The Ministry of Reconciliation

SOURCES:

1. Alfred Poirier; The Peacemaking Pastor
2. Ken Sande; The Peacemaker; A Biblical Guide to Conflict Resolution

REVIEW:

• Wrong Responses to Conflict
• • Peace-faking (flight)
  • Peace-breaking (fight)
• Right Response to Conflict – “Peacemaking”
• • Personal Peacemaking
  • Assisted Peacemaking

 Personal Peacemaking

• Forbearance – “Overlooking an Offense”
• Discussion – Reconciliation
• Negotiation – Material aspect of reconciliation (issue, position, interest)

QUESTIONS:

• What happens when the personal peacemaking breaks down?
• What happens when the parties cannot settle by themselves their differences?
• What if they cannot come to agreement on their own?

Assisted Peacemaking

• Mediation
• Arbitration
• Accountability (Church Discipline)

OUTLINE:

1. The Theology of Mediation
2. 1. Christ; our only Mediator
   2. Paul; as Ambassador of Christ’s Mediation
   3. The Church; Commanded to Mediate
2. The Specifics of Mediation
3. The Common Problems in Mediation

a. Christ: Our Only Mediator

Note: The Bible is replete with commands for believers to make effort toward peacemaking (e.g. – Rom. 14:19, Eph. 4:3, Heb. 12:14)

• But the call to peacemaking (mediation) is grounded not only to a few scattered verses in scriptures but in the very redemptive story the Gospel presents through Christ our only Mediator!
• [Alfred Poirier] “From Genesis 3 to Revelation 21, the Bible is a book abounding with conflict—man against God, God against man, man against man. But the Bible is more. The Bible is God’s special revelation of his Reconciler. It is the good news of God’s promise of a Mediator— the coming Prince of Peace.” (see 1Tim. 2:4-6)

b. Paul: as Ambassador of Christ's Mediation

• Caveat: Jesus Christ is our only Mediator to God for grace, but as his servants, we are also called to mediate his grace to people – not on a sacerdotal/priestly sense but as Ambassadors and Representatives of his Reconciliation. (see 2Cor. 5:20)
• Notice: This is not only in a salvific sense (peace w/ God) but also in brotherly relation within the Church body (peace w/ one another).
• Evidenced by Paul’s inclusion of “peace-reconciliation” as greeting in all of his letters.
• E.g. – 2Cor. 1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. Rom. 1:7, Eph. 1:2, Phil. 1:2)
• Paul’s opening salutation is not just an epistolary filler… e.g. “My Dearest”… “My Beloved”… “To whom it may concern”.
• The greetings of peace is a foundational theme in all of his letters.
• • Primarily - encapsulates the Gospel of Peace with God through Christ’s mediating work (see 2Cor. 5:20-21)
  • Secondarily - it functions as the state to which all in the Church of God should be striving with one another in the midst of conflict. (see Rom. 14:19 – Strong & Weak) (see Eph. 2:14-17 – Jews & Gentiles) (see Phil. 4:2-3 – Euodia & Syntyche)

[Alfred Poirier] “Paul’s letters were the counsel of a mediator to people needing reconciliation. “Grace and Peace” captures in miniature form the majesty of God’s great work of redemption… Yet these words are more than miniatures, they are the first step this mediator takes in drawing estranged people back to God and to one another.”

Notice: Paul as committed mediator ends his letters the same way. He blessed the churches with “God’s peace” again! (see Rom. 15:33; 16:20; Phil. 4:7–9)

c. The Church: Called to Mediate

Text: Matt. 18:15-20

Note: In this process of reconciliation and dealing with sin, Christ is concerned with privacy. The less people involved the better.

• Personal (v. 15)… Mediated (v. 16)… Public (v. 17)
• Notice: The “second level” is often neglected due to a vindictive approach to church discipline. The mediation part is skipped hurrying immediately to 3rd level discipline.
• Consequential to this, Mediation-Counseling or Assisted Conflict Resolution is sidelined and ignored.
• Warning: These are Christ’s command and not mere suggestions for his Church to follow.
• Text: v. 16 “but if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.”

