Fulfilling the Law

Romans 13.8-14, Matthew 18.15-20

St. Paul, like Rabbi Gamaliel, simplifies the Law by subsuming what are sometimes known as the ‘ethical commandments’ under a general instruction to love one another, and adding that love is the fulfilling of the law. It is attractive partly because of its simplicity, partly because it is a positive instruction rather than a series of bad deeds to avoid, and partly because love is such an obviously desirable virtue. It reaches the parts of life that other commandments can’t reach.

Today’s gospel reading comes in from a different angle. Talking about how to deal with sin in the community—specifically, someone who sins against you. There’s a graded list of procedures for reconciliation, starting with a personal conversation and culminating in an appeal to the whole church. If it all fails, the last resort is to treat the offending party like ‘a gentile or a tax-collector’.

The last resort is the most puzzling. It speaks volumes about the setting in which the first gospel was assembled and taken as authoritative, and about the background of early Christianity. Essentially, gentiles and tax-collectors are those who don’t belong, agents of a foreign power, or both.

There have always been parts of the church which have understood this as St. Matthew might have meant it: in the end, there are some people who must be excluded, perhaps even ostracized. It’s at this point that I remind myself how Jesus treated gentiles and tax collectors, and that we are called to be Christ-like. About 50% of the population of Scotland will need that inspiration a few weeks from now.