Context No. 3894 of 4322 · Matthew

Matthew 5:23-30: in context

23“If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25Agree with your adversary quickly while you are with him on the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. 26Most certainly I tell you, you shall by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny. 27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ 28but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna. 30If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.

Jesus gives a striking instruction about worship: if you are bringing your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, go and be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. He interrupts the very act of worship to send us to make peace with someone we have wronged.

This tells us something important about how God views worship. Our offering to God is not acceptable while we are at odds with a brother or sister whom we have wronged; reconciliation with people comes before, and enables, right worship of God. God is not honored by our gifts if we are content to leave broken relationships unmended. And notice, the responsibility is to go: even remembering that someone has something against us, we are to take the initiative to make peace. Before we come to God in worship, we are to deal with the relationships we have damaged, taking the first step toward reconciliation rather than letting worship paper over a wrong we could put right.

Is there someone who has something against me, whom I need to seek out and be reconciled with, before I bring my worship to God, taking the first step to make peace rather than leaving the wrong unmended?

Sources

Matthew 5:23-24: "If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you... First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."
Matthew 5:9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."
Romans 12:18: "If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men."