Q: What does Jesus intend for the “two or three witnesses”?

• Warning: Heavy Appeal to Deut. 19:15 as witnesses for prosecution and judge neglects the function of the witnesses as mediators.
• Note: Judgment is to be officially passed on the third level in the Church court not in the mediated level (v. 17 “Tell it to the Church, and if he refuses to listen, let him be treated as a tax collector.”)

REMEMBER: Jesus still envisions the possibility of the offending brother “listening”.

• Note: Christ expects the witnesses to be mature believers (probably church officers… i.e. – pastors & deacons), not to stand primarily as Judge over the conflicting parties but as counselors for disputing brothers.
• The principle of v. 15 is carried over to this 2nd level of reconciliation… (v. 15 “if he listens to you, you have gained your brother”)…

[Alfred Poirier] “it is evident that the context of verse 16 presents these “witnesses” as acting with broader intent than that of a witness who gives evidence in court. in all three verses (Matt. 18:15–17), the issue that determines if the restoration process should move forward is whether the erring brother “refuses to listen.” This determining factor implies that those seeking to restore him are doing more than giving testimony in support of an allegation of wrongdoing. We ought to assume that these one or two others taken along are speaking, counseling, exhorting, and rebuking—making every effort to compel their brother to listen—rather than merely stating the evidence for his offense.”

Text: 1 Cor. 6:1-8

• v. 7 “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you”
• • Note: The word defeat (hettema) was used for judicial defeat in court but here Paul used it for moral & spiritual defeat of Corinthians.
  • Goes back to v. 1 “does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?”
  • [Thomas Schreiner] “People engage in lawsuits to win, to be vindicated and to have their rights reasserted. But the very fact that the Corinthians have taken their cases to unbelievers, that they have gone to court, is ‘an utter failure’ (NKJV). Or, as the NIV felicitously puts it: "you have been completely defeated already." The believers were looking for a victory [Nikē] in court, but Paul informs them that the very presence of lawsuits signals a stunning defeat [Hettema] and reversal.”
• A Law Professor – “Robert Taylor” in his Book… “A Biblical Theology of Litigation” asked this crucial question regarding the text:
• Q: “Why is litigation cast in a negative light but mediation by saints in a much more favorable one by St. Paul? Why shouldn’t Christians sue one another and what’s wrong with litigation?”
• • Answer: in v. 2-3 “we will judge the world & angels”
  • in v. 7 “why not be defrauded and suffer wrong?”
  • Suggested Answers: Sufficiency of Scriptures, Biblical Ecclesiology

A PROVISO: only for Civil cases not for Criminal cases

• Doctrine: Separation of Church and State
• Rom. 13:4-6… Civil officers are ministers of God to punish evil and reward good.
• • Context: “evil” gk. ‘kakon’… wretched, immoral, pernicious, injurious… not only to individuals but to society at large.
  • Civil Cases = Person vs. Person
  • Criminal Cases = Republic of Phil. vs. Suspect

Text: 1 Tim. 3:14-15

• “Household of God” (cf. - Gal. 6:10, Eph. 2:19)
• Couched in the language of managing one’s own household well in v. 4 & 12… Paul expects Timothy’s managing of his own household will reflect to his own proper management of God’s household even if Paul is away.
• Point: Part of ordinary household management is skillful mediation between conflicting siblings. This is also true to the duty of Mediation between brotherly conflict inside the Church. Skilled household management includes mediation and counseling in conflict.

[Alfred Poirier] “Though we boast in our confession of sacred scripture, our failure to practice mediation and arbitration is in effect, an implicit denial of Scriptures. Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 6 are not suggestions or options but divine mandates. We have no other choice but to obey God and to apply ourselves as leaders to be trained and to train and equip our members in recovering the true ministry of reconciliation that the Lord graciously has given us for our good and his glory.”