Wednesday Thought -- March 4, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

“The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven — if there was anything to forgive — I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” (2 Corinthians 2:6-11)

There was a man in the Corinthian church who had sinned and was unrepentant. In Paul’s first letter he encouraged the church to discipline the man. Not to discipline the man to that point had brought shame upon the whole church.

It is assumed that this passage in 2 Corinthians is the follow-up story about the same man. By the time Paul was writing this second letter the man had come to repentance – but so far the Corinthians were not willing to forgive him. They wanted to continue to punish the man – to make him pay for his sins and for the pain brought to the church.

Paul would certainly have said in the context of the first letter to the Corinthians that one of Satan’s schemes was to tempt a weak member of the church and lure him into sin that would tarnish the reputation of the church. That’s an easy point for us to see. We can see the same thing at work around the world today in church after church. The open sin of modern Christians brings shame on the church and tarnishes the reputation of God’s people. Satan’s temptations to sin are still one of his schemes to disrupt God’s work in the church.

Paul’s point in 2 Corinthians is that unforgiveness of those who are repentant is also giving in to one of Satan’s schemes. Satan loves to see Christians treat each other poorly. He loves to see Christians less willing to forgive each other than non-Christians are.

Paul told the Corinthians that it was time to forgive. They could disarm Satan’s scheme through their forgiveness.

When someone sins – and then repents –it’s time to forgive. Not to forgive falls into Satan’s trap. Forgiveness disarms Satan and honors God’s work in the person’s life – and in our own.

His, by Grace,

Steve