Local Churches and Fellowship: Social Leverage in Disguise
Local Churches and Fellowship: Social Leverage in Disguise
Written on 19 August 2026.
Introduction
The Christian gospel is a gospel of grace. A sinner does not pay God for eternal salvation. He does not work off his debt. God justifies the ungodly who believes and imputes righteousness without works.
This provides an important way of understanding the enormous debt in Matthew 18. The servant owes ten thousand talents to his lord. He cannot pay. His lord has compassion upon him, looses him, and forgives the debt.
The lord represents God, and the enormous debt can be understood as the sinner's debt before God. The forgiveness of that debt represents the forgiveness received in salvation.
The servant is therefore first forgiven an enormous debt by his lord.
Only afterward does he go out and find a fellowservant who owes him a much smaller debt.
This makes Matthew 18 particularly important from a Free Grace perspective. The servant's treatment of his fellowservant does not purchase his original forgiveness. The forgiveness has already occurred. What follows concerns the walk of a servant who has already received mercy.
The principle is simple:
God has forgiven the believer an enormous debt. Therefore the believer should have compassion upon and forgive his fellow believer.
Yet this teaching can itself be misused.
In local churches, forgiveness and fellowship can become forms of social leverage. A person can present himself as loving, friendly, helpful, righteous, or spiritually mature while actually attempting to establish an obligation.
The outward appearance is Christian fellowship.
Underneath it can be:
- Pay me that thou owest.
The Great Debt and the Gospel
Jesus begins the parable with a servant who owes his lord ten thousand talents.
Matthew 18:23-27
Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
The servant says:
- I will pay thee all.
But that is not what ultimately happens.
The lord is moved with compassion and forgives the debt.
This fits the Free Grace gospel. The sinner does not obtain eternal salvation by successfully paying God through his works. God justifies the ungodly who believes.
Romans 4:4-8
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Notice the words:
- grace
- debt
- believeth
- imputeth righteousness without works
- iniquities are forgiven
- the Lord will not impute sin.
The believer does not work himself out of his debt before God.
God forgives.
God imputes righteousness without works.
This is therefore the great debt at the foundation of the parable: the debt before God which the servant could never successfully discharge by his own ability.
The gospel settles that debt by grace.
The Forgiven Servant Goes Out
What happens next is crucial.
The servant has already been forgiven.
Then he goes out.
Matthew 18:28-30
But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
The passage does not say that the first servant knew this fellowservant before his own debt was forgiven.
That is unnecessary to the interpretation.
The important fact is that the other man is his fellowservant.
The first servant has received mercy from his lord. He then encounters another servant of the same lord and refuses to extend mercy toward him.
The contrast is enormous.
Before his lord, the first servant needed mercy.
Before his fellowservant, he demands justice.
Before his lord, he wanted his debt removed.
Before his fellowservant, he becomes a debt collector.
He has received grace vertically and demands payment horizontally.
His words summarize the problem:
- Pay me that thou owest.
The Christian Walk After Salvation
This distinction is important because Matthew 18 does not need to be turned into salvation by works.
The order is already established.
- The servant owes the great debt.
- His lord forgives him.
- The forgiven servant goes out.
- He encounters his fellowservant.
- He refuses mercy.
- His lord chastises him.
The servant's treatment of his fellowservant belongs to what happens after he has received forgiveness.
From a Free Grace perspective, this concerns the Christian walk rather than the means by which eternal salvation is obtained.
The believer has received the forgiveness of sins.
The believer has received imputed righteousness without works.
Having received such mercy from God, he should have mercy upon his brother.
The lord himself explains the principle.
Matthew 18:31-35
So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
The reason the servant should have had compassion is explicit:
- even as I had pity on thee.
God's mercy toward the believer comes first.
The believer's mercy toward his brother follows.
The second is not the payment by which the first is purchased.
The Passage Can Be Misused
There is nevertheless another side to this.
A teaching that Christians should forgive one another can itself become a tool of social leverage.
A church person can effectively reason:
- I can do something against you because you are required to forgive me.
Or:
- If you do not continue treating me according to my definition of Christian fellowship, you have not forgiven me.
Or:
- I am your brother, therefore you owe me fellowship.
Or:
- I helped you, therefore you owe me loyalty.
Or:
- I was friendly toward you, therefore you owe me friendliness.
Or:
- I taught you something, therefore I have spiritual standing over you.
At that point Matthew 18 is being turned upside down.
A passage in which Jesus condemns the servant who says:
- Pay me that thou owest
becomes a mechanism for producing additional debts between Christians.
Social Leverage in Disguise
This is one of the dangers of local church fellowship.
Something can outwardly look like lovingkindness while inwardly functioning as social leverage.
