Version History
Current published version
Today's Business, Issue 3. pp. 350-351. Revised published proposal.
Official Resolution Source Text
Resolution: 10-01A
Canonical number: 10-01
Committee: Ecclesiastical Supervision and Dispute Resolution
Source: Today's Business, Issue 3
Printed pages: pp. 350-351
PDF pages: 42-43
Version: revised, current-published-proposal
Source reference: Issue 3, pp. 350-351
Line numbers follow Today's Business, Issue 3, with numbering reset on each printed page, so delegates can compare this page with the official PDF.
Page 350
- To Seek Commission on Theology and Church Relations Opinion
- regarding Usage of Matthew 18:15–20
- RESOLUTION 10-01A
- Overtures 10-10, 12 (CW, 505–7)
- WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, being faithful to Scripture, acknowledges, “All Scripture is
- breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim.
- 3:16); and
Page 351
- WHEREAS, Holy Scripture distinguishes between private sins that are first to be rebuked privately (Matt. 18:15);
- and public sins that are to be rebuked publicly (1 Tim. 5:20); and
- WHEREAS, Bylaw 1.10 and Bylaw 2.14 make multiple references to Matthew 18:15 as support for guiding the
- dispute resolution process and expulsion of members from the Synod; and
- WHEREAS, There is disagreement as to whether Matthew 18:15 must be followed when responding to public sin, as
- required by Bylaw 2.14 and its subsections, and there are numerous other insightful Scripture passages that could be
- helpful in providing guidance; and
- WHEREAS, Luther’s Large Catechism states, “But where the sin is quite public, so that the judge and everybody
- know about it, you can without any sin shun the offender and let him go his own way, because he has brought
- himself into disgrace. You may also publicly testify about him. For when a matter is public in the daylight, there
- can be no slandering or false judging or testifying … Where the sin is public, the rebuke also must be public, that
- everyone may learn to guard against it” (LC 1 [Eighth Commandment] 284); and
- WHEREAS, The Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) released the 2006 report “Public
- Rebuke of Public Sin”; and
- WHEREAS, It is fitting and salutary for the Synod, from time to time, to reexamine its polity and practice in
- light of Scripture and the Confessions, that we may repent where needed and strengthen what is good; therefore be
- it
- Resolved, That the Synod in convention direct the CTCR to study Matthew 18:15 –20, and other Scripture
- passages related to public and private sin, with special consideration of the 2006 Report “Public Rebuke of Public
- Sin”; and be it further
- Resolved, That this new CTCR report provide comment specifically as to Matthew 18:15–20 and its relationship or
- implications, if any, to the practices of maintaining ecclesiastical order and practices of church polity in their historical
- and contemporary applications; and be it finally
- Resolved, That this report be made available to the Synod as a whole prior to the 2029 Synod convention.
- The Chief Financial Officer and LCMS Accounting and Financial Services staff, in consultation with the Finance
- Committee, anticipate no significant incremental costs to the Synod as the activity is understood to be within the
- existing scope and budget of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (estimate required by Bylaw 3.1.7
- [g]).
