His life and ministry is characterized by love and forgiveness pt1
2 Cor: 2:1-8 · Roger Henderson · Feb 19, 2017
2 Corinthians (2017), No. 07
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926172551499

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, this morning, we're going to start in chapter 2. The original outline that we had talked about focused on Paul's ministry, and that's really a good part of what you see here. His ministry was largely to the Corinthian church. In studying for this, I came across some people that believe that the Corinthian church, even though probably the church that caused Paul the greatest personal I don't know what to say.

Grief. Right. Sorrow. Actually we're going to talk about sorrow almost exclusively today. Or grief. Was actually the one that Paul, you know, he really identified with that church. He really, when they hurt, he hurt, and so on. So he just really invested so much of his care and concern for that church.

So, let's go ahead here and, actually let me get my drink here beforehand. Could someone read, The first eight verses in chapter two. I was going to say read it off the overhead, but I've got to get the overhead going here. Let's see here. Actually, I've got to do one more thing. I should have done this before. So someone can read the first eight verses in chapter two.

But I determined this for my own sake, and I would not come to you in sorrow again, for if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful? This is the very thing I wrote to you, so that when I came to you, I would not have sorrow. I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice, having confidence in affliction and anguish of heart. I wrote to you with many tears, not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might like to know the love which I have especially for you. But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree, and in order not to say too much to all of you.

Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority. So that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him." Do you count how many times sorrow comes up in this passage? So we're going to see it kind of breaks this passage.

You know before Paul was kind of accused earlier in chapter 1. He was accused of vacillating. You know you're yes and no. You're changing your mind from their perspective. But Paul's going to say He's going to say, he starts off, but I determined, that's the first several words in this, you know, I determined to do this. And he's going to point out that this is for their sake and that he loves them, he cares for them. But there was much sorrow in all his interactions with the Corinthian church. And he's going to explain part of some of his rationale for that. So we're going to see, so in this first section here, In the first four verses, we're going to see Paul talks about sorrow in at least three ways.

About avoiding sorrow, causing sorrow, and feeling sorry. Actually, what I did, I did it on your handout too, I underlined the places where that kind of shows up. It said, I would not come to you in sorrow again. I cause you sorrow. I made sorrowful. I would not have you sorrow. And then lastly, you would be made sorrowful. And there's a negative on that. So you would not be made sorrowful. So he's going to talk about, in the word sorry, we're going to see his grief. So Paul had a lot of emotional investment, if you will, in the Corinthian church.

And we're also going to see, as we go through here, so the first four verses are going to focus on the body there in Corinth. But the second four verses through eight are going to focus on a particular person, an unnamed person. As I studied through this, at first I didn't see it or understand it, but as time went on and I looked at some of the translations and stuff and looked at some commentators, it became clear that most likely the person that's mentioned in the last four verses is this one who was the offender in chapter five. There was incest in that church and they didn't deal with it.

And Paul was very hard, came down very hard. We're going to read that passage again in chapter 5. He's very hard on that, it seemed like. We're going to see now that apparently time has passed and he's going to say, well, you know, you've dealt with that, now it's time to forgive the man. He's apparently He admitted his sin and came before the body and there's restitution. We're going to see Paul talk about how we just don't continue on. This punishment isn't forever.

If the person responds to that, then we should forgive him and love him and care for him. That's going to be shown in the last four verses. So it's kind of an interesting section. The first four deal with the body, the entire body and his dealings with them. The last four deal with this particular person. It's not named. Not everyone fully believes it's the man of 1 Corinthians 5, but it seems like a strong case can be made for that.

So let's go on. But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again. So he determined it's to resolve, to decree, It is used in that sense in a couple of places. In some cases, you can determine things that don't seem very significant. Let's turn to Acts 20. Could someone read that verse?

Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost. Right, so you see here, the word decided here is the same as in our passage. This is a pretty straightforward kind of situation. I mean, he desired to be in Jerusalem for the day of the Passover, so he arranged his plans. I mean, we all make decisions about where we'll be and where we'll not be.

