Matthew 18:17

“And if he refuse to listen to them, tell it to the congregation (ekklesia - church). And if he refuses to listen to the congregation also, let him be to you as the Gentile and the public servant.”

But if the charge is proved and the matter is serious, and the disciple refuses to listen, then the next step is to bring the matter before the whole ‘congregation', the gathering of all believing disciples (or of all in one vicinity, as with a synagogue). ‘The congregation' was the description given in the Old Testament to the gathering of all mature, male members of Israel. It represented the whole of Israel. Thus here Jesus has in mind the new Israel, seen as one. Later, of course, this would be divided up into individual churches, but that was not so here, although a limited local group might have been in mind. The gathering here would overall be of all those genuinely recognised as disciples.

And if the sin is accepted to be so by the whole congregation, and the guilty disciple refuses to listen to them and turn from his sin, then he is to be treated as though he were no longer a member of ‘the congregation'. He is to be seen as a non-disciple. He is to be treated as an outsider, in a similar way to an ‘unbelieving' Gentile or public servant, both of whom would as such be excluded from the congregation of Israel. (This description demonstrates the strong Jewish background of the words). He is to be seen as no longer ‘of us' (1 John 2:19).

The ‘you' is singular, but the question arises as to whether it means the original ‘accuser' (Matthew 18:15) or the whole congregation. Possibly it in fact means the accuser as representing the whole congregation, or alternatively we might translate ‘let him be to each one of you as --'.

We should note that this is not signifying the rejection of the sinner from the possibility of the mercy of God. The attitude of the congregation towards both Gentiles and public servants was to be one of love, together with a longing to bring them to Christ. But both of these were examples of those who were least likely to obey God (compare Matthew 5:46), The point is simply that the one who continues in sin is no longer to be seen as ‘one of the congregation'. He is now seen as an ‘outsider', for he is no longer a true witness. The blot on the fellowship has to be removed (compare Acts 5:1 for a drastic example). It does not necessarily refer to official excommunication. It rather represents an attitude to be taken up towards him so as hopefully to bring him to his senses. In a similar way exclusion from the synagogue for a period was a punishment carried out by the Jews for recalcitrant sinners, which could become permanent if the sinner still refused to repent.