2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 2:4-16,
“Restore The Brother Disciplined”
By
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our last study, we looked at how that Paul began to defend his integrity to the church by explaining how
and why he had made the decisions that he had made about visiting them
1.1.1. Paul attempted to point out
to the Corinthians that his motives for changing his plans to visit them came
about:
1.1.1.1.Not because he was living
his life according to worldly wisdom, but rather in the grace of God
1.1.1.1.1.We saw that fleshly wisdom
would have told Paul to go and buy a condo on the island of Crete and live the
easy life by not trying to stand out in a crowd , not getting too excited about
his faith in Christ, not telling anyone he was a Christian unless of course
they specifically asked, watch out for number one, only do ministry if there is
something in it for you in the here and now, demand a big salary, etc.
1.1.1.1.1.1.However, Paul didn’t do any
of those things. As our example as
believers, he constantly poured out his life for the souls of men. He lived for others and daily risked his life
in order that he might preach the gospel and win people to Christ and eternal
life
1.1.1.1.1.2.We saw that the true test of
love is extravagance and reckless abandon to the one loved
1.1.1.1.2.The fact that he and those with
him lived their lives in holiness and godly sincerity should have been a
testimony to the fact that his motives were pure
1.1.1.2.Because he was thinking of
what was best for the Corinthians, not for himself
1.1.2. We saw that Paul was a man
of his word and that he attempted to show the Corinthians that this fact should
be apparent because Jesus Christ, the gospel message Paul preached, and the
promises of God he taught them were themselves faithful and could be relied
upon
1.1.3. Paul attempted in that study
to continue to repair his relationship with the Corinthians by pointing out to
them more connecting points which he and those with him had with the
Corinthians
1.1.3.1.He showed them that they are
connected because they both would be a source of pride for each other in the day
of Jesus Christ, when Christ returns for the church
1.1.3.2.He showed them that they are
connected because God had established them together and anointed those who
ministered to the church, sealing them with the Holy Spirit
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to see that Paul begins to discuss
things that the Corinthians needed to do in regard to their calling of
reconciling people to the Lord
1.2.1. We will concentrate in this
study upon this greatest of all callings that each of us as Christians have,
that of being agents or ambassadors of the Lord for the reconciling of people
to the Lord
1.2.1.1.We will see that this
calling to be agents of reconciliation should come about in our lives through a
serious commitment on our part and a passion and compassion that the Lord gives
us for the souls of men
1.2.2. In discussing their
responsibility in being agents of God’s reconciliation, we will see in this
section that Paul comforts the Corinthians by:
1.2.2.1.Telling them not to worry
about the sorrow they had caused him because of their sin
1.2.2.1.1.Paul wanted the church to
realize that he had forgiven those who had wronged him and that there was no
animosity towards anyone, for what he had forgiven he had forgotten
1.2.2.2.Telling them to reach out to
and affirm their love to the repentant man whom they had removed from their
fellowship
1.2.2.2.1.Paul did not want the man
who had been disciplined by the church to be overcome by excessive sorrow, for
Paul had found out that he had repented of his sin. Therefore, the church should now restore him
to fellowship
1.2.2.3.Telling them that they are
always to be led forth by God in the triumph of Christ bringing forth the aroma
of the knowledge of God in every place
1.2.2.3.1.Paul shows his humility
saying, “Who is adequate for these things?”
2.
VS 2:4 - “4 For out of
much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not that
you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have
especially for you.” - Paul tells the Corinthians
that he wrote the ‘severe letter’ to them out of much affliction and anguish of
heart and with many tears
2.1.
Many Bible Commentators taught for many years that the letter that was
being referenced here was the letter of 1 Corinthians, however a closer look at
2 Corinthians makes us realize that Paul is actually referring in this verse to
the ‘severe letter’ which he wrote to them after the letter of 1
Corinthians. Paul had written the letter
of 1 Corinthians and told them in chapter 16 of that letter that he would
return to them later on in the year and at that time spend a good amount of time
with them, perhaps the entire winter.
However, after receiving some grave news about some conditions in the
church, Paul instead decided to return to the church right away and boldly
confront some who were in sin in the church.
At that time he told them upon leaving that he would return twice more
to them, once right away. However, after
leaving them he realized that his visit had caused so much grief to the church
that he would instead of returning right away to the church, write to them the
‘severe letter.’ He didn’t believe that
the church would be able to bear another confrontational visit by him, so the
writing of this “severe letter” would work the best for them. It was this ‘severe letter’ that was so
difficult for Paul to write.
2.2.
In this ‘severe letter’, Paul had to boldly confront the church about
dealing with those who were in sin within the church, and because he knew how
much this letter would hurt them, he wrote this letter with many tears. He had to boldly lay it out to them that if they
wanted to be considered a church of Christ’s that they had to be obedient to
his instructions to remove the sin that was in their midst.
