The Strategy of Satan and the Victory of Jesus

Forgiveness for the Offender

5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9 Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

The context of chapter 2 is that Paul had some difficult conversations with the Corinthian church about how to handle a brother who was acting immorally.  Quite probably it was the man acting inappropriately with his stepmother, which is spelled out in 1 Corinthians 5.  Paul's first visit to the church involved him having to confront some of these issues which caused some factions in the church.  Some of it brought anger against Paul, especially as he decided to write them a letter and not visit them in person.  In the passage above he returns to the issue and it appears the church had confronted the man who was engaging in sexual immorality.  In this passage we see Paul's pastoral heart and we can learn many things as to how we deal with difficult issues in the church today.  

1. Apparently the majority of the church had disciplined the man, which led to the man admitting his sin.  The first step was the church actually dealt with the matter at hand openly and publicly.  They did not sweep it under the carpet, as can be the temptation with many churches when conflict arises. Unfortunately by avoiding conflict, it causes even more problems in the long run as is the case with any conflict which is avoided.

2. Paul urges them to forgive this person. Why?  Because he is concerned about the man and doesn't want him to be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.  The goal of any church discipline is not to destroy and discourage but to restore the person in their relationship with God and the church.  

3. He asks them to reaffirm their love for this person.  At this point the man needed tenderness and grace.  We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.  While we need to repent of our sin, and sometimes need brothers and sister in Christ to confront us, we all need to be reaffirmed in the grace and love of Christ.  Again the goal of this is restoration back into the body of Christ.  Hopefully with the conflict being dealt with the whole body will be strengthened both toward this man and with the others in the church.

4. Finally, underlying the whole matter is the spiritual warfare going on beneath the surface.  Paul says when we fail to forgive each other we are playing right into Satan's schemes.  The devil's deep desire is to undermine and divide the church.  After all that is when it is most ineffective.  We need to be aware of his schemes equally today.  

We can see how relevant the bible is for us today, and especially note how the apostle Paul as he dealt with this very delicate issue.  It took courage for him to bring up the issue and even more for the Corinthian church to obey what he had asked of them.  But now was the time for restoration.  We would do very well to heed this model in the church, because we deal with the same issues today.  Many churches are split by these matters and in these cases Satan has outwitted us.  And if we do the victory Jesus has already won over sin, death and the power of the devil will be proclaimed in all its power once again!