But of course, with Paul being an apostle, his decisions that he made impacted the people. He would either not be with them for a time period, or he would be with them. So that impacted the people. Apparently the Corinthians were upset about Paul's making decisions about when he visited and when he didn't visit them. He is going to show them that this is for their best interest. That he didn't come to them maybe as often or at this particular time. He is going to show that was for their best interest.

It may not seem that way, but it was. You can kind of think about it. I was kind of thinking about it. You know, we choose to, we make decisions in our life. Well, should I go here, should I go there, should I visit this person? Maybe have some people in your lives, you know, that you have that are dear friends. Some maybe that are not quite as friendly, but you still feel that you want to comfort them. And maybe there's something in the past that you've had, so maybe you might postpone that visit and do it on a better day. Maybe you felt better, or they felt better, or you do it just on that kind of thinking.

And Paul in here says, I don't want you to be sorrowful when I come. I say, oh, you again? You've got to calm down. I'm not going to go back there again. There's very much a human element in this. Paul says, I'm not going to come to you because I don't have good things to talk with you about. Sometimes you withhold that. Like with children, sometimes you talk with your children over and over again and you say, I can't do it another time. It's just too much. Maybe I should just back off and let them think about it.

That's kind of what you're going to see here in this passage. So, and then you'll see in other passages there, there's more, there's more decisions, you know, basically about, to knowing Christ is a wonderful passage in 1 Corinthians 2, 2, 4, I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, that's, that's a really fantastic decision. I want to know Christ. I want to understand Him. And, you know, and that's, that's another one of Paul's wonderful statements about interaction with Christ.

So somewhere on, maybe not a super important level, but we all make decisions and Paul is saying, I made a decision, I determined, and he's going to go on. And he says it's for my own sake, which seems a little bit, at first you just read that, say for my own sake, it seems kind of selfish possibly, but other translations have it, literally it's in myself or of myself, Like I try to do, I try to look and see if there is another passage that might clarify how that word is used.

I'll just read a couple here. Those two that are mentioned there. I did not even consider myself worthy is one. I put myself, I examine myself. What Paul is saying, he struggled with this and it was basically he had to determine that within himself and it was an aspect for himself, but it's not a selfish aspect, I don't think. That I would not come to you in sorrow again.

So we're going to see sorrow. Sorrow is used here a bunch of times. There's a noun form, which is this form right here. Signifies pain of the body or mind, grief, sorrow. There are plenty of places in Scripture where you can find sorrow. I have two listed there. Let's just look at the one in Romans here. Let's read Romans 9 verses 1-3. It's turned right to it.

I'm telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."

So boy, that's a pretty incredible statement. But you can see there's great emotion with this Corinthian church. Paul is very involved and we see the heart of Paul that he cares for the ministry that he has, the people that God has given him to shepherd. And so he's pouring out his heart in these passages it seems like. So he says he's not going to come to them again in sorrow. And another translation, not to grieve you. Grieve is an alternate word for sorrow here. Grieve you with another painful and distressing visit.

So by not coming to them, it seems like if you believe this passage fits in well with 1 Corinthians 5 about the incestuous relationship in that church and all the problems that cause, and that Paul had to correct them. Maybe he wanted to give them time to think through that and think, well, we should have recognized this early on and not been so boastful.

We're going to read that they were still going on merrily, not thinking anything. There's no problem. And Paul says, no, there's a problem in your body of believers. You need to deal with that. So it seems like sometimes maybe Paul might have not gone there because he gave them time for repentance. We see that theme throughout Scripture a lot.

God is patient with us. He's not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance. So, God is patient and we as believers have to walk with Him. You know, as the Lord directs us, we may be patient too, and patient with other believers.

And that may involve not showing up, like I said, because you know what's going to happen. You know the dialogue. Like at work sometimes, you know what's going to... If you say, they'll say that, and you think, I don't want to go down that path. I know where this has led before. Maybe it's best we just don't have those words.

Sometimes it's for the best. And another time when they're open and they want to hear it, then it's time for those words. Very practical stuff in these verses. Any thoughts on this first verse? We'll just carry on here. It says, For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the ones whom I made sorrowful? So, in this case, sorrow, it's the active voice of that.

