Did you ever wonder why Jesus tells us to treat an unrepentant man like an unbeliever (Mt 18:15-17), and just a few words later tells to forgive our brother seventy times seven (Mt 18:19-20)? Then he immediately tells us if we don’t forgive our brother God will not forgive us (Mt 18:35).
Bringing a brother before the church has to do with sins that endanger a man’s soul, adultery, fraud, stealing etc (Galatians 5:19-21). Verses 15-35 is reminding us, though we may be required to take action in an attempt to rescue the individual, we are never licensed to hold a grudge against the individual, but must forgive them from our heart.
All of our interaction with those who offended are geared toward rescuing the person from eternal judgment and never toward justifying ourselves.
