The sin of railing

1 Peter 3, we'll read at verse number 8. Finally, or to sum up, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another. Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but country-wise blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

Now come back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians 6, we'll read at verse 1. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust, and not before the Saints. Do you not know that the Saints shall judge the world, or administer the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? I take it again in the sense of administration. How much more things that pertain to this life? If ye then of judgment of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge that are least esteemed in the church.

I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? Know not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. But brother goeth to law before with brother, and that before the unbelievers.

Now therefore there's utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, those that make women of themselves, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers.

That's the same word as railing, railers. Nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, that is before they were saved, but now that they are saved, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Now chapter 5, across the page in my Bible, verse 11. But now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such in one know not to eat, and so on. Back to Matthew 18, please.

Matthew 18, verse 15. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained one thy brother.

But if he will not hear thee, then take thee one or two more, that in the mouth of, now a total of, two or three witnesses, every word may be established. But if he neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. So now it's going to a bigger number of people, obviously, from the two or three.

But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. That is, he's no longer in the company. He's put out.

Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven. Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. When the church carries out this discipline, that's the mind of heaven.

Verse 19. Again, I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done of them, of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together, now we're back to the two or three witnesses, please, in the context.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me. Now we're back to the one-on-one.

And I forgive him till seven times. Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but unto 70 times seven. Now the Lord will bless to us the reading from his word with what we've been privileged to hear already this morning.

You can tell from the readings immediately that my word has a negative connotation, and that is too bad, but I think it's needful. I want to speak to you this morning about the sin of reeling. And we have read a number of scriptures which I believe would deal with the issue before us this morning.

Far too many cases of this sort have arisen in recent times in our area. And it is not so much a question of wrong doctrine, although that happens and that has to be dealt with, needs to be dealt with by the assembly, but often it's the case of personal issues, personal differences, personal difficulties that arise that result in generating and harboring strife and bitterness, which then is expressed and too often it results in reeling. Now just so that our minds are all together on this little definition of reeling, it's the idea of the use of abusive, scornful language against someone with the malicious intent to hurt them and to injure them with words.

If you check the dictionaries, that's pretty much the definition of reeling. Now it should never happen amongst believers. That's clear from the readings that we've taken this morning.

You'll notice in 1st Peter chapter 3, Peter gives a direct command that we should not be rendering reeling even when we are reeled against. Reeling for reeling. The preventative is found in the previous verse, well actually in the previous section, because he has been dealing with interpersonal relationships, and in verse 8 of our chapter he gives five vital qualities that are essential to interpersonal relationships.

So he says finally, or to sum up, be all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. Those are all positive things. He has been speaking with respect for others, about respect for others, and so this verse is dealing with attitudes.

Attitudes that we may may have and that we should have as believers, because wrong attitudes are the root cause of every sin that requires assembly discipline. It begins with the wrong attitude. So let's look at these five things.

First of all he says, be ye all of one mind. Be ye all of one mind. So that's the thought of harmony.

If there was always harmony amongst the people of God, there'd be never any case of reeling. Harmony. But there's a difficulty, how is harmony achieved? Because we all come from different backgrounds, we all have got different personalities, and some personalities invariably will clash with other personalities.

There will be difficulties that will arise. So how can harmony be achieved amongst the people of God? How can we be all of one mind, especially with regard to perception on things, with judgment on things? How can we have one mind? Well there are a number of scriptures that would speak of that. Paul speaks about it in Romans chapter 12 verse 16.

He says, be of the same mind. Be of the same mind. That's a very similar idea.

1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10, be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Very similar idea, isn't it? How can that be achieved? There's only one way that that can be achieved, and that's when every believer comes to the Word of God, and as we've been hearing, as we've been singing, I bow me to thy will, O God. We take the Word of God to settle issues arising in our hearts, and settle issues in a more general way.

Just a minute. If that is the great solution, then there's one obvious lesson for you and I, and that is this, as believers we need to be reading the Word of God. I think fundamentally that's where a lot of problems arise.

The people of God too often are not reading the Word of God. Spending time reading the Word of God, that requires discipline in our lives. That requires shutting other things out in our lives.

To read the Word of God, and then having read it, to bow to it, to obey it, as we've been hearing in prayer, to carry it out in our lives. Having read it, we let it adjust our thinking, we let it adjust our attitudes, we let it adjust our lives, and if we all did that, that would result in harmony. It would change our thoughts, it would change our personalities, it would change our take on things.