It means the subject is producing the action. We're going to see that in just a second there. And it's basically, if is assumed to be true. And this is going to be, okay, we looked at the, let's go back here. Sorry, we looked at the noun form here. This is going to be the verb form. And the verb form has two possibilities. That's the reason I put active up there.

In the first case of the verb, the subject is producing the action. Paul says, if I cause you sorrow. It is assumed to be true. He was causing them sorrow. That doesn't mean that was a bad thing. That was a good thing. He wanted to correct them, but that produced sorrow. In the second case, in the passive voice, it means that you are that you're receiving. The subject produces the action, in this case the subject receives the action in the passive voice. To be grieved, to be made sorry.

So I had a couple passages there, I'm not sure we have to read. In this particular, I have so many passages, I'm not sure we can do them all, but let me just see here. I think we probably can just skip those. We're going to get to verse 5 in a little bit.

And he says in verse 7-8, later on, he says, For though I caused you sorrow, by my letter, basically he explains why that was for their good. So this is an interesting thing. He realizes that he may cause them sorrow, but he loves them, he cares for them.

He says, Isn't it ironic, so to speak, for if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one who I made sorrowful? He wants to be happy and he wants to be encouraged by them and be glad by them. So he says, I did cause you sorrow, but then who makes me glad? He's glad when he sees them walking with the Lord, trusting the Lord, doing what the Lord had them do. So that's the bottom part. Who then makes me glad, cheers me, is another translation, but the one whom I, Paul, made sorrowful. So, like I said, it seems contradictory at first, but he wanted a relationship that was profitable and that would build each other up. And he wanted to be cheered and encouraged by them.

Okay, so that's verse 2. And verse 3 is... So now it seems like he's going to refer... This is the very thing I wrote to you. So this seems like he's referring here He made the statements in verses 1 and 2 that he determined not to come to them. And he says, basically, that for if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad? And he says, well, you know, I kind of covered this topic before in verse 3. This is the very thing I wrote to you.

So it seems like that's speaking about some other letter possibly between 1st Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians, and that seems to be the case. Most people believe that there is at least another letter between, maybe even a fourth letter. We only have two of the four letters, it seems like.

So then, when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice. So once again, this is kind of a repeat of 2. He wants to have joy and encouragement from one another. And that's what we desire. Like I said, it's pretty much a downer. If you went to somebody's house and they said, well, there you are again. We're going to have our same old discussion. The same old issues are going to pop up. You probably wouldn't be too encouraged or too likely to come back again, right? Now if that was something you had to go to, if it was your job, that might be a different story. Or if it's your spouse or your children. We all have those situations where I have to go back to them. So Paul's trying to deal with this and he's pointing out that he has joy with these people that make me rejoice. I might not be myself pained by those who are the very ones who ought to make me glad. So he doesn't want to be pained by them.

And then basically the last part is having confidence and it's in the perfect tense. And the perfect tense remember is this tense that it's a past completed action with a binding result so it's saying that I had confidence in the past in you, Corinthians.

I had confidence in the Corinthian church in the past, and that's continuing on. Because of this problem, my confidence has not changed. I still have confidence in you. It goes on in the present and then on into the future. I have confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. So that's a pretty amazing statement, given the fact that there's this ongoing dialogue with these Corinthians, and he has had to correct them. But he says, I still have confidence that my joy would be the joy of you all. And so I have a few verses there that kind of talk about confidence.

And what's interesting is that Paul, and I'll ask the question, is Paul I think I've already kind of given it away, but I'll just say this. What should our confidence be with other believers? Let's just reverse and see if you catch on to what I'm talking about here. I'm kind of being around the bush trying to make it the answer way.

Can someone read Galatians 5.10? I have 510A, but let's just read the whole thing.

Galatians 5.10.

And you realize you get extra points, you know, when you read. At least with me you do. I have confidence in you and the Lord that you will adopt no other means, but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. That gives me two points. Do you notice the very first part? I have confidence in you in the Lord.

That's why I was trying to ask that question. I couldn't ask it without giving the answer. I love you guys all, and I have confidence in you, but really, my confidence in you has to be in the fact that you have Christ living in you, right? That's what he's saying.

