens here. When he says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them,” he anticipates a time when he will no longer be bodily present yet will remain spiritually present with his church. The promise connects with his final words in Matthew: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Three Stages of Church Discipline

Jesus gives a three-stage process designed to reclaim a sinning brother while protecting the church.

Private Admonition

The first step is to approach the person privately: “Go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” The purpose is not humiliation, gossip, or punishment but repentance and restoration. At this stage, the offender is treated as a brother. Paul gives the same instruction in 2 Thessalonians 3:15: “Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.”

If the person listens, Jesus says, “You have gained your brother.” The process ends there. The private character of this first step protects the person’s reputation, limits unnecessary damage, and expresses sincere concern for his soul.

Two or Three Witnesses

If the brother refuses to listen, the disciple must take one or two others along. This follows Deuteronomy 19:15: “Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.” These additional people provide independent confirmation that the charge is sound and that the offender continues to refuse repentance.

This is likely the stage at which the church’s elders become involved. Jesus speaks in verse 18 of binding and loosing, language that reaches back to the keys of the kingdom in Matthew 16:19. Christ entrusted those keys to Peter and the apostles; in the present church they are exercised by its elders.

Verses 19–20 reinforce this interpretation:

If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

These verses are often removed from their context and applied to an informal prayer meeting, as though Christ’s special presence depends upon reaching a minimum attendance of two or three. Jesus is still speaking about church discipline. The phrases “on earth” and “in heaven” echo verse 18, and the “two or three” correspond to the witnesses of verse 16.

The picture is of elders gathered as a church court to consider the matter under Christ’s authority. They assemble “in my name,” and Christ promises to be among them. Their request is not an unrestricted promise concerning anything they might desire; it concerns the faithful exercise of the keys according to his command.

Telling It to the Church

If the offender refuses to listen to the witnesses, the matter must be told to the church. If he refuses even the church’s admonition, Jesus says, “Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” After repeated efforts at restoration, the church must excommunicate the unrepentant person and regard him as an unbeliever.

“Gentile” is used spiritually rather than ethnically. The church is the renewed people of God, so a person placed outside it is regarded as outside the covenant community. Tax collectors were often Jewish by birth, yet they were treated as apostates because they collaborated with Rome and commonly enriched themselves through exploitation. Both descriptions identify a person who must no longer be received as a brother in Christ.

This distinction matters. Jesus strongly commands us to recognize and receive fellow believers, but a person may harden his heart so thoroughly against Christ’s appointed discipline that the church can no longer affirm his profession. Excommunication does not declare that repentance is impossible. The person may later turn and be restored. Until then, however, the church treats him as an outsider.

Excommunication is always the last resort. It comes only after private admonition, the involvement of witnesses and elders, and an appeal from the whole church. The repeated phrase is “refuses to listen.” The final action responds not to an isolated failure but to hardened, persistent rejection of correction.

The Spirit of Discipline

What does this passage teach about church discipline? First, its spirit must reflect the pastoral heart of God. The word pastor is simply the Latin word for shepherd. Pastoral discipline is shepherdly discipline.

Discipleship in community requires concern for the spiritual welfare of our brothers and sisters. When we see a believer trapped in sin or abandoning the church’s assembly, we have an obligation to seek that person out in genuine concern for the soul. The first impulse should be the quiet, brotherly approach of verse 15, not public accusation.

The parable of the lost sheep governs the whole process. Christ’s under-shepherds act not to defend their pride, exercise control, or remove an inconvenience, but to imitate the Shepherd who searches for those who wander.

The Aim of Discipline

Second, the aim is to reclaim and restore the erring brother. The Good Shepherd searches for the sheep that has gone astray. Jesus describes successful private admonition with the joyful words, “You have gained your brother.” Even when discipline reaches excommunication, the church continues to desire and pray for repentance.

God can use church discipline to awaken the conscience and bring a wandering believer home. When that happens, the church must rejoice as the shepherd rejoices over the sheep he has found. The restored person must not be received grudgingly or treated as a second-class Christian. The goal from the beginning was restoration to full fellowship.

The Importance of Discipline

Third, discipline is essential because the church cannot tolerate open, scandalous, unrepentant sin in its midst. It is traditionally called the third mark of the true church, alongside the pure preaching of the gospel and the proper administration of the sacraments. When a church knowingly allows scandalous sin to continue without seeking repentance, it dishonors Christ.

First Corinthians 5 supplies a sobering example. A man in the Corinthian church was involved in notorious sexual immorality, and the congregation had done nothing. They had even become boastful. Paul warns that a little leaven leavens the whole lump and commands them to remove the old leaven because Christ, their Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.

Paul clarifies that he is not calling Christians to separate from every immoral person in the world; that would require leaving the world altogether. Rather, they must not continue ordinary Christian fellowship with a person who “bears the name of brother” while persisting openly in sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, reviling, drunkenness, or swindling. “Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you.”

The church must maintain its purity and uphold Christ’s honor. This does not mean investigating every secret sin or attempting to construct a perfectly pure congregation. In the parable of the wheat and weeds, Jesus teaches that hypocrites will remain among the faithful until the final judgment. Elders cannot read hearts or identify the elect infallibly.

Two opposite errors must therefore be avoided. One is excessive severity: trying to expose every hidden fault and create a church in which everyone can be proved genuinely converted. That is impossible for fallible human beings. The other is negligent tolerance: permitting obvious, public scandal to remain without correction, as Corinth did.

The way between these errors is to remember that the church belongs to Christ. Discipline is not about protecting personal reputations, controlling others, or constructing a congregation suited to our preferences. Elders are servants and under-shepherds who must follow Christ’s teaching for Christ’s honor.

That is why Jesus declares:

Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

When the church faithfully exercises discipline according to Christ’s command, its earthly decision carries his heavenly authority. Christ himself stands behind the proper use of the keys. The church represents him because it is his church.

Church discipline must therefore unite tenderness and seriousness. It seeks the lost with the Shepherd’s compassion, rejoices in restoration, and refuses to make peace with unrepentant scandal. Conducted in that spirit, it exalts Christ, protects his people, and serves as one of the means by which wandering sheep are brought home.