>15 “If your brother or sister[a] sins,[b] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’[c] 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.What church was Christ referring to here? Surely it wasn't Pastor's Bob Bible Study Church.
Proties are very silent today
>>18393031“Church” there is basically a translation word. The Greek is ekklesia, and that means assembly, gathering, community, the group.So when the text says “tell it to the church,” the idea is not “go report it to a nstitutional church.” It is more like: bring it before the community, before the gathered body, before the group that has authority to hear the matter. And the part about bringing one or two others is legal language too: under Jewish law, a matter was established by two or three witnesses, not by one person alone. So Jesus is basically saying: first handle it privately, and if that fails, move to a formal communal process with witnesses. The problem is reading the English word “church” and importing modern ideas into a text that is working with older Jewish legal and communal concepts.
