“Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear,” 1 Timothy 5:20
There are two procedures set down in the Bible that are to be followed by Christians when faced by sin in others.
I. WHEN IT IS A SIN AGAINST ONE’S SELF THEN THAT RESPONSE WHICH IS SET DOWN BY THE LORD JESUS IS TO BE FOLLOWED.
“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican,” Matthew 18:15-17.
This is repeated in Luke’s Gospel.
“Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him,” Luke 17:3.
That which I have underlined in these verses is most important. This is the procedure that is to be followed by a Christian when they are wronged by another Christian.
Improper application
These verses are habitually quoted as to how we deal with public sin by those who are very much against publicly shaming transgressors, usually out of a friendship with the transgressors or an ignorance of the teaching of God’s Word and an utter lack of what Elijah called, a jealousy for the name and honour of the Lord!
“And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away,” 1 Kings 19:10.
Such a use of the two portions of the Gospels just quoted is in fact a misuse and an abuse of God’s Word. It is a twisting of what is plainly said by the Lord in order to accuse one who is obeying the Lord in publicly rebuking wrongdoing and to exonerating the real offender!
They are acting as did those Peter condemned. “As also in all his (Paul) epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction,” 2 Peter 3:16.
II. THE GOSPEL MINISTER ACTS LIKE ELIJAH, WHO IN RESPONSE TO THE VIOLATION OF GOD’S LAW, WENT AT THE BIDDING OF THE LORD, AND WITHOUT CONSULTING ANY MAN, REBUKED THE CHIEF SOURCE OF THAT OFFENCE, KING AHAB!
The issue was not a matter of Ahab ‘trespassing’ against Elijah and therefore the principles embodied in Matthew 18:15-17, were not relevant. Ahab was in rebellion against the Lord and led Israel down that path. In consequence of which, judgment was pronounced by Elijah on Ahab and his kingdom.
“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD
God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word,” 1 Kings 17:1.
Public rebuking of sin by the minister is commanded of God. That truth, like so many of the truths of the Bible, has been forgotten in these days of pointless, aimless, obtuse preaching in all too many of our Free Presbyterian pulpits!
Vagueness
Generalisms and unspecified and weak criticisms of sin takes place but because it is wrapped up in verbiage that is designed to conceal anything too pointed or plain by preachers frightened of their own shadows, it is unprofitable.
I recall a sincere Christian complaint some years ago, when controversy raged within the parameters of the Free Presbyterian Church, that their minister was constantly railing against the sins of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland but totally ignoring the more evident and relevant sins within the Free Presbyterian Church!
It is a case of that which the Saviour addressed in Matthew 23.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also,” Verses 23-26.
Both the “gnats” and the “camels” must be diligently dealt with!
III. THE NEW TESTAMENT IS LARGELY COMPILED OF ACCOUNTS OF THE APOSTLES OBEYING THE PRINCIPLE SET DOWN IN OUR TEXT.
Public rebuking of sin is a New Testament practice amongst the people of God. In Acts 5, we read of Peter rebuking PUBLICLY Ananias and Sapphira.
The incident took place in the company of a number of people, most certainly in the company of the apostles, for verse 2 states that Ananias laid his donation “at the apostles’ feet”.
Peter did not take Ananias aside in order to have a private word (as Matthew 18 directs Peter to have done, were it a sin against him) but immediately openly rebuked him most severely in keeping with our text, for Ananias had PUBLICLY sinned against the Lord by PUBLICLY seeking to lie against the Holy Ghost.
That is how ministers today must act when people, including Gospel ministers, PUBLICLY sin against the Word of God.
Examples
There are many examples of this procedure being followed in the New Testament.
Paul rebuked Peter for his public transgression of the will of Christ because he feared the followers of James the Apostle, who were ‘judaisers’.
“But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified,” Galatians 2:11-16.
It is to be noted that Paul was not deterred by the presence of the associates of James, who was the ‘Moderator’ of the early Church (Acts 15). These men were ‘judaising’ Christians believing in Christ, but were zealous of the Levitical laws.
Disobedience
Peter was rebuked for disobeying the command of Christ, Who had included the Gentiles amongst those who were to be evangelised and received as fellow believers.
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” Mark 16:15.
Publicly acting contrary to the Word of God is a PUBLIC sin that must be REBUKED PUBLICLY.
Is this not another example of public rebuke following public sin?
“For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” 1 Corinthians 1:11-13.
This rebuke was addressed from afar and that by written letter!
The same is seen in Jude’s letter.
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” Jude 1:3-4.
Ordination
I believe I can say that every Free Presbyterian minister was directed to the following words at his ordination service.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry,” 2 Timothy 4:1-5.
Paul details just what is involved in “preaching the word”! “Be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”
If preaching is a PUBLIC function then so too is the reproving and rebuking of sin!
The problem for some arises when a person is publicly rebuked for a sin which they would dispute as being an actual sin!
Disobedient evangelicals
I recently rebuked Rev Ron Johnstone for being advertised openly as a partaker in meetings involving compromising and disobedient evangelicals, who have rebelled against God’s Word and refused to ‘separate’ from the apostasy of ecumenical denominations.
I believe that he was acting contrary to God’s Word.
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them,” Romans 16:17.
“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us,” 2 Thessalonians 3:6.
“And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother,” 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15.
Rev Johnstone, some five weeks after I publicly published the article (Unambiguous witness or an uncertain sound — which?) in a response to it, replied with many words seeking to justify his actions BUT HE DID NOT IN THOSE FIVE WEEKS FIND ONE VERSE IN GOD’S WORD TO PUT FORWARD IN HIS DEFENCE!
I do not believe that I was wrong to ‘reprove and rebuke’ this this sort of conduct.
It was contrary to the Word of God and the historic stand of the Free Presbyterian Church.
‘The Unclean’
Just this morning, my daily reading included Leviticus 15. There is set down the Law of God regarding contact with one who is “unclean”. It is clear by repeated directives that absolutely no contact was permitted, not even as much as a touch of something that the “unclean” person had been in contact with!
It is to be noted that Paul, in setting down the law of ecclesiastical separation in 2 Corinthians 6, said: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” verse 17.
It is very obvious then that Leviticus chapter 15 and parallel passages, are but types and examples of the separation the Christian is to follow.
Those “unclean” through this fellowship with apostasy are not to be associated with!
That is the Free Presbyterianism of 1951!
Contending
I have been contending in this fashion for many, many years, having learned my ‘trade’ at the feet of Dr Paisley in his prime.
I have yet to be publicly challenged. That is not because of anything that is of me, but because I am merely setting forth the Word of God!
To a very small degree, I can share in Paul’s declaration: “I have kept the faith.”
In a recent Presbytery meeting, all but a few members endorsed a rule to stop the exposing of sin publicly within the ranks of the Free Presbyterian Church, without first consulting the Presbytery!
This has in essence has been a ‘rule’ for some time, which seems to make the whole process rather pointless. It was nothing more than a response, orchestrated by some, to my article about Rev Ron Johnstone’s links with compromising evangelicals!
Might I humbly suggest to the members of our Presbytery that they are thus EXALTING themselves above God!
I am with David when he said: “For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone,” Psalm 86:10.
Like Peter and John, I say, I cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
I have no doubt that many of those who supported the folly proposed, did so unthinkingly and in blindness. That, however, does not excuse them!
If the Free Presbyterian Church does not forsake and turn back from the path it is presently being led upon, then it will end up, very quickly, in the state of apostasy in which the blind and undiscerning support for Prof Davey by elders and ministers in 1927, brought the Presbyterian Church in Ireland!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
13th April 2026