The Barefoot Evangelist

Read Matthew 18:15-20 with your family.

The people who lived around the time that Jesus lived were just like us. They loved and the fought, they cried and they laughed, and sometimes they didn’t agree with each other. When those disagreements got too big, they pulled in others to take sides. Jesus didn’t want his followers to fight like that. He wanted his followers to get along and focus on the things that needed to change in our world. Jesus wanted everyone to love and care for each other.

In order to help the community who was following Jesus, he talked to them about how to solve conflict. He told them to be brave and take responsibility if they hurt someone else’s feelings. He told them to talk to each other in private when someone felt hurt.

But Jesus knew that some conflicts were too big for a small, private conversation, so he told his followers to ask for help when a private conversation didn’t solve the problem. And only if that didn’t work, bring in the whole community to help solve the conflict.

And if that didn’t work, Jesus said it was okay to tell the person causing trouble they had to leave. But that person would not be alone, they would be with others who helped remind them what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.

Even in conflict we are always given as many chances as we need to remember how to love like Jesus wants us to love.