August 12, 2017
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 2 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Corinthians 2 (ESV)
For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? 3 And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. 4 For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
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. 6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 10 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, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs… Continue Reading
*If you click “Continue Reading”, you will leave this page and navigate to “bible.com” where you can read the rest of the chapter. Be sure to come back to this page to share what God has revealed to you by commenting below.
Already registered? Click here to log in.
Not registered? Click here (LHCC members only)
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life
When I read this chapter this morning, I was reminded of a video I saw the other day of Matt Chandler apologizing and asking forgiveness on behalf of himself and the elders of Village Church for the way they had handled church discipline.
Remember in 1 Corinthians, there was a man Paul said to put out of the church not only for the sake of the body, but also for his sake (1 Corinthians 5:1-13). Here in 2 Corinthians, Paul is expressing care for someone (this man? another?) who seems to have been the recipient of some level of church discipline, and who is now at risk of being “overwhelmed with sorrow.” Paul implores the believers at Corinth to be “obedient in everything” (2 Corinthians 2:9) by following the example of Christ: forgiving him, comforting him.
Church discipline is messy and uncomfortable, and tests all of us, in many ways.
Aroma of Christ to God
I had the same thoughts as you Michelle. In this chapter, both the necessity and pain of church discipline, and at the same time the need to express forgiveness and comfort to the repentant.
Paul had a pretty tenuous relationship with this contentious and rebellious Corinthian church. It comes out at the end of chapter 1 and here in chapter 2. Paul trying to find the balance between the authority that it was rightfully his to express and the care he had for them. He did not want to Lord it over them, yet also not let things run amuck. So much so Paul decided not to visit them. He didn’t want to have to grieve them, but sometimes that’s what godly leadership means. He wanted to be a joy to them presumably once they got his point for being hard on them. It is obedience and repentance that makes Christian relationships right as we all bring ourselves under God’s standards. And now that the church discipline encouraged in I Corinthians has had the desired effect (repentance), now mercy can and should be shown.
It is messy, but it is where the balance of truth and grace that Jesus brought to the world is lived out.
And what a vivid picture the aroma of life and the aroma of death is. I think of this when unbelievers seem to have a visceral dislike for me that is unexplained (at least in my understanding) by my actions. It has helped and does help me not be reactionary against them.