I have confidence. You have confidence in another believer because you know Christ's life is in them. Now, they may not act in accordance with that, but at least they have Christ's life within them, and so you think, wow, there's a possibility here. They have Christ's life. And that's where his confidence comes from. So I think he's basically, he has confidence in the Lord in them. So that's what I was trying to get to. I was kind of beating around the bush there a little bit. But you kind of see my point there. Let's just see if we have another part. That's basically it.

So basically, he talks about the letter he wrote to him, apparently between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. And he talks about, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice. And then he says, I have confidence in the Lord in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. So we'll go on.

So the first part of 4, For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears. So he's kind of explaining the difficulty he had in writing them these multiple times. So let's just look at a couple of words here. He talks about, for out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you.

So affliction is this word that is pressing in. The guys who were here when Hal Malloy was here, he loves to draw pictures. And he drew a picture of this word. This word for affliction, or pressure, or tribulation. Does anybody remember the picture? Of course I've studied it so I can remember the picture pretty easily. I'm asking you guys to remember it, not having done that. He tried to picture this and it comes through the idea of a pressing. Have you ever felt, and maybe you are now, is there a situation that seems to be pressing in or constraining you? That's what this word is about.

He had a vise. Hal drew a picture of a vise with a guy's head. It's kind of pressing in on his head. Not too pretty. Maybe his whole body. I've forgotten whether it's his whole body or just his head. But he tried to picture this word. I kind of keep that in mind. It's a pressing in. But there's just a fantastic verse that uses that word in a way that's very encouraging. So let's look at Romans. Let's see, do I have it on there? Yeah, Romans 5. Let's turn to Romans 5. Could someone read 3-5? Verses 3-5 and Romans 5.

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations.

Knowing that tribulations bring about perseverance. And perseverance, proven character. And proven character, hope. And hope does not disappoint. Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Thank you. That's wonderful.

Well, if you look here, In verse 3 you'll see it says, not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulation. And that's our word. That's our word for affliction. It's this philipsis. It's this pressure. It says we rejoice in that. And we can't rejoice in that of ourselves, right? It has to be in the Lord. And we rejoice in that because we know something.

Knowing that the tribulation brings about perseverance. Perseverance brings about proven hope and proven character hope. And hope does not disappoint. because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So God realizes, and Paul realizes too, that he would have affliction.

But he states, I'm having this pressure, this feeling of pressure on me because of you Corinthians. And not only pressure, I have this anguish. So we have two things that aren't too good going on in his relationship with them. It's the idea of distress or disquieting. In the verse I have there, we don't have to turn to it, it kind of talks about the second coming of Christ. There will be dismay on the earth among all the nations, the unsaved ones.

So Paul was undergoing anguish, this pressing feeling in, and this anguish. And it was with many tears. Then we go on. And the Amplified version has it, For I wrote to you out of great sorrow and deep distress, with a mental torment and anxiety of heart, yes, and with many tears. So now he says that, but then he's going to give him the rest of the story, so to speak.

Not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. Clarifying his actions here and he does this through this whole first part. He's clarifying his actions my actions Even though I've had sorrow with you with our interactions, even though I didn't want to have sorrow. I want to have joy I want to be encouraged and cheered up and I know Situations, you know, I basically I need to do that but my purpose my bottom line was the last part of four not so that you would be made sorrowful and but that you might know the love which I have for you." So Paul again is saying that his writings were not to make the Corinthians church sorrowful.

They might know the love which I have especially for you. Think about that with our family members and children. How many times have you told your children, I'm doing this because I love you? That's a toughie. You have to even examine yourself. Sometimes I say, am I really doing that because I love you, or did I just get so upset with you that I'm doing it?

I'm not saying it's a perfect science. We all, as parents, or not everyone, but ones that have had that privilege, I have told people, Being a godly spouse and being a godly father or mother, those are the two greatest and most difficult things on this earth that I've come across. You can have all kinds of jobs. Maybe if you're president. I don't know. I'm not going to get into that. For most normal folks, the relationship with your spouse and the relationship with your children are the greatest joy. but sometimes the most difficult situations. And Paul, he sees these as his children in his ministry.

