Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Matthew 18:15-35

This passage occurs in the Narrative Lectionary Year 1 (Most recently Feb 22, 2015).

Matthew 18:15-20
Juiciest tid-bit:

εθνικος (pagan, gentile, literally "ethnic"; 18:17)  Jesus suggests we treat Christians who have greatly sinned against us as gentiles.  Interestingly, Jesus final words in the Gospel of Matthew instruct us to preach to the gentiles (all the nations of the world; same root word) and earlier Jesus reminds us to love our enemies, because even the gentiles to this.  Jesus is not giving us permission to be rude and dismissive to our brothers and sisters in Jesus, even those whom we are angry with.

Matthew 18:21-35
Juiciest tid-bit:
When you break down the Greek, you realize that Peter does not wonder "if" his brother will sin, but he wants to know what to do "when" his brother will sin.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for these tidbits. Those of us working with the NL appreciate every last bit of scholarly support we can get!

RJM said...

Matt, sure thing. I hope the full article offers you some insight too.

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