The believer's relationship with hs brothers and his Lord

Text: Luke 17:1-10 Time: 31/07/13 Place: Childs Hill Baptist

When a person becomes a Christian everything changes, including his relationships.

Firstly, his relationship with God is changed. Secondly, his relationship changes with all his fellow believers.

We could put it this way – there is a radical change on both the vertical and horizontal planes. If we really are Christians then there will be both an observable change in our relations with our fellow Christians here below and what is in some ways less observable – a change in our relationship with God above.

I want us to explore these two aspects of the life of the believer as they are developed in Luke 17:1-10.

One difficulty with the material in this part of Luke is knowing quite why one part follows another. Various suggestions are made as to why the material in Chapter 17 follows the material in Chapter 16. None of these seem particularly convincing. Perhaps we simply have to accept that we do not know quite why Luke has placed this material where he has. Verses 1-10 hang together pretty well, however, and I think we can see easily enough how it connects. Let’s look at these verses together then. I want to say three things to you.

1. Consider your relationship with your brother below and the attitude this demands

In verses 1-4 we are in the horizontal realm, the realm below. Here we are dealing with two aspects of the relationship between a believer and his brother, his fellow believer. We are speaking to believers then, those who profess to trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation and so here we want to issue two warnings in this area.

1. Beware of being the cause of your brother’s sin.

1 Recognise the inevitability of sin. 1 Jesus said to his disciples: Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, …. That’s the place to begin in all of this – sin is inevitable. It is bound to come. This immediately rules out all ideas of sinful perfection on earth, of some sort of paradise where no-one sins. Life in this fallen world is not like this. People sin on the streets and in their homes. If you lock them in prison they will sin there too. It is no good either setting up monasteries or nunneries because they sin there too. The Pope sins. People of every religion sin. Muslims sin, Hindus sin, Buddhists sin. All of them. Unbelievers sin but so do believers. Ministers sin, elders and deacons sin, theological students sin, missionaries sin. People of all ages – babies, children, adults, the elderly. All sin. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor people are they still sin. It doesn’t matter how educated or ill-educated they are, they sin. It doesn’t matter what they invent, people will find ways of using it to sin. It is not a nice thought but it is true. I sin, you(s) sin, he sins, she sins. We sin, you(p) sin, they sin. Do not be surprised at the fact that believers sin therefore.

2 Understand the evil of causing sin and the need to watch yourself carefully

Jesus’s point, however, is that although we cannot prevent sin as such we can make sure that we are not the cause of sin. But woe to that person through whom they (the things that cause people to sin) come. In various ways, as people interact with one another, they have an effect on one another. It is vital that we not only do everything we can to make sure that we do not sin ourselves but that we take great care over the effect that we have on others and do nothing to cause them to sin. When a person sins he bears the responsibility for his sin, of course, but there are such things as contributing factors and we must not be the source of such.

Think about it. By what you say or do or in the attitudes you show how easily you can have a bad effect on fellow believers. It is not only what you do but what you fail to do too. If you are always bad tempered isn’t that likely to make others bad-tempered? If you are greedy won’t others see your example and copy? If you go to certain places you ought not to or let your eyes see things you shouldn't, isn’t there the danger that others will be influenced? Won’t the way you live on a Sunday have an impact on how others live? If you don’t come to the midweek meeting won’t others be tempted to think that they don’t need to come either? Surely that is obvious. Our effect will especially be on the weaker sort – those younger in age than us, those less well thought out, those who are younger in the faith.

We always need to be thinking not only – is this okay for me? - but also - what effect will this have on any others who know me? It may be okay for you to have a TV or a computer but what effect might that have on others? It may be okay for you to drink alcohol but what affect will it have on others? Perhaps you can stay up late on a Saturday night and be okay the next day; can others? Remember Paul’s word on this (1 Corinthians 8:13) Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

Look at the strong words Jesus uses here in verse 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied round his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. That’s how serious it is – better to die than to be the cause of sin. Do we take this matter that seriously? We have to confess that we do not. We are altogether too self-centred and careless so often in these matters.

Now we may not like this line of reasoning. I for one find it very uncomfortable. It is tempting to try and tone it down a bit and make it a little easier. I’m thinking – well, here I am preaching against causing others to sin and may be I’m one of the worst offenders in this. A minister has a lot of influence and it may well be that I am the cause of many sins in this congregation. We need to think long and hard about these things – all of us I’m sure. So watch yourselves. These are Jesus’s solemn and searching words. Self-examination is necessary. Are we causing others to sin? We need clear consciences in this area.

2. Beware of failing to forgive your brother’s sin. Then in verse 3 Jesus moves on to another matter. Again we say two things.

1 Recognise the inevitability of sin. If your brother sins, says Jesus. We could put it ‘When your brother sins’. As we have established very clearly there is no-one who does not sin. Scripture is clear about that. Even believers sin. Now given that my brother is going to sin – sometimes against me – then it is surely wise for me to think through what I am going to do when I see a fellow-believer sin. This is what Jesus considers here. Do you know what to do when you see a fellow Christian sinning? You won’t find everything here but the basics are there.

