July 30, 2010, 2 Corinthians 2

KEY VERSE:

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 2:10-11)

CENTRAL TRUTH:

Don’t let Satan deceive you.

SATAN WILL TRY TO DESTROY YOU

Paul writes to the church about the need for discipline and forgiveness. An individual had committed some sin against the church at Corinth. The Corinthians had subsequently disciplined the individual. As a result, the individual in question repented. Like some churches today, the Corinthian congregation was a church of extremes. When the church was pushed by Paul to discipline, the church went too far and punished with a vengeance.

Paul is telling the Corinthians to chillax. Just as Paul had forgiven others in the sight of Christ, the Corinthians needed to forgive and forget. The Corinthians need to stop punishing this person and encourage them. Discipline can go beyond being used as strictly punitive.

Satan can take advantage of the discipline process to alienate a person from the church or even from Christianity. Satan takes an unforgiving, overly legalistic attitude to sow division and dissension in the church. Remember John 10:10a says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

I am a member of a men’s bible study that I helped start 7 years ago. We have been faithfully meeting every Thursday for lunch and a lesson. Our teacher has been a Sunday school teacher at his church for over 20 years. His grandfather started the class and taught it for years. His father took over the class when the grandfather retired. Upon the unexpected death of his father, our teacher took over teaching the class. The three generations of teachers have taught this class for over 50 years. I believe our teacher has more biblical knowledge than anyone I have ever met.

In 2007, he committed a boneheaded sin against our group. While the outside world doesn’t know or care what happened, we were deeply disappointed in this individual. We did not know how to proceed initially. A member of our group brought these verses to our attention. We spent the next 3 weeks in prayer, asking God to guide us. All along we were acutely aware of the fact that Satan was ready to pounce on this situation. We did what we felt like God was leading us to do. We rebuked the teacher. He repented to the group and asked for our forgiveness. After a certain period of time, he was reinstated as the teacher. Since reassuming his teaching duties, he seems like a new person…reinvigorated and on fire for the Lord.

Overdiscipline could have provided Satan with just the foothold into our group that he coveted. I am so thankful that a member of our group was led to read these verses. It would have been so easy for Satan to have destroyed our group.

Don’t let Satan deceive you. He will use anything and everything he can to drive a wedge between you and the Church.