The Corinthian Correspondence, Part 35, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11, "Church Discipline: A Powerful Spiritual Weapon"

The Corinthian Correspondence, Part 35: 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 Church Discipline: A Powerful Spiritual Weapon Pastor and author David Fitch tells this story: In 2010 a group of eight people from two churches felt called to the Detroit Boulevard neighborhood of Sacramento. It was known as one of the most notorious crime-ridden neighborhoods in all of Sacramento. Each house in that neighborhood was a place of danger. Nonetheless this group of eight decided to walk through the neighborhood praying over each home and praying for the presence of Christ to reign over violence, addiction, and satanic oppression. They began walking through the neighborhood, praying over each home and rebuking the demonic strongholds of addiction and violence. One of the eight, former Sacramento police officer and gang detective Michael Xiong, reported that "each time we prayed over the houses, we felt the weight of oppression becoming lighter." A woman from one of the houses confronted them. When she discovered they were praying for the community, she asked for healing, and God healed her. The group soon physically moved into the neighborhood and started what they called Detroit Life Church. A couple years later a local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, reported that there were no homicides, robberies, or sex crimes, and only one assault in Detroit Boulevard between 2013 and 2014. Detroit Boulevard had been transformed by a small group of people who began their ministry in the neighborhood by praying around houses, streets, and parks for the power of Satan to be vanquished. Any Christian knows, or at least ought to know, the reality of the unseen world, the spiritual forces bent on destroying individual followers of Jesus. And these same forces are out to destroy the entire church as well. The Scripture has some significant things to say about our battle in the unseen realm. Jesus calls the enemy of our souls the Devil and Satan. Paul labeled the enemies principalities and powers, spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms. As Pastor Fitch implied, it is possible to overcome the forces of evil. When a soldier is in a firefight, weaponry is a most precious asset. But with spiritual battles, our enemy is invisible. We can't use normal weapons on the devil and his hordes. If we want to get victory in the spiritual world, we must use weaponry the Lord supplies. So, what are these weapons? Prayer for one. John mentions 2 more weapons in Revelation: the blood of the Lamb and the word of the testimony of the saints. In our passage for today, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11, we will discover another extremely powerful weapon, tailor-made to enable the church of Jesus Christ to engage, as it were, in hand-to-hand combat with the principalities and powers, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms. Though this weapon is powerful, to our detriment, it is largely unused. At first glance it seems like it's not a weapon at all. But without its use, the enemy has a field day with the church. Oddly, this weapon is actually painful to the user. Painful, but again, its use is absolutely vital if we want to achieve victory over the enemy. What is this weapon? Church discipline. Let's read about it in our passage: 2 Corinthians 2:5-11. 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. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 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, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. Before we talk about this powerful spiritual weapon we call church discipline, let me remind us of the backstory of our passage. Remember that Paul was in Ephesus, a city on the Western coast of what we know as Turkey. It was there he wrote what we call 1 Corinthians. And this letter dealt with all sorts of problems. Paul gave the letter to the team of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus who delivered it to the church in Corinth. At the end of 1 Corinthians, Paul gave them his travel plans. He wanted to spend time with them, collect the offering earmarked for the saints in Israel because a severe famine reared its ugly head and then be on his way having given and received spiritual refreshment. But he wasn't going to go there right away. He told them that he had work to do in Ephesus because the Lord opened up many opportunities for ministry. And there were many adversaries, seemingly just the way Paul liked it--he was a true spiritual warrior. He understood the eternal truth that, in the words of a great Scottish Pastor named Eric Alexander, "Whenever the word of God is established, it will be opposed." But as fruitful as the ministry in and around Ephesus was, Paul found out there was some incredibly difficult developments back in Corinth: some had infiltrated the church in Corinth with a false gospel. Now, this got Paul's attention. So, he dropped what he was doing in Ephesus, and boarded a quick boat to Corinth to deal with those who were teaching a false gospel. And he came into the doors of the meeting places with spiritual guns ablazing. He had his way with those teachers. Then he left. He returned to Ephesus but was convinced that things were not where they needed to be in Corinth--the false, so-called super apostles still had the influence, and did a good job at undermining his authority, along with the gospel he preached. So Paul wrote them an impassioned, tear stained, letter, worded so strongly that he said he regretted writing it. Well, word got back to Paul about how the Corinthians received that letter. And he began to deal with some of the fallout over this. So, Paul wrote yet another letter, which we call 2 Corinthians. I just mentioned that the false apostles influenced the church in a major way. Our passage today reflects this. Apparently, a certain individual, a brother in Christ, and most likely a person who people looked up to, was influenced by these false teachers. So much so that he began to side with them and began to speak out strongly against Paul and his authority. We are