Brother’s Keeper

I am my brother’s keeper.  I learned that lesson as a child living in a house with two brother’s.  It wasn’t acceptable to be apathetic when one of my parents asked where my brother was.  I am my brother’s keeper.  That is what God made me to be.  Even if I don’t want to do it – that doesn’t change the reality of the situation.

A colleague of mine shared a story about a member who called him up and told him something not so terrible that another member in the church was doing.  Do you know what he did?  He hung up.  The first thing you need to understand about this text and the roll that the church is fulfilling here is that Jesus is talking to believers.  Not just any believers – these are the twelve disciples.  I do get asked the question infrequently. if I treat members of our church differently than I do the general population.  The answer is of course!  God expects more from the people in his church in their sanctified life.  Let’s break it down. If your brother sins against you.  Yes, this could apply to the general population, but specifically this is talking about within the church.

The picture that I used this week in the email and on social media was the from the inside looking out.  This is inside baseball stuff.  We’re not standing afar looking with a sigh on the grandeur of the Christian church.  This is your everyday functioning life here.

The reason my colleague hung up on the member who was sharing that story was because 1) it was gossip 2) the person didn’t go to her fellow believer first – even though she knew better.  That Sunday the woman just gave her pastor a sheepish look and he knew she got the point.

Want hear more?  Watch this Sunday’s message taken from Matthew 18.  This is the fourth lesson in our series One Foundation: My Brother’s Keeper.