How to treat someone like a pagan or tax collector

In Matthew 18, Jesus has just taught the parable of the lost sheep and concludes it with an insight into God's purposes and desires: "In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish" (v.14).

At first glance it might seem that Jesus then suddenly changes subject and speaks about how to conduct church discipline and possible ex-communication of a persistent sinner within the church:

"If your brother or sister sins go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.^' If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." (Matthew 18:15-17)

My argument is that this apparent "switch of subjects" is nothing of the sort. What Jesus is doing is explaining an important point for how we deal with the "lost sheep" who goes astray and, in one way or another, leaves the flock. We often think of the Parable of the Lost Sheep about bringing new people to faith in Christ, but it seems to me the parable is also about someone who was in the flock and then went astray.

The key aspect here is getting a right understanding of what it means to treat someone as "a pagan and a tax collector".

If we consider that "pagan" is practically synonymous with "Gentile" and "Tax Collector" is akin to a Jew who has turned against his own people to help the pagans, we may begin to see what is going on here.

A pagan is, in the Jewish terms of the day that Christ is adopting here, someone who is completely outside the sphere of the people of God. A tax collector is essentially a Jewish traitor, someone who grew up within the sphere of God's people, but who has turned against his own people to help the pagans.

I would argue that in modern church terms, these could be compared to someone with a completely unchurched background and someone who grew up in the church and then turned against it.

Contrary to how some people might view a verse like this, Jesus is not teaching that we are free to shun, ignore or even hate someone who persists in sin, fails to accept church discipline and is put out of fellowship. We can be certain of this because that's not how Jesus treated pagans and tax collectors. He loved them, befriended them and sought to bring them into the Kingdom of God.

What Jesus is really saying is that if someone fails to accept church discipline, we must treat them as if they were not one of Christ's sheep and then go and seek to bring the lost sheep back into the fold. Never are we to abandon them or have a "good riddance" attitude.

Once we remember that our attitude to someone who is not a believer—however they got to that place—is to love them, tell them of Jesus Christ and the gospel of forgiveness and restoration for sinners, we see that sometimes church discipline, followed by ongoing love and seeking to care for the lost sheep, is Christ's chosen method for making sure that none "of these little ones should perish."