October 7, 2024

Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 2-3
Meditation Verses: 2:6-8

Thought

This is likely in reference to the man in 1 Corinthians 5, but whether him or some other brother, the point remains. Church discipline is not for the purpose of eternal rejection, but to impress on the unrepentant their need for repentance. So there should be no hatred of the sinner, but only love, a love that desperately seeks their repentance and desires restoration. When the sinner repents, we should have no difficulty in forgiving him and restoring him to fellowship. This can be a hard thing to do. We can get more caught up in the feelings of grief and even betrayal when the sinner refuses to repent, and if there are such hard feelings when the sinner is cut off, if those are the last things felt, they can sour the heart of the faithful toward forgiveness and restoration. So Paul's instruction here is all the more necessary, as a reminder that church discipline should never be from or result in bitterness, but should always be out of love and an overriding desire for restoration.

Application

While love must not be used to justify short-circuiting the process of church discipline, it needs to be the guiding principle. Everyone needs to be reminded of the goal and the purpose, that of repentance and restoration, so that forgiveness is always at the ready. It should be such a grief both to the church and to the individual to have to cut off fellowship, that at the moment the sinner repents, all are ready to forgive and welcome him back. As grievous as the sin may be, I can never look on the sinner with contempt or hatred; there should only be grief and sorrow. There is no guarantee that every sinner will repent, but what if one day he does? I don't want find myself in the grip of bitterness so that I can't welcome him back into genuine fellowship.