---
title: Matthew 18:15
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-18-15/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-18-15.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 18:15
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 18:15

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

## JW Usage

JWs cite Matthew 18:15-17 as the biblical basis for their judicial committee process. The passage is used to justify internal dispute resolution handled by appointed elders rather than external authorities. The two-witness rule (v. 16) is applied to abuse cases: allegations cannot proceed without two witnesses to the same incident, a policy that has shielded perpetrators for decades.

## Protestant Usage

Matthew 18:15 carefully specifies a personal grievance between two believers: "if your brother sins against you." The procedure that follows — private confrontation, then witnesses, then the congregation — addresses interpersonal disputes within the faith community. Matthew 18:6, just nine verses earlier, addresses something qualitatively different: harming a child, with Jesus' strongest recorded warning ("it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck"). One is a pastoral process; the other is a crime. Conflating the two by applying the two-witness rule to child abuse cases has cost children decades of unanswered harm. The passage also supports local, congregational accountability — the final step is "tell the congregation" (v. 17), not "escalate to a centralised judicial body." The biblical model is transparent, community-based resolution, not secret committee proceedings.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [No Biblical Warrant for Family Shunning](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shunning-family-no-biblical-warrant.md) — 1 Timothy 5:8 / Luke 15:4–7 / Matthew 9:10–13 [Practice]
- [Acts 15 — A One-Time Council, Not a Standing Body](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/acts15-one-time-not-template.md) — The Jerusalem meeting never reconvened, never legislated again, never appointed successors [Authority]
- [The Millstone Warning — Jesus on Harming Children](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/matthew-18-6-millstone-warning.md) — Matthew 18:6 — better a millstone than to cause a little one to stumble [Authority]
- [The Rock, the Keys, and the Church — What Matthew 16 Actually Grants](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/matthew-16-keys-and-rock.md) — Matthew 16:18–19 / Matthew 18:18 / Ephesians 2:20 — the same authority given to all disciples [Authority]
- [2024 'Removed' Rebrand — Not Reform](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/2024-removed-rebrand-not-reform.md) — 2 Timothy 3:5 — A form of godliness, denying its power [Authority]
- [No Pastoral Grace — The Judicial Committee vs the Throne of Grace](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/no-pastoral-grace-confession.md) — Hebrews 4:15-16 — A sympathetic high priest [Salvation]
- [Public Reproof and Comment Performance — A Yoke of Slavery](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/public-reproof-performance-discipline.md) — Galatians 5:1 — For freedom Christ has set us free [Sanctification]