2.3.
Paul tells the Corinthians that he isn’t telling them that he wrote the
‘severe letter’ to them with many tears in order to make them sorrowful for
causing him such grief, but in order that they might realize that his tears
came about because of how greatly he loved them. Paul’s tears were tears of love shed for the
church. He loved them so much that he
wept because of their blindness and stubbornness of heart in tolerating this
sin that was so troubling the church at this time. He loved them so much that he hurt for them
because of the pain that their sin was causing them.
2.3.1. I’m sure that Paul wept
because of how this sin had also grieved the Lord.
2.4.
As I have been preparing for teaching this message today, I have to be
honest with you that the Lord has used these verses to severely rebuke me. You see, I fear that in my own heart, and
even in the church at large as I look around, I see a great hardness of
heart. I see the fact that myself and
perhaps us as a people, and us as Christians in America today, do not seem to
be emotionally moved by those who are perishing in their sin or those believers
who have gotten caught up in a sin.
2.4.1. Perhaps it is the fact that
all around us in today, especially as we are being brain-washed by all of the
various media, we seem first of all to be being programmed to not be shocked by
people falling into gross sin, even when it happens to Christians.
2.4.2. We seem secondly not to be
shocked by the effects of sin in a believer’s life which are felt by untold
numbers who are directly and indirectly affected by a person who falls into a
sin.
2.4.2.1.Perhaps in our world today
we have seen so many believers and even church leaders who have fallen into sin
that nothing surprises us anymore, and we almost expect to see believers fall
into sin.
2.4.3. Thirdly, I see that in my
own heart that I have not truly been weeping with those believers who are
weeping because of the sin that they have fallen into.
2.4.3.1.The Lord has rebuked me for
being dispassionate and not being moved with compassion for those who fall into
sin.
2.4.3.2.Spurgeon once preached a sermon about
how that we Christians must have compassion upon souls that are headed towards
an eternity in hell if they don’t soon find the Savior so that they can spend
eternity in heaven, and in that message he said, “When Robert Hall in one of the grand flights of his
eloquence pictured the funeral of a lost soul, he made the sun to veil his
light, and the moon her brightness; he covered the ocean with mourning and the
heavens with sackcloth, and declared that if the whole fabric of nature could
become animated and vocal, it would not be possible for her to utter a groan
too deep, or a cry too piercing to express the magnitude and extent of the
catastrophe. Time is not long enough for the sore lamentation which should
attend the obsequies of a lost soul. Eternity must be charged with that
boundless woe, and must utter it in weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Not the tongues of prophets, nor of seraphs, could set forth all the sorrow of
what it is to be condemned from the mouth of mercy, damned by the Savior who
died to save, pronounced accursed by rejected love. The evil is so immense that
imagination finds no place, and understanding utterly fails. Brethren, if our
bowels do not yearn for men who are daily hastening towards destruction, are we
men at all?…You all desire
to glorify Christ by becoming soul-winners — I hope you do — and be it
remembered that, other things being equal, he is the fittest in God’s hand to
win souls who pities souls most. I believe he preaches best who loves best, and
in the Sunday-school and in private life each soul-seeker shall have the
blessing very much in proportion to his yearning for it. Paul becomes a saviour
of many because his heart’s desire and prayer to God is that they may be saved.
If you can live without souls being converted, you shall live without
their being converted; but if your soul breaketh for the longing that it hath
towards Christ’s glory and the conversion of the ungodly, if like her of old
you say, “Give me children, or I die,” your insatiable hunger shall be
satisfied, the craving of your spirit shall be gratified. Oh! I would to God
there should come upon us a divine hunger which cannot stay itself except men
yield themselves to Jesus; an intense, earnest, longing, panting desire that
men should submit themselves to the gospel of Jesus. This will teach you better
than the best college training how to deal with human hearts. This will give
the stammering tongue the ready word; the hot heart shall burn the cords which
held fast the tongue. You shall become wise to win souls, even though you never
exhibit the brilliance of eloquence or the force of logic. Men shall wonder at
your power — the secret shall be hidden from them, the fact being that the Holy
Ghost shall overshadow you, and your heart shall teach you wisdom, God teaching
your heart. Deep feeling on your part for others shall make others feel for
themselves, and God shall bless you, and that right early.”
2.5.
I read the following quote by Richard Cecil, an Anglican
preacher in England at the end of the eighteenth century in a book I’m reading
by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “To love to preach is one thing, to love those to
whom we preach is quite another.” If
we truly love others, then we will weep with those who weep, and we will be
shocked and grieved to the point of tears for believers when they fall into any
sin.
2.5.1. Love has such a power to
change people’s lives. Chuck Smith told
the story once of something that happened early in his ministry in Calvary
Chapel,
3.