not told what set this guy up that made him so receptive to these false apostles. The learned people who study this for a living give a couple of suggestions. It may have been Paul's hard line stance he took for holy living. Remember how Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5 in relationship to the one who had a sexual relationship with his step mother: 1 Corinthians 5:2: You are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Perhaps he was one of the arrogant ones. Arrogant and ignorant about the responsibility he had to the Lord to live like a son of God. He might have been so enamored with the grace of God, that he was unbalanced in his life. Or maybe he was a Christian who thought that offering meat sacrificed to idols--by visiting one of the many pagan temples in Corinth--was OK. The bottom line is that we really don't know who this brother was or why he would have sided with the false so-called super apostles. What seems to have happened is that Paul's severe letter hit its mark in the lives of the leadership in the church. They were strengthened in their spirit and recommitted themselves to the true gospel and the authority the Lord gave Paul. They were able to rally the Christians in the church to the place where most of them recommitted themselves to the true gospel and the authority the Lord gave Paul as well. It was as though some woke up from their spiritual slumber. Again, remember how Paul had to chide them. Some of them were not born again by the Spirit of God. Some of them lived lives less than worthy of the gospel: 1 Corinthians 15:34: Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. You know how some people, not everyone of course, but some, who have come out of destructive lifestyles or habits now become the most radical against the lifestyle or habit they just left? For example, who are some of the worst on those who smoke? Ex-smokers. Or who are the ones most zealous to rescue Muslims? Muslim background believers. And it may have been the case here. These revived Christians probably went after this informal, powerful, misguided believer. And raked him over the coals. As one person put it, they landed on him like a falling safe! They exercised pretty severe church discipline, ranging from not sharing meals with him, to not allowing him to partake of the Lord's supper, or a host of other things. They were pouring it on him! And Paul was informed about it. Again here was his counsel in v.6: For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. "Enough!" Paul said. Somehow, the apostle detected that this wayward Christian actually turned the corner. How Paul knew this is unclear. Perhaps Paul received revelation from the Lord about him. Perhaps through talking with the church leaders -- short letters back and forth -- Paul was satisfied that this one repented, and realized before the leaders did in their newfound zeal that the wayward one found his way back home. Regardless of how Paul knew, now he gives his way ahead to the Corinthians about this guy in vv.7-10: so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 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. So, let's back up and get the big picture before moving to the point of church discipline as a powerful spiritual weapon to put down the enemy. A sinning Christian was confronted. It was a public sin--in this case this Christian denounced Paul's divine authority and may have planted seeds of lawlessness. These seeds, if left unchecked would have led at least some of the Corinthians to embrace a false gospel and others to live as though they were not Christians. The Corinthians severely rebuked the sinning brother, a little too severely. Now, they needed to back off a bit. The rebuke had its desired effect. This man saw the error of his ways and rebellion against Paul, ultimately against the Lord. Because the Corinthians exercised church discipline, this man experienced sorrow over his sin and repented. And now the body of Christ needed to love on him and welcome him warmly, so that all of them would happily live together in unity, under submission to divine authority-really the only place of blessing. As a body, they were to formally and publically forgive him, and fully restore this man into fellowship in the church. As I mentioned several times, this is church discipline-and an example of how it was, and is, done. Of course, this situation was a bit different than what Jesus described in Matthew 18, where when 1 spiritual sibling sins against another and they take care of things beginning 1-on-1. This however, was a sin committed in public for all to see, causing public disturbance and quite possibly divisiveness. But thankfully there was a good result: the sinning brother heard the complaint--and repented of his sin. Now he needed to know his spiritual family accepted him. But the process was not a happy one. It was painful. Again look at v.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. There is pain in this--literally, lingering pain. In v.7, there is lingering sorrow: so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Paul said, in essence, "your rebuke did what it was supposed to do. Don't shoot your wounded brother." I'm reminded of Proverbs 27:6, a very appropriate truth that comes to mind in relation to a scenario like this: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." Indeed, a true friend risks the relationship to genuinely love his or her friend by giving him or her what they need-even when it wounds them. But the friend who wounds has the proper bandages to bind up those wounds as well. On the other hand, "profuse are the kisses of an enemy." We can say this by way of application: "a friend is not really a friend if all he or she wants to do is make the other person feel better." So far, we have the mechanics of church discipline. We have the who: a sinning brother and his fellow Christians. We have the what: sin is committed and rebuke is given. We have the when: in the context of the body life of the church--as the Christians come together. We have the how: a rebuke, with the hope that the erring brother would repent and then he would be restored to fellowship. But what we don't have in these verses is the why. Why