2 Corinthians 2:5-11--Forgive the Sinner

2 Corinthians 2:5-11
English Standard Version
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Forgive the Sinner
5 Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. 6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 10 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

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Paul says that anyone who commits sin sins against the entire body of Christ.  This imagery of the Body is something this church would be familiar with as he already used it in the book of 1 Corinthians to correct the congregation about their pride and covetousness regarding spiritual gifts.  If one part of the Body is diseases or sick, it affects the entire body.  To go back to the analogy that Jesus used about a tree or vine and its fruit, and branch that does not produce fruit or produces bad (diseased fruit) is cut off and thrown into the fire for the good of the entire organism so that the disease or whatever caused the branch to die does not spread to the entire vine.  There is no such thing as sin that only affects you in the Body of Christ.  Everything becomes a corporate issue as we are all connected to each other, not just at a local church level, but in an even broader sense through space and time.  What I do can affect how people see Jesus on the other side of the world and how future generations see Jesus in years to come.

This is where Paul tells the to course-correct for the one who was excommunicated in 1 Corinthians (the man who was having an affair with his step-mother and would not repent).  It seems that the man repented, but they had failed to let him back into their fellowship.  Paul said that his punishment had been enough to accomplish the intended purpose of repentance and they should welcome their brother back and their job now is to comfort him, and not to rebuke him.  It's okay to tell such a person that returns that they are loved and even that you missed them.  We should react in the same way that the Father did for the Prodigal Son.  "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Paul says they need to be obedient not just in church discipline, but also in extending forgiveness, grace and mercy to the one who repents, no matter how hurt you feel by the offense.  The offense was not ever truly against you, but against God.  Recall the words of David to God when he said, "Against You and You only have I sinned."  David had sinned against a bunch of people--Uriah, Bathsheba, the army, and indeed the entire nation of Israel, but ultimately David knew that ll sin is rebellion against God and that if God forgives us then everyone else should forgive us as well.  That is why Paul says here that if there has been repentance, there should be forgiveness, and if the congregation forgives then Paul will also forgive as well.  This is kind of the opposite of what we read in 1 Corinthians where we see Paul exercising his apostolic authority to say that he had already judged and condemned the man who was living in sin and that the church needed to follow Paul's lead and agree that man stood condemned already.

So then the schemes of Satan will be thwarted if we continue to love one another and give the same kind of forgiveness to others that we need to receive.  You'll notice that I inserted the idea of repentance even though you won't find that word directly in the text.  This is to be consistent with the rest of Scripture.  We are to forgive in the same manner as God forgives--totally and completely, but that forgiveness is predicated on repentance that comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot simply just take the Christian living in sin back into our fellowship because we miss him or her if the work of Spirit to bring about repentance has not been accomplished, and if the person has no desire to repent and continues in sin, then it is evidence that the Spirit of God does not live inside of such a man, and he is to continue to be treated as a heather or "Gentile" as Paul said in 1 Corinthians.  I have to assume there has been repentance if Paul is talking about forgiveness and welcoming the man back as a brother because there can be no daylight between the teachings of Paul and the teaching of the other apostles and the teaching of Christ.  This verse in particular though reminds us that it is the mercy and lovingkindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance many times.   Just because someone is living in sin does not mean that there is not still some measure of grace and mercy that can be given to them--just like God gave it to all of us while we were still sinners to draw us unto Himself. 

Romans 2:4
English Standard Version4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

To see that I'm not going off the rails here, see 2 Corinthians 7:10 which is coming up towards the end of the book of 2 Corinthians,

2 Corinthians 7:10
English Standard Version
"10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death."

So then we see that we should have the mind of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit that correction is needed, but the goal of the correction should be repentance that leads to reconciliation, restoration, forgiveness and life.  Even the punishment must still be full of kindness, patience and mercy so as to bring about the work that God desires.  Our goal is never to bring about vengeance, for the Lord says that vengeance belongs to Him and Him alone (since again, all sin is ultimately against God and He is the only one who can righteously judge both the living and the dead).  Let's not condemn those whom Christ has forgiven, but let's also not short-circuit the work of the Holy Spirit to bring about repentance and to make all things new in the lives of the elect.