Kingdom Principle: As we await for our ultimate consolation in the age to come, what should our lives be like? We should be a community of faith that should never be guilty of high handed sins that take advantage of others. In order to protect ourselves from this we need to practice loving rebuke, repentance, and restoration.
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The _________________________ of Wickedness
Luke 17:1 (ESV) — 1 And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!
Jesus is addressing a more high-handed, intentional kind of wickedness here. Why do I say this? Let me give you three reasons. The first is the context. The second is the word Jesus uses for “temptation”. And the third is the target of this kind of temptation.
The word skandala… means the bait-stick of a trap, that which triggers off trouble…
Proverbs 16:29 (ESV) — 29 A man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good.
2Peter 2:12-14; 17-19
Proverbs 1:10–16 (ESV) — 10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”— 15 my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.
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The __________________ of Confrontation (Rebuke)
Luke 17:3–4 (ESV) — 3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
The Lord calls us to move toward one another in loving confrontation. This should be done not out of anger or spiritual superiority but in love and gentleness, seeking to win our brother back.
Galatians 6:1 (ESV) — 1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
the early Church recognizes only one situation when a formal [rebuke] is in keeping for man. This is the brotherly correction of a fallen brother… (Lk. 17:3). Reproof should be accompanied by the awareness of common guilt before God and therefore by a spirit of unconditional forgiveness.
James 5:19–20 (ESV) — 19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
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The __________________________ of Forgiveness
Luke 17:5–6 (ESV) — 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
It is uncertain what tree the sycamine was, but most think of the black mulberry. The rabbis held that the roots of the tree with this name would remain in the earth for 600 years (SB). Clearly it was very firmly rooted, so that removing it would be difficult.