should church discipline take place? What gives anybody the right to inflict pain on someone else? What business is it of anybody else how a Christian lives his or her life? Doesn't church discipline mean that one person is judging another? Didn't Jesus say, "Judge not lest you be judged?" These and so many more questions arise in the minds of many in the body of Christ today. How do I know? Because I've heard all of these. And so have you. And especially when a Christian is on the receiving end of church discipline. But why does the Lord Jesus tell us to engage in church discipline? Why does Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit include this episode in right here in this letter? And for that matter, why did Paul forcefully tell the Corinthians in his first letter to exercise church discipline regarding the incestual relationship that they were so erroneously arrogant about? The answer is in v.11: so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. In short, church discipline is a weapon of spiritual warfare, combatting the premeditated, very successful schemes of the devil. Let's break this down. When actual sin is committed by a Christian against another Christian (not merely hurt feelings--remember, faithful are the wounds of a friend) then it needs to be taken care of. Lovingly raising the issue, admitting and confessing the sin and guilt needs to happen, with reconciliation as the goal. At this point let me remind all of us a foundational truth. All of us have a nature that is bent toward sin. All of us who are Christians have the power to not sin. But tragically none of us do this perfectly. Sin is a serious thing. All sin. From the yielding of a relatively small thing in the mind to the most heinous mass murders, all sin in attitude, or word, or deed is damning. It is destructive. It destroys relationships, both with God and people. The story is told of a married couple spending time together in their garden and came across a serpent. The husband, hero that he was grabbed a shovel to decapitate the 4-foot-long Western diamondback rattlesnake. For some strange reason, he went to pick up the severed head. And true to form, it sank its fangs into his flesh and released a near deadly dose of venom. About two miles into the drive to the hospital this woman's husband began having seizures, lost his vision and, unknown to them, began bleeding internally. So she met up with an ambulance and then a helicopter, which flew the 40-year-old to the hospital as his organs were already shutting down. Spiritually speaking, this is the kind of thing that tragically we do all too often. The Lord Jesus severed the head of the snake when he died on the cross. And even though the Devil's head is severed from his body, he can still inflict his deadly poison. Paul tells us in Romans 6:6 that our old self was crucified with Christ and as a result the body of sin would be brought to nothing. We are not under the dominion of sin any longer! But what do we do as Christians? How often are we deceived into thinking that playing with sin--picking up the head of the snake--is OK? Or that we somehow can, or must, handle it because it is there? Though we have the power to overcome sin, we yield to it by playing around with evil. The truth is Jesus' death has severed the head of the serpent. Let's leave the head alone! In our little story, what should the husband have done? He had a shovel--a proper instrument--to dig a hole and bury the head. Keep this in mind as we continue to look at the why of church discipline. When we refuse to operate the weapon of church discipline what happens? We allow sin to run amok in our midst. It's as though we see the severed head of the serpent in the hand of the one who sinned, with the fangs stuck deep and do nothing about it. We know that it will be painful to pull out the fangs. We know of the possibility that he will die if we don't help him. But because the episode will be painful we often do nothing. But time is of the essence. And when the spiritual poison takes over, there is sickness in the body of Christ. There is division. And we are then outwitted, literally exploited by Satan's designs, his schemes. His exploitation is three-fold. First, Satan's scheme includes Christians turning away from God in rebellion against his authority, resulting in sin. Second, when a Christian is in rebellion against God's authority, it's just a matter of time til he or she sins against another Christian. And third, the Christian who was sinned against often reacts sinfully to the one who sinned, resulting in division in the body of Christ. These, my brothers and sisters are the unadulterated, premeditated schemes of Satan. Every time we fail to act, the enemy exploits us. Separation is the name of his designs. The Christian separates himself in his fellowship from God because of sin. And then separation in his fellowship from his spiritual siblings are sure to follow. So, what is the cure? Put into use the powerful weapon of spiritual warfare: church discipline. So, let me take a couple of minutes to remind us of what it is about. Again, the Lord Jesus commanded us to engage in church discipline. We are to take care of sin in our midst. We are children of a holy, holy, holy God. And we are to increasingly reflect his holiness. That means that we must take care of sin when it rears its ugly head. Jesus said, "if you love me, keep my commandments." He also said, "love one another." Love means we take the fangs of the serpent out of our spiritual flesh, even though it is going to be painful. When sin rears its ugly head, Galatians 6:1-2 tells us how we need to deal with it: Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. A spiritually controlled Christian needs to make the first move, in love toward the sinning brother or sister. It needs to be done gently. It needs to be done in a spirit of "I am not immune to your sin. I am just as capable of sinning this very same sin as you." Then as you help your brother or sister, keep in mind that you are helping him or her to bear his or her burden. How often has this happened to you? You and a fellow Christian are having fellowship. You notice that your brother, your sister is troubled. You