The gospel of Matthew presents us with discourse #4 in Chapter 18 and Christ's theme is
clearly 'the church'. We could, perhaps, further outline Mat 18 into 4 subdivisions under the heading: “The
Church of Jesus Christ is...” 1. Lowly – of spirit (verses 1-4) 2. Loving – and sacrificially so, to the 'least of
these' (5-14) 3. Lawful – in her disputes (15-20) & 4. Long suffering – in her forgiveness one to another (21-
35). This message aims to expound the lawful nature of conflict resolution Christ prescribes for His body: the
church. Mat 18:15-20 documents the institution of the church's responsibility regarding its self-government or
discipline. In the apostolic application of these principles, the New Testament further supplies record of
implementation, explanation, and examples of church government. These references include: I Cor 5:1-13, II
Cor 2:5-11, II Thess 3:6, 14-15, Titus 1:10-14, 3:9-11, I Tim 5:19-21, Gal 2:11-14. It may not readily occur to us
these days that a Biblical role of the church is to provide a judicial standard of discernment and act when
necessary as an official court in its own jurisdiction, but this is modern oversight is certainly not on account of
information lacking in the New Testament.