But that you might know the love which I have especially for you. And might know is this word gnosko. It's the know of taking in knowledge, you're learning, you're recognizing, you're understanding. He wants them to understand and to recognize His love for them. I have a few verses that kind of talk about that. One is in Ephesians. I can read this one. To know the love of Christ, basically, and then there's one that you may know about this. come to understand about us.

So Paul desired that they know and understand his love. I think by his actions and by his words. Especially for you, literally it's more abundantly towards you. So especially it's more the idea of abundance, not so much maybe singling it out. It's more an abundance of this love for you. This is the first section we've covered. This is talking to the Corinthian church. Now he's going to zoom in on a particular person in the Corinthian church. Any thoughts about these first four verses? If not, we'll just go ahead and go to the next section.

In verses 5-8, Paul will address an unnamed person, and he refers to him as, He, such, such a one, or him, who caused sorrow in the Corinthian church. Now, one thing I underlined, underline any, he, such a one, him, now him's added, that's not in the text, but it's added for clarity. Such a one, and him at the bottom here again. So he talked about the church in general, now he's going to kind of zoom in on a particular person. But if any has caused you sorrow, and we're going to see any is this indefinite pronoun.

I'm not a great grammarian. I have to utilize the tools and fortunately what's wonderful is I can, you know, and most of the help, this is pretty easy, you wouldn't have much problem as a pronoun, but if you're wondering how do we get to know some of these things, somebody, some godly person, hopefully, has taken the time to go through the text in the original language, and this is a verb, this is a noun, this is a pronoun, and they've made it easy for us so I can go on my computer and say, oh, I wonder what that part of speech of that word is, oh, it's a verb, and so it's very helpful. So I'm just saying this is not something that I, I wish I could take the Greek text and do that, and some can. I haven't been able to do that, but I'm thankful for the helps that we have.

So that's an indefinite pronoun, any. If any has caused sorrow, in this case this is the verb form, and it's in the perfect tense. So once again, this person caused sorrow in the past, he continues to cause sorrow in the present. and it apparently is continuing on.

I think that's part of the reason why Paul wants to kind of, let's close this off. Let's address this person. Let's interface with this person. Let's forgive him and let's go on. He doesn't want this, he wants to terminate this perfect tense, if you will, in my mind. He wants, that has caused sorrow and is continuing on. He doesn't want that to continue on forever.

And sometimes, have you seen it happen in life? There's been a few occasions where I've hurt someone and I don't think I'll ever be able to resolve that in my lifetime. I mourn that. I say, Lord, my big mouth, why did I say that or why didn't I say this or whatever. But Paul wants him to address this about this person and he wants to have it finished and done with. He doesn't want it to go on. But as someone, the one among you who committed innocence has caused all this grief and pain.

So what's interesting is this particular translation This is the Amplified Bible. I'm kind of a fan of that. There are several Bibles I like. The Weiss translation I like and the Amplified. I'm not trying to sell Bibles here. And then the American Standard. Those are the three that I use.

So they believe pretty strongly that there is a connection between this indefinite pronoun and the rest of the text in 2 Corinthians 2, to warn naming who that someone is. Others are not quite as confident in doing that. Now, at this point, let's read about this person that's alluded to. Could someone read 1 Corinthians 5, verses 1-7?

And we covered this last year, so I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time, but just kind of refresh your memory. It is actually reported that there is immorality among you. An immorality of such a kind does not exist even among the Gentiles that someone has his father's wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned, it is said, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed. from your midst.

How far do you go? I go through seven. For I on my part though absent in body but present in spirit have already judged him who had so committed this as though I were present in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you were assembled and I with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus I have decided to deliver such a one flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens a whole lump of dough? Clean out the old level so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleveled. For Christ, our Passover, also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, with a level of malice and wickedness, but with the unlovable bread of sincerity and truth. Thank you, thank you so much.

Okay, so you see this addresses the case where they had Paul, he was very harsh, very harsh words in here, and we're going to see some other parts, but this is the connectivity So when we see this person not named, it seems to be referring to this person that was judged by the majority. And Paul judged him too. And they put him out of the church. But it seems like now the time has passed and there is a time for restoration, if you will. So now starting in verse 5, Paul will now give additional instructions concerning this man of 1 Corinthians 5.

