Matthew 18:17 reveals that the believers are to obey the church. If a brother sins, we first need to deal with him in love (v. 15), then by two or three witnesses (v. 16), and finally through the church with authority. Verse 17 says, “If he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.” If a believer refuses to hear the church, he will lose the fellowship of the church and become like the Gentile, the heathen, and the tax collector, sinners who are outside the fellowship of the church. A Gentile or tax collector is someone who does not have the fellowship in the kingdom life or in the church life. To consider a believer a Gentile or a tax collector does not mean to excommunicate him. On the contrary, it means that he is considered as one cut off from the fellowship of the church. The offending brother who will not listen to the church may not require excommunication. Instead, he should be cut off from the fellowship of the church in order that this loss of fellowship may encourage him to repent and to recover his fellowship with the church.
The church which the believers should obey is certainly the local church, not the universal church. The church revealed in Matthew 16:18 is the universal church, the unique Body of Christ, whereas the church revealed in Matthew 18:17 is the local church, the expression of the unique Body of Christ in a certain locality. Matthew 16 concerns the universal building of the church, but chapter eighteen concerns the local practice of the church. Both chapters indicate that the church represents the kingdom of the heavens, having the authority to bind and to loose.
In order to be in the kingdom of the heavens in a practical way, we need to be in a local church. According to the context of 18:17, both the reality and the practicality of the kingdom are in the local church. In a chapter dealing with relationships in the kingdom, the Lord Jesus speaks eventually of the church. This indicates that the practicality of the kingdom today is in the local church. Without the local church, it is impossible to have the practicality and reality of the kingdom life. The local church is the reality both of the kingdom and of the universal church. Therefore, it is crucial for believers to obey the church. The more we realize how independent our natural self is, the more willing we shall be to submit to the church and to obey the church. Because of our independent self, we all must learn to obey the church. The church has the authority, and we must listen to the church and submit to the church. If we do not submit to the church, we are through with the kingdom, for the kingdom life is a life of submission to the church.
The context of Matthew 18 indicates that the reality of the church is the Lord’s presence (v. 20). The Lord’s presence is the authority of the church. The church must be certain that it has the presence of the Lord as its reality; otherwise, it has no genuine authority. The real and practical authority of the church is the Lord’s presence. If a believer does not listen to the church, he actually rebels against the Lord’s presence. The church then has the ground to exercise authority in the presence of the Lord over such a case of rebellion.
If we would live in the church, we need to meet with the church. In 1 Corinthians 14:23a Paul speaks of the whole church coming “together in one place.” This refers to a church meeting. In verse 26 Paul again refers to the believers coming together in a church meeting. Any believer who does not meet with the church spontaneously takes himself out of the church life.
First Corinthians 14 reveals that a meeting of the whole church actually is the church. After speaking in verse 23 of the whole church, Paul in verse 28 mentions a case when a person should “be silent in the church.” This clearly indicates that the church meeting is the church. When the whole church comes together, that is the meeting, and that is also the church because the meeting is the church. Such a meeting is not only part of the church-it is the church.
The proper way for believers to meet is to meet either as the church or as a part of the church. If the whole church comes together, then we meet as the church. If we meet in small groups in our homes, all those different meetings should be parts of the one church in our locality. All the meetings of the believers in a city should be constituents of the unique local church in that city. This is the proper way to meet. If we would experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately by living in the church, we need to meet with the church, meeting either as the church or as a part of the church.
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