VS 2:5 - “5 But if any
has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree—in order
not to say too much—to all of you.” - Paul tells
the Corinthians that if anyone had caused him sorrow because of their sin, that
this sorrow wasn’t too great and that all of them in the church were also made
sorrowful by this
3.1.
I think that in this verse, Paul is primarily just trying to comfort
the Corinthians to not worry too much about any sorrow that anyone had caused
him. If Paul were Australian, he might
here be translated to say, “No worries mate!”
3.2.
Paul had forgiven any who had caused him sorrow, and what Paul had
forgiven he also tried to forget.
3.3.
Paul was no longer sorrowful because of the actions of those who had
sinned in the past and whom he had to confront when he was with them during
that difficult visit.
4.
VS 2:6-9 - “6 Sufficient
for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority,7 so that
on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest somehow such a
one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.8 Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your
love for him.9 For to this end also I wrote that I might put you to the test,
whether you are obedient in all things.” - Paul tells
the Corinthians that their discipline of the man whom Paul had told them to
discipline was now sufficient, and so they now ought to forgive this man and
reaffirm their love for him
4.1.
We saw last week that if you love someone sometimes you have to hurt
them if you find out that they are doing something to hurt themselves, others,
or the Lord. At Paul’s insistence, the
church had excommunicated this man until such time as he should find it in his
heart to repent.
4.2.
The big question in these verses is, “Who is this man?” “Is he the man Paul told them to remove from
the church in chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, or another man who opposed Paul when
he came to them on that very difficult visit?”
4.2.1. Traditionally, commentators
have thought that the reference was to the man of 1 Corinthians chapter 5 who
was living with his step mother in incestuous immorality, whom Paul told them
to remove from the church.
4.2.2. However, it now seems more
probable that this is the man who opposed Paul during his difficult visit.
4.2.3. It may however be that the
same man who opposed him upon the difficult visit was also the man whom the
church was instructed by Paul to remove in chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians.
4.3.
Regardless of who these verses refer to, there was a man who had been
disciplined by the church, and the context and verbiage here would seem to
indicate to us that this man had been asked to leave the fellowship. Now however, the man had shown that he had
sincerely repented of his sin and was greatly sorrowful for having caused pain
and difficulty to the church. So, Paul
tells the church that they should now reach out to the man, tell him they love
him, and welcome him back into their fellowship.
4.4.
Church discipline should always be carried out with a view to
restoration. Though a brother or a
sister may have to be removed from the fellowship of the church, there should
in that discipline always be an invitation given to the person that when he has
repented of his sin that he is welcome to return to full fellowship with the
church.
4.4.1. In Gal. 6:1, Paul
wrote about how that after a brother or a sister who has fallen into a sin has
repented of their sin that they are to be restored to fellowship in the church
by a church leader who employs a spirit of gentleness, “1 Brethren, even
if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one
in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be
tempted.”
4.4.1.1.Gentleness is required in
restoring someone back into fellowship because of the fact that the
confrontation of being in sin is very painful to people. After someone has had the Lord finally break
their heart over their sin and all of the trouble that it has caused in other’s
lives and in the life of the church, that person will now be broken and often
even over-react towards himself with ‘self-hate’ or loathing. Therefore, we as Christians must reaffirm our
love for that brother or sister who is now repentant, and we must reassure them
that we are going to try to forgive and forget the wrong that was committed,
just as the Lord handles each of us when we confess and repent of our sins to Him.
4.5.
Paul tells the Corinthians in verse 9 that he was putting them to the
test when he instructed them in the Lord to discipline this man. That had passed that test. In the church, a pastor or leader not only is
to teach the ways in which we as Christians should conduct ourselves, but he
must also as the Lord leads expect those under him to be obedient to his godly
counsel as their leader. This then
causes the people in his ministry to be tested as to whether or not they are
obedient to the Lord.
5.
VS 2:10-11 - “10 But
whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if
I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ,11
in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his
schemes.”
- Paul tells the Corinthians that
whomever they forgave that he would also forgive
5.1.
In essence, Paul is saying in verse 10 that he would back up the
Corinthians in their decisions concerning church discipline. If they chose to forgive and accept back into
fellowship anyone whom they had previously removed because of their refusal to
repent of sin in their life, then Paul would trust that they had made the
correct decisions.
5.2.
Paul had been worried after sending to the church his ‘severe letter’
that the church would not be willing to maturely and decisively deal with those
in the church who were refusing to repent of significant sin in their life, as
Paul had commanded that they do.
However, they had been willing to heed his counsel and had shown real
spiritual growth by being obedient in doing this. Now, Paul is showing them his approval and
backing. In a sense, you could say that
Paul is giving them a big pat on the back by showing them his approval of their
decisions.
