Tackling Tradition 46: Matthew On Church Discipline

 Does the Bible restrict the text of Matthew 18:15 -  19 to church discipline?  

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

The Bible teaches the 3 fold use of the Law.    In addition to its application to us with respect to the 3 offices (Prophet(ic), Civil, & Ecclesiastical, it also applies to us Individually & Corporately, so, even though the text to which you are referring tells us to go to them individually in a literal 1 - on - 1 sense, it also instructs us to do so, whenever possible, in a figurative sense applicable to 1 - on 1 individual as well as private matters involving one or more groups of people. 

That is to say, in addition to the escalating levels of privacy in an ecclesiastical context (as in church discipline), it also has application in the individual context as well as the civil sphere (like the public school system).  

Although the example provided in the text of Matthew 18 is an example that begins with a literal 1 - on 1 encounter that expands to a mid-level encounter/intevention that expands to larger encounter/intervention than involves whole congregation/community — via the 3 fold uses of the Law & the way the Law applies simultaneously to both individuals & whole communities, we ought tp know that this text applies to 1 to Many encounters at the very beginning  as well as uber- small private encounters between not only individuals in literal 1 - on - 1 encounters, but in a literal 1 person to a (uber-small) group context or an uber-small group to uber-small group context.  

The reason for this is 2fold: (1) this is a Sabbath regulation,  insofar as the 4th Commandment encompasses worship ethics as to both Faith & Practice, text describes the use & utility of this principle in an Ecclesiastical context, & the Bible is clear that Sabbath regulations as to the concrete particulars may be expanded or contracted as to implementation of such regulations — and these regulations (via the 3 uses of the Law have application in places other than the local church. (2) within the overall context of the Gospels, the people are depicted as people who are sometimes spiritually abused, like the woman in Luke 7.  (3) the LORD recognizes that for some people (like a great many women whose voices frequently were suppressed) might & sometimes don’t have the option of confronting their opponents/oppressors individually & must rely open one or more of the Men in their lives to intervene on their behalf, which makes the 1 - on -1 intervention figuratively plural in nature insofar as the male interventionist/advocate/mediator who might or might not be there for himself too), is her representative (who might or might not be present during the first stage of the intervention/confrontation.