I was happy with this tee shot 🙂

To Forgive or not Forgive
2 Corinthians 2 

There’s an important section on forgiveness in this chapter. Apparently, there was a man in the church who was willfully sinning. Perhaps it was the man in I Corinthians 5 whom Paul told the church they must deal with rather than overlooking his sin. I Cor 5:1,2 says “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has His father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.” That was then…from I Corinthians. 

Forgive fully??? 

Now, in 2 Corinthians, it appears that the church followed Paul’s guidance, and together they appropriately confronted the sinner. Eventually, the sinning brother repented and sought to come back under the care of the church. So, the Corinthian church was dealing with the question of accepting the man back or not. Should they welcome him back just because he has repented? After all, this was a horrendous and willful sin. Paul writes, “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 a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow,” 2 Cor 2:6,7. The majority (the people of the church) dished out the punishment, i.e., removal from the church. Appropriately, the Christian community said to this man who claimed to be a Christian, ‘if, as a Christian, you are unrepentant of your willful and open sin, then you are not welcome in our fellowship.’ It may sound harsh, but it is the biblical approach (Matthew 18:18ff). It is to be done in love to shake up the sinning Christian and bring about repentance.  

In this case, it seems it worked, and Paul is saying welcome him back. Forgive him fully. Don’t continue to remind him of his past sins. Don’t hold it over him. Help him overcome his excessive guilt and sorrow. Verse 8 says, “Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.”  

Forgive completely??? 

Today, the church doesn’t do well on this. I don’t do well on this. We tend not to be good on either side of the situation. We don’t appropriately confront open sin among Christians in the first place and we don’t forgive very well either. There is too much gossip and finger pointing about past sins. If a repentant Christian has a sinful past, are they really forgiven and welcomed in our churches without feeling condemned or often reminded? Lord, may we be more like you. You have been much offended by us, but you have also forgiven us COMPLETELY. May we follow your example. Teach us to forgive. Amen.