Someone is friendly.
Someone speaks warmly.
Someone invites another person into fellowship.
Someone offers assistance.
Someone gives religious instruction.
Someone calls another person brother.
None of these outward acts by themselves reveal the entire purpose behind them.
There can be an unstated transaction underneath the apparent fellowship:
- I give you this, and eventually you give me something.
The expected return can be attention.
It can be loyalty.
It can be agreement.
It can be recognition.
It can be influence.
It can be submission.
It can simply be the satisfaction of being regarded as the stronger, wiser, more righteous, or more mature Christian.
The outward form is fellowship.
The underlying mechanism can be self-promotion.
Good Words and Fair Speeches
The KJV itself warns that outwardly attractive religious speech does not necessarily reveal what is underneath.
Romans 16:17-18
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
They have:
- good words and fair speeches.
The appearance itself therefore proves nothing.
A person can speak well while serving another purpose.
There can be a religious presentation on the outside and self-interest underneath.
This also demonstrates that forgiveness cannot simply mean compulsory continuing fellowship with everyone.
Paul says:
- avoid them.
Therefore forgiveness and continued association are not identical.
A Christian can forgive while the Scriptures nevertheless contain a category called:
- avoid them.
A Minister of Righteousness Can Be a Disguise
The appearance of righteousness itself can become a covering.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
The word "transformed" is important.
The outward appearance and the underlying reality can differ.
Someone can appear as a minister of righteousness without being what the appearance suggests.
This makes outward church fellowship an insufficient measure by itself.
The building can say church.
The people can say brother and sister.
The conversation can contain Bible verses.
The activities can be called fellowship.
The language can be loving.
The appearance can be righteous.
None of these things alone establish what is actually occurring underneath.
Hoping for Nothing Again
Jesus gives another principle that exposes the difference between giving and leverage.
Luke 6:34-35
And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
The important words are:
- hoping for nothing again.
That is the opposite of social leverage.
Social leverage gives in order to obtain something later.
Christian giving can give while hoping for nothing again.
This distinction may not become visible immediately.
As long as the expected repayment continues, the relationship can appear friendly.
The difference becomes visible when the expected repayment stops.
Then apparent friendship can become anger.
Help can become accusation.
Fellowship can become pressure.
Kindness can become a historical account of everything one person has supposedly done for another.
The hidden account book appears.
And eventually comes:
- Pay me that thou owest.
The Problem of Unequal Forgiveness
Matthew 18 becomes particularly interesting when someone knows that Christians are supposed to forgive but applies the principle unequally.
He expects forgiveness for himself.
He demands payment from others.
His own offences should disappear under grace.
The offences of others remain carefully recorded.
His own behaviour should be understood.
The behaviour of others should be judged.
He expects unlimited mercy downward toward himself while maintaining strict accounts concerning everybody else.
That is remarkably close to the wicked servant.
The servant gladly receives forgiveness of ten thousand talents.
But concerning an hundred pence:
- Pay me that thou owest.
The problem is therefore not merely that Christians fail to forgive.
The doctrine of forgiveness itself can become another instrument in the hands of someone who wants leverage.
- You have to forgive me.
That statement can be true.
But the same person must then face the other half of Matthew 18:
Matthew 18:33
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
The rule does not exist merely for one's neighbour.
Church Fellowship and Structural Relationships
Local churches can also contain relationships that are maintained for structural reasons.
A person's wife may belong to the congregation.
His husband may belong to it.
His children may have their friends there.
His relatives may attend.
His employment or social standing may be connected with the people there.
He may have known the congregation for decades.
Leaving therefore does not have the same cost for everyone.
A person who comes from outside without those structural connections can encounter the institution very differently.
What appears to one person as a spiritual family can appear to another as a network of established relationships, loyalties, positions, histories, conflicts, and obligations into which the outsider has entered.
This can make the word fellowship conceal a considerable amount of ordinary social structure.
People may know one another through marriage, family, work, money, local reputation, and decades of common history.
The outsider does not automatically possess those connections merely because everyone uses the word brother.
Endless Demands Without Essential Provision
There can also be a striking difference between what church fellowship demands and what it actually provides.
A church environment can place expectations upon a person concerning:
- attendance,
- friendliness,
- participation,
- agreement,
- reconciliation,
- forgiveness,
- conversation,
- loyalty,
- respect,
- submission,
- giving,
- ministry,
- and maintaining fellowship.
Yet Scripture gives remarkably concrete examples when discussing a brother's actual need.
James 2:15-16
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
Here the issue is not whether the correct friendly words were spoken.
The brother needs:
- those things which are needful to the body.
