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Scripture Reading: Matt. 7:1-12; 18:1-35
I. Matthew 7:1-12 concerns the principles of the kingdom people in dealing with others and reveals that the heavenly ruling over the kingdom people requires that they take care of others:
А. The kingdom people, living in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, always judge themselves, not others — v. 1:
1. If we judge others with righteousness, we will be judged with righteousness by the Lord.
2. If we judge others with mercy, we will be judged with mercy by the Lord; mercy triumphs over judgment — James 2:13.
3. For us to deal with others, we must reject ourselves and consider them, sympathize with them, and be merciful toward them.
4. The splinter in our brother’s eye must remind us of the beam in our own eye — Matt. 7:3.
5. As long as the beam remains in our eye, our vision is blurred and we cannot see clearly — vv. 4-5.
B. We should not give that which is holy to the dogs or cast our pearls before the hogs, lest they trample them with their feet, and turn and tear us — v. 6:
1. That which is holy must refer to the objective truth, which belongs to God; your pearls must refer to the subjective experiences, which are ours.
2. Dogs do not have hoofs, nor do they chew the cud; hogs have divided hoofs but do not chew the cud; thus, both are unclean — 7, Lev. 11:27; cf. Acts 10:1-15, 28.
3. According to the revelation in 2 Peter 2:12, 19-22, and Philippians 3:2, dogs and hogs here refer to people who are religious but not clean.
4. When we talk to others about the truth or our precious experiences of Christ, we must perceive and determine whether or not they have the capacity to receive what we intend to share.
C. As we are contacting people and dealing with them, we must ask, seek, and knock for the proper way to contact them — Matt. 7:7-8; 1 Tim. 5:1-2:
1. To ask is to pray in a common way, to seek is to supplicate in a specific way, and to knock is to demand in the most intimate and most earnest way.
2. The best way for the kingdom people to contact others is according to the kingdom and according to the Spirit — Matt. 7:9-12; cf. Luke 11:13.
3. We need to pray ourselves into God to receive the riches embodied in His Spirit to feed ourselves and all those under our care — Luke 11:1-13.
4. We must learn to do everything through the cross and by the Spirit to minister Christ into others for His Body — cf. 2 Chron. 1:10.
II. To live the kingdom life, the God-man life, the church life, we must be humble and not despise any believer, but love our brother and forgive our brother — Matt. 18:1-35; 5:48; 7:13-14; Rom. 14:17:
А. To live the kingdom life, we must humble ourselves and become like little children — Matt. 18:2-4.
B. To live the kingdom life, we should not stumble others or set up any stumbling block — vv. 5-9; cf. 11:6.
C. To live the kingdom life, we should not despise even a little believer — 18:10-14.
D. To live the kingdom life, we should hear the church and not be condemned by it — vv. 15-20; cf. 5:23-25:
1. What is unveiled in Matthew 18:15-22 unveils to us how to take care of a sinning brother in a vital group:
a. Go and reprove him between you and him alone; if he hears you, you have gained your brother — v. 15.
b. If he does not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established — v. 16.
c. If he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church — v. 17a.
d. If he refuses to hear the church also, the vital group should pray by exercising the authority of the church, which is the authority of the kingdom — vv. 17b-18; 16:18-19.
f. Such a situation is dealt with by the vital group in harmony with the Lord in their midst and with a forgiving spirit — 18:19-22.
2. By this way the vital groups live the God-man life as Christ did when He was living on the earth.
E. To live the kingdom life, we should forgive our brother without limit — vv. 21-35:
1. We must forgive the offending brother even seventy times seven — vv. 21-22.
2. We must forgive others as the Lord has forgiven us:
a. Our debt to the Lord is impossible to pay off — vv. 23-26.
b. The Lord forgave our debts in our defeated Christian life for the restoration of our fellowship with Him — v. 27.
c. Another’s debt to us is very small compared with our debt to the Lord — v. 28.
d. If we do not forgive the brother who sins against us, it will grieve the other brothers, and they may bring this matter to the Lord — vv. 29-31.
e. If we do not forgive a brother from our heart today, we will not be allowed to enter into the kingdom in the coming age — vv. 32-35; cf. Mark 11:25-26.