5.3.
Paul is saying also though that by his backing them in their decisions
concerning church discipline that this would keep Satan from being able to
cause a breach in their fellowship. If
they acted in unity under the Lord’s leading, Satan would not be able to get a
foothold to create further divisiveness in the church.
6.
VS 2:12-13 - “12 Now
when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me
in the Lord,13 I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but
taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia.” - Paul tells the Corinthians that when he had
journeyed from Ephesus to Troas that the Lord had opened a door for effective
preaching of the gospel there, however at that time, because Paul was beside
himself over whether or not the church in Corinth would properly respond to his
‘severe letter’, he realized that he could do no productive ministry so he went
on to Macedonia looking for Titus
6.1.
In these verses, we see that Paul is once again being very open and
transparent with the Corinthians about his own life. He is telling them that he was so distraught
in concern about them and that they receive his ‘severe letter’ in the right
way, that he could not concentrate upon the effective and fruitful ministry
that the Lord had opened up for him there in Troas.
6.2.
We would not expect Paul to open up so much to the Corinthians about
his own weaknesses and vulnerabilities, however in this letter as we have
already seen Paul realized that in order to minister to people that he had to
pour out his heart to them, revealing both the darkness of his trials,
persecutions, and struggles as well as the victories that the Lord had
accomplished through him, if he was going to be able to minister to them in the
midst of their difficult times.
6.2.1. You see, Paul was even here
comforting the Corinthians with the comfort with which he had been comforted by
God.
7.
VS 2:14-16 - “14 But
thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests
through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.15 For we are
a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those
who are perishing;16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an
aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?” - Paul tells the Corinthians that God always
leads us in His triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of
the knowledge of Him
7.1.
In Paul’s day, if a Roman commander were to go out in battle and
conquer a people, he would return with the captives of the land he had
conquered going before him. In doing
this, the Roman commander was showing off the spoils of his victories. Surely, this was the image that Paul had
before his mind in saying these things to the Corinthians. However, in the case of the church, the Lord
is constantly going forth in the world as the conquering victor winning the
hearts of men and women to Himself, and the church is going before him as His
grateful captives, manifesting an aroma of the knowledge of God everywhere she
goes.
7.1.1. This sweet aroma of the
knowledge of God also brings about a sacrifice of praise by God’s people. In the Old Testament, the pleasing aroma of
the praise of God’s people was symbolized by the sweet aroma of incense that
was to be constantly burning in the temple.
Whenever a person entered the temple they would immediately smell the
aroma of incense being burned to the Lord.
Each of us as Christians are also exuding the pleasing aroma of Christ
and the knowledge of God in the world, wherever we may go.
7.2.
Paul tells us that this aroma of the knowledge of God in the church
produced two opposite types of responses in two different types of people:
7.2.1. It is an aroma from ‘life to
life’ for God’s people who had been redeemed by the blood of Christ and His sacrifice
upon the cross of
7.2.2. It is an aroma from ‘death
to death’ for those who rejected Christ and the gospel message.
7.3.
The ‘super-apostles’ whom Paul will talk about in verse 17 through the
end of chapter 3, were constantly promoting themselves and telling everyone of
their capabilities for ministry, however Paul contrasts himself with these ones
by asking the question, “Who is adequate for these things?”
7.3.1. Paul knew that being a
fragrant aroma of the knowledge of God throughout the world was an awesome task
and one that he knew in and of himself he was incapable of performing. Only the Lord could live this type of life
and testimony before the world that would bring glory to God wherever he went.
7.3.2. Paul saw the great
responsibility of being an ambassador for the Lord in people’s lives, in
bringing them into reconciliation with the Lord, and he saw that in and of
himself he was totally inadequate for such a ministry.
7.3.2.1.In our lives as Christians,
it is not until we get to the place in our lives where we realize our total
inadequacy before the Lord for ministry, that we are in the place to be used by
the Lord. You see, it is not our
strength, our gifts, our will-power, our cleverness, our wisdom, our talents,
etc. that enables us to be used mightily by God. It is only the power of God working mightily
through our lives that qualifies and equips us to be used by God in people’s
lives!
7.3.2.2.We Christians need to always
be asking the Lord to yet empower us more greatly for the ministries that He
wants to use us in. We should ever yearn
and seek the Lord in faith for more power and anointing for whatever service
the Lord calls us for.
8.
CONCLUSION:
8.1.
We have all been called by Christ in the highest of all callings: to be an agent or ambassador for reconciling
people to the Lord
8.2.
We need to have a great commitment to this calling
8.3.
We need to desire and year for a passion and a compassion for the souls
of men
8.4.
May God give to each of us the love for the souls of men that the
apostle Paul had, he who is our great example