If we are habitually reading and obeying and carrying out the Word of God, we will take on the mind of God, the mind of Christ. That will affect us and bring us together in harmony, the one with the other. Then it says, goes on to say, having compassion one of another.

Having compassion. Here's another positive thing that would prevent a lot of difficulties that arise. Having compassion one of another.

Or you could use the word sympathetic. Be sympathetic one with another. Has the idea of suffering along with, of entering into another person's feelings, of sharing the feelings of others, not just from a distance, but drawing near to them.

Similar thought to Galatians 6, bear ye one another's burdens. That sense of sympathy with other believers, knowing that you and I are also in the body and susceptible to difficulties in life. Love as brethren, he says.

It's the word Philadelphia. It's the idea of affectionate love should be known amongst us, as we love as a brother, as you would love your own brother. We love the believers.

Be kind-hearted, he says. Be pitiful, good-hearted, tender-hearted, the Revised puts it. Tender-hearted, echoing what Paul would teach in Ephesians 4. And he says, be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Think of how much God has forgiven us, in the big things, in the totality of our sin in life, and the huge offense that is to God. And God through Christ has forgiven us. That ought to adjust our attitude towards those that sin in a little way against us in this life.

Be courteous. That's the idea of being lowly-minded, being humble in our minds. That would prevent a lot of difficulties.

Not being arrogant, not being intentionally brash, intentionally rude, or intentionally offensive to others. Humble-minded. So at verse 8 would be carried out.

There would never be any case of railing that would ever arise if you and I would bow our souls to the will of God, even in this one verse in our Bibles. Now verse 9. He says, not rendering evil for evil, that is, not reacting in a way that when we feel that we have been infringed upon, that we in turn dole out revenge upon the person. We seek to get back at the bad things that we perceive have been done to us, and we respond in like manner, in a revengeful way.

Not evil for evil. And here it is. Or reeling for reeling.

Again, we remind our hearts that's the idea of using abusive, scornful language against us, even in situations when there has been abusive, scornful, hurtful, injurious language directed at us. The Word of God forbids us to react in the same way. Vine brings the thought of abuse.

He equates it with the word reviling. It's a similar word to the word blaspheme in meaning, to speak profanely against, because an insult can lead another person to do two things, one of two things. Either to clam up and say nothing, or else to blow up and say a lot.

And both are basically produced by bitterness, resulting from the injury that we have caused. And so we can't just run our mouth the way that we would like when we're in God's assembly. Those carnal desires, those carnal reactions, those carnal attitudes need to be suppressed and need to be brought into judgment through the Word of God.

You'll notice that there is a responsibility upon us then in the latter part of that verse, instead of responding and reacting in this negative way, rendering evil for evil or reeling for reeling, he says, but contrary-wise, blessing. Now, the Lord Jesus, he taught that we were to bless those that persecute us. Blessing.

Blessing. And he says the reason why we should react with blessing toward others is because that you and I have been called to that. We've been called to blessing, that we should inherit a blessing.

So when we feel rather that we have been insulted, that we have been put down, that we have been injured by another person, how are you and I to react in those situations? It's very difficult, but how are you to act? You and I to react? We are to actively seek the other person's blessing. We can pray for their spiritual blessing. And if we pray for their spiritual blessing and leave it in the hand of God, then God will deal with it.

And if they are truly blessed spiritually, then guess what? They're going to be a lot easier to live with, aren't they? So there's the way in which we ought to react to seek the other person's blessing. Now, while our while our destiny is to be blessed eternally, I take it that in this expression, Peter is also calling upon us to react in a way that is Christlike in character. And to the degree that you and I are Christlike in our character, then that will be met with a degree of blessing in the coming kingdom.

So it has eternal reward as well when we react with blessing another. Now let's come to 1 Corinthians 6 in our thinking. You'll notice in the context here, there is the difficulty that has arisen in Corinth where they were taking each other to law.

They were going to law before the unjust. And Paul immediately highlights this and puts a stamp upon it that is irrefutable. This was a wrong, this was the result of a wrong attitude toward one another.

So he points out that saints are going to administer the world in that coming day. And there will be administration over angels. So how come they could not administer the things of this life that are only temporal? He says, I speak to your shame.

You're going to law for judgment with the ungodly, with the unrighteous. How can you expect righteous judgment from the unrighteous? You are the people that are righteous and you're going to be called to administer in a coming day far greater things. How come you can't administer things just now? So he reviews what they once were and he takes a look at what their character used to be.

And he goes through that list of things there in chapter 6. And one of the things that they were in their former day, before they were saved, was this. They were realers. They were realers.