But if any has caused you sorrow, he has caused you sorrow, not to me, but in some degree, in order not to say too much to all of you. And this last part is a tough one. I'll give you what I think it says. He has caused sorrow, not to me, The Amplified has, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in some measures, not to put it too severely, he has distressed all of you. So in this passage you see he has caused sorrow appears twice and in both cases is in perfect tense. So in this case, what's interesting is, Paul is saying here, he has caused sorrow not to me. So it seems like, and I struggle with it, he's spent all this time telling us about how he cares for the body of Christ at Corinth. But he's kind of making a distinction, it seems like. This is what kind of occurred to me. A person in our body, since we are the local body of Christ, we affect one another. When one has a problem, we all have a problem. So we're in it together. Paul, being an outsider, even though he identified with that church, he's saying he's somewhat removed from that.

And that bothered me a little bit because he spent all this time telling me how he cares and loves for him, but then he says, no, it really hurts you more. It hurts you more than it does me, is what he's kind of saying. He says, he's caused sorrow, not to me, but in some degree, in order not to say too much to all of you. A hard passage to kind of sift through, but it seems like he says, in this case, is more hurtful to your body than it is to me personally.

And I can kind of see that, because he had many other churches and many other things. He says, it hurts me, it pains me for your body to be in this distress, but that guy personally is not as offensive as he is to your body of your believers. Because he's affecting your body of believers. When that man sinned in that body, that affected the whole body.

So I think that's what's being said here. So that's my attempt at that. So now, from 6, 7, and 8, he's going to say, OK, enough is enough. I'm not sure how much time has passed. He says, sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority. So he's going to say, sufficient is the idea of enough, the idea of meaning enough. He seeks the determination of this punishment. If you listen to Macaulay, I know some of us do here, sometimes he'll have a printed version available and this one he does not so you have to listen. This is one of the things I picked up from what he said.

Discipline should be terminated when its purpose is served. It's like with your children. You know, if they do something wrong, you talk on them being wrong, you punish them, and then you hug them, you love them. You say, that's done with? Okay, you shouldn't have done that, and we can go on. My love hasn't changed with you, but you've been punished for whatever it's been.

So what this person here, he's saying, well, okay, sufficient for this one, the punishment has been sufficient, and it's a very severe punishment. He was put out of the church. and they were not to have contact with him. So that's a pretty severe punishment.

So then I quoted this, we've just read this, probably the key thing here is that it was inflicted, as I say down here, we see it was inflicted by the majority and if you look in verse 4 here, when you are assembled, so the majority of the body at Corinth participated both in the in the punishment of this person and in the restoration of this person. So that's another reason for thinking of this connection between 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2. The majority and when you're all assembled. And there's a few other things too that kind of show that.

So now in 7, so that, with the purpose set, so that on the contrary, instead of further rebuke now, the Amplified has it, You should rather forgive and comfort him. So the punishment has been executed. That's done. Now we're to move on. You should rather forgive. So we have forgive and comfort. The core part of forgive is charis. So to grace this person. The root is grace or charis. And there's just so many passages that talk about forgiveness and that kind of thing. So let's just see here, which ones I want to talk about here for a second.

Yeah, like in Ephesians 4.32, And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

And then in Colossians 3.13, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, and it goes on, just as the Lord forgave you. So, we're to remember that we've been forgiven, and so we should be willing to forgive others. Once restoration, once their punishment is finished, we should go on and forgive them. He's admonishing this body of Corinth to forgive this person, and then secondly, to comfort them, to aid them, to encourage them. I have some verses with that, like, Basically, comfort your heart, encourage your heart. So he desires that this body of believers, the punishment has been sufficient.

Now we're to go on and comfort and forgive him. And then he kind of gives a warning here. And the warning is, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. There's going to be a parallel here in just a second, but he doesn't want it to continue such that this person is ostracized. Once he's been punished and once restoration has occurred, he wants to go on.

I think that's kind of a good thing to see. So, overwhelmed is this idea, kind of a very picturesque word. Swallowed up. And we see that in some really neat verses. The idea of being overwhelmed. Death is swallowed up in victory. And then 2 Corinthians 5.4. So that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. So it's a pretty picturesque word. But you can kind of see, here's another one that you could draw a picture of. Being overwhelmed or just deluged by, with excessive. Excessive is more than enough over and above. Weiss translates it possibly such a person may be swallowed up with his excessive grief.

