The apostle Paul must have been a prolific writer, especially of letters to the early churches. A couple of blog posts ago, I mentioned that there is a "lost" letter to the Corinthians. Paul references that letter here in the first few verses of chapter 2. Apparently, since his prior visits and the letter of 1 Corinthians did not correct one particularly destructive situation present in that church body, he sent Titus with a real "barn burner" of a letter, a true "trip to the woodshed". That letter, though now lost to us, had accomplished its intended purpose, that being to correct the aforementioned sinful situation.
Now, here, in 2 Cor. 2:5-11, Paul follows his declaration of love for this church by saying this:
5-8 Now, regarding the one who started all this—the person in question who caused all this pain—I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don’t want to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love.
9-11 The focus of my letter wasn’t on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church. So if you forgive him, I forgive him. Don’t think I’m carrying around a list of personal grudges. The fact is that I’m joining in with your forgiveness, as Christ is with us, guiding us. After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!
The Message
The American arm of the Body of Christ takes a lot of heat from unbelievers because of its internal squabbling; and, a lot of that criticism is deserved. To set up as an expectation that there will always be peace and harmony in the local church is to assume that it is populated with something other than human beings. As humans, we will make mistakes: we will get tripped up in error; we will misspeak; we will hurt feelings; etc. When (not if) this happens we should be prepared to respond scripturally.
Based on this passage, Paul recommends that the offending brother be restored. The local Corinthian church had confronted him and administered "punishment" (we aren't told what that was). Apparently, the brother had repented. Paul, then advocates forgiving the man and restoring him, spiritually, to fellowship both with God and with his fellow believers. Paul goes on to point out that to carry a personal grudge against a person who has "made things right" is unhealthy for both the local church and the specific individuals involved. Satan loves to use such situations to cause more dissension and render the local church ineffective.
In my hometown, local churches' past histories tend to define them. On one corner is the church that split when {insert minor incident here}. On another corner is a church where this member committed this infamous act, and so on. On a smaller scale, our Christian culture is full of church-switchers. Some personal preference gets violated and the person/family goes across town to another church, effecting a "church divorce". An "arm" of the local Body of Christ hacks itself off. A "foot" ... walks away.
Often, we just let them go. They are "expendable". Oh, how it breaks my heart to write this...
Our pride keeps us from reaching out to them and trying to make things right. Yet, we should do this! Not because they were "a tither", God forbid! Not because they were a leader in our local body. Not because they were influential. It should not matter whether they were a "mouth" or an "appendix" in the local body. We should do it because when we do, we are acting as healers of The Body. 1 Corinthians 12:25-27 - - - The Message
25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this.
Although we endeavor to "walk in the Spirit", our "old, fleshly nature" sometimes rises up to cause problems. It is clear from the book of 1 Corinthians that whomever this man was, he nearly destroyed the Corinthian church by his actions. Wouldn't you have expected them to kick him out? Still, because he repented, they forgave and restored him. By the grace of God they were able to get past personal pride and to "pour on the love" (vs. 8). In so doing, they gave to each of our local bodies of believers a wonderful example to follow when we inevitably find ourselves ensnared by our own carnal natures. I praise God for that.
Father, how despairing we would be if the Bible were a collection of stories about "perfect" people, since there was only one perfect Man, and they crucified Him. Lord, please help us to see that, when we squabble and pout, we only bring dishonor to Your name in this dark world. Honest disagreement and dialogue are healthy; pettiness and pride are sin. Please give us the supernatural humility to avoid the latter, for the sake of our Lord and Savior, and for the advancement of His kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen.
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