That was their character. And that's the point I want to pick up on. It was their character that they were realers.

Once they were revilers, once they were realers. But now, he says, you're washed, you're sanctified, you're justified by the spread of our God and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll link that in your thinking with chapter 5. Notice verse 11.

He says, but now I have written on to you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or a covetous or an idolater or a realer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such in one know not to eat. So in the context, it required assembly discipline when there was one who was found in character to be a realer. So what I take he's saying is this.

A realer is not necessarily a person who becomes guilty of a sin of reeling. You know, and that's kind of, that's not a character of the person. But they just lost, they lost their temper.

They said things that they shouldn't have said. And very quickly, they're repentant regarding that. That does not make that person a realer, per se.

Because which of us have not at times said things that we later regretted that we said. But rather this is, this is something that has become characteristic of that person in their personality. They have become bitter in their personality and that is habitually expressed with injurious words regarding others or another.

And that pollutes the testimony of the assembly and that needs to be dealt with and that needs to be that person unrepentant to be put out. And that brings us to Matthew chapter 18. In this chapter we have the procedure for dealing with issues amongst brethren.

You'll notice in verse 15 there's a difficulty as arose between two, two believers. What's the solution? The solution first of all is to go and see that brother or sister. And you speak to them calmly in a way that you're seeking to win them.

You're not going to, you're not going to fight with them but you're going to seek to win them. And if they listen, then end of story. You know, you've won them.

That's the end of the matter. Should be dealt with and nipped in the bud in that way and it never comes to affect the testimony of the assembly. But brother B who has sinned against you, trespassed against you, he digs in.

He's not going to change. He's adamant in his attitude now and he won't listen. So what's the next step? The next step is to bring one with you or two with you.

Now you could be a sister in this so then you become, you become party to the next step. You go and see him again. These two witnesses, one or two witnesses that are with you, they are not there merely to listen but they are there, I take it, to be actively involved in seeking a solution because you'll notice that there comes a stage where he fails to hear them.

They had something to say. But the attitude now becomes intransigent. That intransigent remains and there's a hardness creeping in here.

There's a, he's not going to listen to, it doesn't matter whether it's you or your buddy or you and your two buddies. You're not going to listen to them. You see the attitude that's developing.

That's why I highlighted in the reading that those two or three, they are not merely there sticking their nose in your business but those two or three have come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and with his authority behind them seeking a solution that will prevent the spread of this thing in the assembly because bitterness is like an evil root that can spring up and defile many. It needs to be dealt with. And the Lord has put his authority upon that stage of the solution when the two or three come to deal with the matter.

And I think, I think oftentimes in our handling of this verse as we have applied it almost exclusively to the local assembly, we have lost out on this thought that that stage of the process has the stamp of authority of the Lord upon it. Now certainly the Lord is in the midst of his gathered people, 1st Corinthians 3 for example, and the principle of this would carry through to what follows when it has taken the next step to the church. And he fails to listen to the church.

He fails to listen to the assembly. He's going to stand in his arrogance against the testimony, the collective testimony of God's people. And he's going to go on the fly in the face of that.

That bitterness, that hardness needs to be dealt with by that person being put away from the assembly. It says 1st Corinthians chapter 5, that's a wicked person. And too often that attitude, that dig in attitude is expressed then in that abusive way as a realer.

Now here's the point. When that discipline is carried out, notice that if you shall agree on earth as touching anything it says, that's the two or three. But when the assembly has carried that out and it's come to that stage requiring assembly discipline, that has the stamp of heaven upon it.

How do you know? You already have it in your Bible in Matthew chapter 18. There it is. That's God's mind.

And you and I as the people of God, we need to bow to that. Remember what we said at the start? We need to come to the Word of God and let that adjust our thinking. It's not for you and I to look upon matters that have arisen even in another assembly and to go holding our own little court of appeal.

Those brethren in that assembly are responsible for what they do before God and God alone. That's God's method. That's God's way.

And we do to our pearl to second guess what God has let out in his word. So. These are not easy things, not easy things to speak about, not easy things to think about, but they are very necessary in the day in which we live, because.

I'm convinced of this. The assemblies of God's people in our area have comes under special attack from the evil one. And the only way that it can be met.

The only defense that we have is by each one of us coming to the word of God and allowing the word of God to adjust our thinking, our attitude, our perception on things, our judgment on things, and to fulfill what we expressed in our first song. I bow me to thy will, O God, and all thy ways adore. Trust that the Lord will bless his word to our hearts.