2 Understand the ongoing duty to rebuke and to forgive sin

• What should I do if I see a brother sin? Jesus says rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. So there are two duties here
  • Rebuke him. He needs to be admonished. His wrongs need to be pointed out. Proverbs 27:5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. It is not an option to turn a blind eye, to pretend it didn’t happen. We have a duty to confront them about the matter. Now obviously there is a measure of discernment here as to what you approach them about. If we spoke to one another about every single sin where would we be? Clearly Jesus has in mind persistent, serious sin not petty every day things. We must take sin seriously and be willing to speak against it to our brothers in Christ. We may get a good response, we may not, but we have to speak up.
  • If he repents, forgive him. If the man repents, if he turns from his sin at your rebuke then it is your duty to forgive him. You may say, what if he doesn’t repent? The Bible does answer that question (see Matthew 18 a chapter with some parallels to this) but for the moment Christ simply concentrates on what happens if he does repent. Jesus is not dealing here either with how we deal with unbelievers. If a believer sins and then repents then he is to be forgiven. That is why we don’t have to chase up every little sin. We assume that the believer repents from these. It is only when a sin persists that there is to be a rebuke and then forgiveness on repentance.
• How often should I allow him to repent and still forgive? This is another question that is bound to arise in our minds. Jesus is very radical. He says (4) If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, I repent, forgive him. I once heard a preacher picture it like this. Say a fellow Christian hits you for some reason – sock! You must rebuke him and if he repents (sorry he says, etc) then you must forgive him. Now say an hour later he comes back and hits you again – sock! You must rebuke him and if he repents you must forgive him again. Even if it goes on happening time after time, every time he repents you must forgive him. Sock! Sock! Sock! Seven here is not an exact number but a complete number. No matter how many times …. Yes, you may wish to question the sincerity of the man’s repentance but if he says he is repenting then you must forgive him – no matter how many times it may happen.

So if you thought the last section was a tall order, what about this? It really does give pause for serious thought. We need somehow to be able, on the one hand, to avoid causing our brother to fall into sin and, on the other, to be able to forgive them when they do sin. Both watchfulness and love are vital.

That leads us then to our second main point.

2. Consider the connection between your brother below and your Lord above, how these connect and the attitude this demands

Now there are various ways to react to this difficult teaching.

• You could ignore it, try and push it out of your mind. Please don’t do that.
• You could say ‘well this looks a tough task but I can do it.’ That is not a good approach You will either end up very discouraged or puffed up with false pride because you think you are doing what Jesus says. No our response needs to be more like that of the disciples. On hearing this (5) The apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith! And so I ask you
  • Do you sense a need for more faith? Like the apostles here, have you seen that these demands cannot be ignored and that there is no way humanly speaking that they can be achieved. This is a spiritual matter, a matter of faith. It is as we grow nearer to God that we are going to be more watchful and more caring with regard to our brothers. The vertical and the horizontal are intimately linked. When you read hard verses like these, as the thumbscrew gets tighter so you should be seeing more your need for God’s help. The tighter the squeeze at the sides the higher your thoughts should rise.
  • Do you see the need to have the right faith? What Jesus says in response is very encouraging. The disciples are aware of how poor their faith is, how small, how meagre. But Jesus says – don’t worry how small your faith is, how little of it there is. As long as it is the right sort of faith then you will be okay. 6 He replied, If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you. 

Now here is something that can really help us in all sorts of ways. When confronted by something clearly beyond us we must not panic and be fearful at the poverty of our faith. Rather, we must seek the Lord and ask him to give us the sort of faith we need – Holy Spirit-given faith – even the smallest amount of faith like that is powerful indeed. Think of washing up. If you’ve got one of the cheap brands there you know that they can be rather thin and you keep putting more and more in to try and make it sudsy. If you’ve got Fairy Liquid or something like that, however, it’s much more concentrated and it goes much further. Perhaps we would solve some of our problems if we could only see that what we need is not so much more faith as better faith, faith that more truly looks to the Lord and to the Lord alone. Certainly, if we are going to make any progress at all in this matter of not causing sin and of rebuking and forgiving then we need to look above to the Lord. Are we? That leads us to our final point

3. Consider your relationship with the Lord above and the attitude this demands

To help his disciples and us with this point Jesus gives a brief parable of sorts to help us understand our relationship to the Lord. This is not everything that can be said about this matter. The New Testament much more often pictures our relationship as a Father/son one. However, it is also a master/servant one.

1. Understand the nature of a master and servant relationship. Let’s concentrate just on the picture first.

1 The duty they have. 7 Suppose one of you had a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. The apostles were not rich men really but some of them might have had servants just as sometimes many of us employ people to do things for us sometimes perhaps – cleaning windows, doing decorating or building work, bringing your shopping or your newspaper, etc. Here the job would be ploughing a field or looking after sheep. A certain duty is specified.

2 The honour and thanks they deserve. Jesus goes on Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, Come along now and sit down to eat? Well no. He is much more likely to say the opposite. 8 Would he not rather say, Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink? Or what about this? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? Now I know that because of the impact the gospel has made our culture is a little different but still when the window cleaner or the paper boy has finished his round you would be unlikely to invite him in and give him a meal as a reward. When someone serves you in a shop I’m sure you’re polite but you don’t think to yourself ‘I must buy a thank you card and post it to them’!

You see the picture then.

2. Appreciate the insight this gives into our relationship with the Lord

1 The duty we have. Jesus begins (10) So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, …. Imagine you do manage by faith to live as we have been describing – always avoiding offence, never leading anyone into sin; always rebuking and then forgiving an doing all the other things that make up the Christian life. Now, of course, the truth is that we never do keep up all our duties. We are always failing at some point or other. However, we must aim for perfection. Anyway, suppose we did do all our duty – how should we feel?

2 The honour and thanks we deserve. So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do should say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty. That is the attitude of faith. The moment we begin to think ‘Hey I’ve achieved something, I’ve earned something’ then we know we have gone astray. Paul quoting Job 41 asks (Romans 11:35) Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? Now, of course, this is only part of the story. We know that at the end there will be a well done good and faithful servant for every faithful believer. However, this is clearly on the basis of grace not simply of what we have done. So we say remember God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Salvation is not a matter of what we do. It cannot be earned. Nevertheless if we truly do belong to the Lord above it will profoundly affect the relationship we have with our brothers below and how we serve the Lord above.