simply ask, "What is wrong?" And the story gushes out. You say nothing. But you are actively there with your brother or sister. You offer very few words. And after a time, you hear something like, "you have helped me so much! Thank you!" See, ministry in large measure simply means that you and I are just there. Engaging in the privilege of helping them bear their burdens. Now, when it comes to a sinning brother or sister, the sin must be dealt with. And it is not fun. As we have been saying throughout this message, sin is painful. But for the sake of the body of Christ, we must help our brother, our sister, deal with it. And how do we do that? The bottom line, whether the sin is individual or corporate, the sin must be named-confessed, and repented of. Again, we are talking about actual sin. Actual violations of Scripture. Not personality conflicts. Not differences of opinion. Violations of Scripture. When the violation has happened, and confession is made, then forgiveness needs to take place. And here is where I think many of us need a bigger picture. Let me give us, or remind us of what it is. First, forgiveness does not require emotions. Forgiveness is a money term. It literally means, "to release one of the debt." When I sin against someone, I break their heart. Imagine an exquisite piece of crystal. Delicate. Beautiful. One of a kind in the world. Priceless. This crystal represents a human heart. When I sin against someone, the crystal heart I hold in my hand falls to a marble floor. Shatters into a thousand pieces. A question. Is there any way I can put the crystal heart back together the way it was, even if I have all the pieces? So, what to do? I have said that your crystal heart is the only one in the world. Is there any amount of money that can give you to purchase a new one? No. Whether through carelessness or deliberate smashing, I now owe you an infinite debt. What is now the only thing that can be done? Well, you could demand of me that I work for the rest of my days to try to make up for it, but never being able to do that. You could make light of it and say, "no big deal." And now with the hole in your soul, you will try to fill it with something, anything. But nothing ever quite fits. And for the rest of your days, you are on a search to find something that fits. Or you could cancel my debt. You could write across my bill, "canceled. You owe me nothing." Now, you live with the consequences of the broken heart that I gave you. But you no longer demand that I pay you back. And since you have canceled my debt, you are coming to grips with the loss and are not trying to find something to fit the hole. Though painful, that's what forgiveness looks like. You might be saying, "that's impossible. I could never do that. I might be able to forgive once. But I cannot keep canceling the debt over and over." You are right. You cannot. But Jesus can in you. See, Jesus' payment on the cross for our sin is a complete payment. And we look to him to fill the hole in our soul. We rely on him to give us the ability to cancel the debt. Over and over again. This is what happens every day in the so-called re-education camps in North Korea and even China. In the midst of the pain, our brothers and sisters continually cry out to the Lord and receive from him what they need every time their heart get shattered. They cancel the debt that others owe them. Because Jesus has canceled their debt. And here's how it looks in practical terms. Forgiveness is a transaction. When I need to forgive someone, the other person asks, "can you find it in your heart to forgive?" And if I say, "Yes, I forgive you," I have entered into an agreement to never talk to you about the issue again. If I need to talk about it, after I have obeyed the command to forgive, who do I talk to? Yep. The Lord. I don't complain to others. I pour out my soul to the Lord. One other thing. Forgiveness does not require forgetfulness. Many people say, "I can forgive but I can't forget." No problem if we remember that forgiveness is an agreement to never bring up the issue again and trust the Lord for strength to heal our heart. Then what is left? I now love that person, remembering that love is a verb. Do love to the person you forgave. When forgiveness takes place, then restoration happens in church discipline. We restore the one who is forgiven by accepting him or her back into the fellowship. But now there is a difference between restoring a person to a certain place of ministry and accepting them back. For example, if I as your pastor ever commit adultery, as in I am with another women in a sexual relationship, I am finished as a pastor. I have become disqualified to serve as a pastor again. Though I am a Christian, I can no longer serve as a pastor. Finally there's a difference between forgiveness and trust. Trust, once lost takes a long time to build back. But it's built on the foundation of forgiveness. I'll never forget it. There was a man I dealt with who was living a double life. I worked with him for months and he finally revealed his sin. I asked him to step down from his ministry position. Through tears church discipline was done. This man confessed and repented of his sin and to this day his life is doing well and his relationships are restored. But after I asked him to step down, to my amazement he and his family stayed in the church. They did not leave. One day I asked him how it was that he was able to stay around. He told me, "what you did to me showed me that you love me. We can't leave. This church is our family." And with that, Satan's premeditated scheme was thwarted if only for one fellowship. For one family. For a time. But the battle continues to rage. Because the powerful weapon of spiritual warfare, church discipline was exercised, we were able to outwit Satan in that one scenario. Because we exercised church discipline, the Devil was defeated, if only for a time. Let's continue to take the battle to the enemy by dusting off and using this powerful weapon of warfare, lest the Devil outwit us. Let's love one another enough, let's care enough to confront one another when needed. And let's be lightning quick to forgive and give one another every benefit of the doubt, for love never gives up.