Do you have a narrow view of things

In Matthew 18 Jesus talks about forgiveness to his disciples. Interestingly two parts of the passage almost seem contradictory. It starts in Matthew 18:15-17:

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

But it almost seems contradictory as Jesus has just said to ostracize people and then in the same passage he says to forgive everyone continually (Matthew 18:21-22):

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

Notice it's Peter again, not afraid to ask questions or even look foolish. I still find that an admirable trait.

The real question is, can you see the distinction? I can't tell you how many times in my adult life I see people take a jump from point a to point b realizing there is no logical connection.

Notice here that treating someone as a pagan doesn't mean you don't forgive them. Likewise treating someone as a pagan doesn't mean you don't love them. In fact, it's better for them to be treated as a pagan.

The Bible says you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You should always do this. But sometimes this means not being their friend, not helping them out, firing them, etc.

If someone is being abusive at work, they should be reprimanded and if they don't fix it, they should be fired. If I was abusive at work, that's how I would want to be treated. I wouldn't want to come back older and wiser thinking how many people I wronged during that time. I would want to know that the firing was the jolt in the arm that made me reevaluate what I was doing.

Make sure when you read the scriptures you are reading them thoroughly and not glossing over them. Sometimes the message maybe deeper than you think.