God is not with me when I’m alone?

God is not with me when I’m alone?

 (How to deal with personal conflicts in the church – part 2)

If you look up some other articles in my blog, you’ll recount that I enjoy writing and commenting on a lot of sayings that appear to be Biblical, but are in fact misquoted - such as ‘do not judge’. This article will cover another example of a common but wrongly quoted scripture: “for where two or three gather together in My Name, there I Am with them” (Matthew 18:20). I’ve heard this at a very small age, and I had never felt anything appealing about it. (Usually, when there’s a ‘for’ in the beginning of a verse, it’s cannot be directly pulled out of its context)

First of all, does the verse signify how God is not with me if I’m waiting for Him alone? Hence, do I not need to do devotions alone, for unless I have devotion with another 2 or 3 people, God is not with me? Am I unable to worship before The Lord with all of my might, like David did in 2 Samuel 6:14, just because I am not worshiping with someone else? God is a communal God, and when there’s anytime I’m not living a communal life, has God turned away from me like how I’m someone who worshipped idols back in the times of the Old Testament?

Hebrews 13 is titled “Christ’s Unchanging Nature”, and it is written in verse 5 that He will never leave or forsake any of us. Hence, does scripture contradict, because, according to Matthew 18:20, God is not with us unless we are with other brothers and sisters in Christ? To understand the mystery of God's Word, which is now revealed to those enclosed in Him (Colossians 1:26), we need to consider the whole context of the inerrant, infallible, incorrupt, and corroborated Word of God in order to make an accurate judgment. 

God is always with us and He will never leave or forsake us; in fact, we are never alone and always accompanied by 3 persons – God The Father, Christ The Son, and The Holy Spirit. God always with us no matter what state we are in; God is with us, as in, He’s always beside us because He is omnipresent. However, if you look at the context of Matthew 18:15-20, which is titled dealing with personal conflicts in the Church, you’ll find out that the ‘there I am with them’ does not refer to how God is with us as in how He’s beside us, but how He is with us in the case regarding the unrepentant sinner!

(Please, please read my article on How to deal with personal conflicts in the church)

Jesus was teaching His disciples – as well as all of us, because 99% of what Jesus said to His disciples are directed to all of The Body of Christ – how to deal with a sinning brother or sister in Christ. Christ was always referring to using more people as witness when someone sins against you, and ‘sinned against you’ is not something that’s merely a difference in opinion, but something that’s Biblically accounted for being right or wrong – something that God has an absolute stance for, which is enlisted in His Word (both Jesus Christ, for He is The Word – John 1:1,14; and The Word of God).

Matthew 18:15-20 deals with the important theme of unrepentant sin, whereas if the offender does not repent after sinning, knowing that he/she has sinned against God and man, he/she will be no different than a gentile or tax collector – a non-Christian or someone who is not justified by The Blood. No one who has unrepentant sin can inherit The Kingdom. Unrepentant sin is no different than making sin a practice, and 1 John 3:8 makes it clear of how whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, and Christ made it clear in the Gospels that whoever is not with Him, is against Him – never mind the person being of the devil! Thus, the case regarding the brother/sister who has sinned against you is a serious one, for it is dealing with excommunication; and if God is not with us regarding something that’s supposed to be black and white (good and evil), that’s a big deal; for it’s either: we (the accusing) are rightfully, Biblically, and Spirit-filled in convicting – not condemning – the unrepentant sinner (the accused); or we are falsely accusing one’s wrongdoing – which Christ will say: "Blessed are you (<-- the falsely accused) when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:11-12). The issue may as well come down to who’s truly in Christ (in that situation, not referring to one's eternity), therefore, He has to be with us, or else we’ll come before God on the Day of Judgment and we will not like it then.

Thus, the ‘two or three gathered in My Name’ is mostly not referring to church-goers, but elders of the church, because the case has been brought up to the entire church – symbolizing a massive issue – and God is with them as they will pass on a life-changing decision regarding the unrepentant sinner. (which he/she will mostly be excommunicated. Unrepentant sin is a big deal; for instance, someone rapes a brother/sister in Christ and yet doesn’t repent for it –  a big deal.)

Hebrews 10:26 “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth (unrepentant sin), there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”

All in all, God is always with us – the unrepentant sinner as well – for He is Love and omnipresent. He wants all to repent and none to perish (2 Peter 3:9). There is nowhere He cannot be, or no thing He cannot know – and no thing He can forget. However, Matthew 18:20 specifically refers to God being with two or more people – in the sense of God being against those whom the two or more people are against, regarding the specific case where a brother/sister has unrepentantly sinned against another in the church. This is why Christ says in verse 18 “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Let us understand, quote, apply and live out the Word of God in the rightful manner we are to do so – with a clear conscience and the filled presence of The Holy Spirit.

-Barnabas