So Paul is trying to prevent that. So I saw a parallel here and let's just turn to Colossians. I'll read this Colossians chapter 3. You all know this verse but let's just look at it. Colossians chapter 3. In Colossians chapter 3, there is a set of verses here that talk about the wives, the husbands, the children, and it talks about the fathers.

It says, Fathers, do not exasperate your children, that they may lose heart. So the idea of exasperate is basically very close to this word of being overwhelmed, but it is the same idea. Paul warns about Going beyond that, once the punishment is there, it ends.

You don't carry it on. And the idea that they won't lose heart. And he doesn't want this person here in 1 Corinthians 5 to be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow. How may I be the definition of mental illness? Just continue. I think that probably happens more than we might think. Something happens in a person's life. Maybe they lose their job. That's the end of that. I remember having a guy at work who got laid off. He was kind of an interesting guy. He was very bright, but kind of unusual. He was there for many years.

Sheryl doesn't know the person, but anyway. Sheryl and I worked together for a while. That's why I said she doesn't know him. Anyway, after he was laid off, he called me one day and he was bemoaning all the reasons why he shouldn't have been laid off. I could see some of it. I wasn't responsible for that. I just knew about it. I wouldn't say he was in excessive sorrow, but he was hurting because of that.

He seemed like, well, that's the only job I can have in life. The only job I can have is working for Raytheon. I said, well, no, there's other jobs in life. That's not the only job. You can do other things. I never got very far with this gentleman. He called me a couple of times. I talked with him. He wasn't a believer, I don't think. It was just interesting. People can be overwhelmed by their situations. His mind, if I can't have the job I have with Raytheon, then I can't work. So he lived at home with his mother. I thought, that's not your poor mother. I felt for her.

You should be going to work. Get out there and work. Let's go on here. The last verse is, Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. urge is to admonish, to exhort, to pursue a course of action in the present tense. So he's urging them to show their love, to demonstrate their love for him. Reaffirm, to establish, to validate their love for him, you could say. So Uist has it. Wherefore, I beg of you, please confirm publicly and solemnly by judicial decree, that's the idea, that's kind of reaffirmed, kind of being translated, your love for him.

So Paul's trying to bring an end to the, so we kind of see that first Corinthians started with this awful situation in the body. The body dealt with it. The person was punished, put out of the church, but some time has passed. Now Paul's admonishing them to make it right, to love this person. So I think it's a good picture of the whole cycle of difficulties within the body of Christ. And not all resolve is this way. Sometimes a person never comes back. He leaves and you never see him again. So in that case, this can't happen. But if it happens right, then you can show your love and you can be forgiving of that person.

So it's kind of a neat section. We're going to see a little bit more next week along that line. Any thoughts or questions? Hopefully it hasn't been too... I think actually it's kind of neat. I mean it's really kind of cool that this is one of the cases we get to see something occurring in one part of scripture and then kind of resolved in another part. We don't see that too often. Gary?

In verse 5 it says, in order not to say too much, did you come across any Thoughts on that or chatter? Well, I looked at that and the phraseology is interesting. It's almost like, well, I don't want to say any more than this. To prevent gossiping? I wonder about that.

He doesn't want to say too much. He's just saying, it hurts you, it hurts the body at Corinth of this man having the sin, the sinful action in your body, that it does me. He says, I'm a little bit removed from that. It doesn't hurt me, but it hurts you a lot and it affected you a lot. So I think it's sort of like you might say, well, I could tell you more, but I really don't need to tell you more.

Please pray for that. You know, sometimes you don't need to give them all the details. You ask them to please pray for this situation. Sure. Okay. Well, let's close now. We thank you, Father. We thank you so much, Lord, for our time today, Father. Thank you for the blessings we have, Lord. Thank you for your word, Lord, that's just so practical and tells us about You know, Paul has, he just kind of bears his heart and he cared so much for these people and it wasn't just a light, a light thing. It affected him deeply and we have those situations too, Lord. We pray just for us trusting you and believing what you've promised in your word, Father. In Christ's name, Amen.