Humility and Forgiveness: We come now to the fourth major discourse of Matthew. It ends with the usual formula in 19:1–2 (cf. 7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 26:1). Chapter 18 reads very much like an early church manual and deals with subjects such as humility (vv. 1–4), responsibility (vv. 5–7), self-renunciation (vv. 8–10), individual care (vv. 11–14), discipline (vv. 15–20), fellowship (vv. 19–20), and forgiveness (vv. 23–35; cf. Barclay, vol. 2, pp. 173–74).

18:15–17 Matthew turns now to the question of appropriate action to be taken in case a Christian is guilty of sinning against another member of the community. Jesus taught that in such instances the aggrieved party should first take it up personally and in private with the one who acted wrongly. If that does not clear up the problem, the next st…