Likewise:
1 John 3:17-18
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
This produces an important distinction:
- love in word
and:
- deed and in truth.
A religious institution can therefore contain an enormous amount of social interaction without necessarily supplying what an outsider imagined the word brother meant.
There can be much fellowship in word and relatively little when the question becomes shelter, food, clothing, money, or another essential necessity.
The Church as an Institution
A local institution can call itself a church while operating socially in ways resembling other public organizations.
There can be leaders.
There can be established families.
There can be reputations.
There can be internal factions.
There can be money.
There can be buildings.
There can be disputes.
There can be rules concerning acceptable conduct.
There can be people seeking influence.
There can be people protecting their positions.
There can be alliances.
There can be outsiders.
There can be conflicts which have existed for years.
The religious terminology does not remove these ordinary social mechanisms.
The word church on a building does not itself prove that every relationship occurring inside it represents biblical Christian fellowship.
The facade and the reality can differ.
Righteousness as Social Currency
Religion can even turn righteousness into a means of getting ahead.
A person can establish himself as:
- the mature Christian,
- the righteous Christian,
- the teacher,
- the elder,
- the one who helped you,
- the one who corrected you,
or:
- the one who forgave you.
Once this position is established, it can create leverage.
The other person is placed beneath him.
He is now supposed to listen.
He is supposed to be grateful.
He is supposed to remain friendly.
He is supposed to acknowledge the other person's spiritual superiority.
Something which outwardly resembles Christian service has become a means of self-promotion.
This is especially contrary to the gospel because the gospel begins by removing man's grounds for boasting.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
The believer begins with a gift.
Not achievement.
Not social position.
Not payment.
Not boasting.
Grace.
The Root and the Branches
This returns to the distinction between the root and the branches.
People can concentrate upon highly visible aspects of the Christian walk:
- Who preaches the most?
- Who has the largest ministry?
- Who makes the most videos?
- Who attends the most meetings?
- Who knows the most doctrine?
- Who appears strongest?
- Who appears most righteous?
- Who has the greatest influence?
- Who wins the argument?
These things are visible.
They can also become competitive.
But Matthew 18 goes beneath them.
A servant received mercy concerning an enormous debt.
Then he encountered a fellowservant.
The question was what he did with the mercy he had received.
The lord did not ask how impressive his ministry had become.
He said:
Matthew 18:33
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
That reaches the root.
Grace Received and Grace Refused
The entire parable can therefore be reduced to a remarkable contrast.
The servant before his lord:
- Forgive me.
The lord:
- forgave him the debt.
The servant before his fellowservant:
- Pay me that thou owest.
That is the contradiction.
He lives by grace when dealing upward with his lord.
He lives by debt when dealing outward with his brother.
He wants mercy when he is the debtor.
He wants strict payment when he is the creditor.
This is precisely why Matthew 18 cannot properly be reduced to a tool by which church people establish control over one another.
The passage destroys the idea of the Christian as a spiritual debt collector.
Conclusion
The enormous debt in Matthew 18 can be understood as the debt of sin before God.
The lord represents God.
The servant cannot pay.
The lord has compassion upon him and forgives his debt.
This points to the Free Grace gospel.
God justifies the ungodly who believes.
God imputes righteousness without works.
The believer's iniquities are forgiven.
The Lord does not impute sin.
Having received such an enormous forgiveness from God, the believer should therefore have compassion upon his fellow believer.
That is the foundation of Matthew 18.
But this teaching can itself be corrupted.
Church people can turn forgiveness into social leverage.
Fellowship can become leverage.
Kindness can become leverage.
Help can become leverage.
Religious instruction can become leverage.
Even apparent righteousness can become leverage.
The outward message says:
- I love my brother.
The hidden account says:
- He owes me.
And eventually the demand appears:
- Pay me that thou owest.
This is why outward friendliness alone does not establish genuine Christian fellowship.
There can be good words and fair speeches.
There can be ministers transformed as ministers of righteousness.
There can be love in word without love in deed and in truth.
There can be an institution called a church which nevertheless contains the same ambitions, competitions, alliances, self-promotion, conflicts, and social calculations found elsewhere.
The gospel begins somewhere entirely different.
The believer stands before God unable to purchase righteousness by works.
God forgives.
God imputes righteousness.
God saves by grace through faith.
The Christian walk therefore begins from having received an immeasurable gift rather than having established a position of superiority over other men.
The great debt has been forgiven.
Therefore the question toward the fellowservant is not:
- How can I make this man pay me what I believe he owes me?
The question given by the lord is:
Matthew 18:33
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
That is the difference between grace and social leverage.
One remembers the mercy it received.
The other keeps an account of what everyone else owes.
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