God Wants Us To Be Nurturing The Habit of Reaffirming Our Love For Our Imperfect Brothers and Sisters
2 Corinthians 2:1-11
(Bulletin statements for Sermon Interaction are at bottom. Notations are throughout sermon)Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to 2 Corinthians 2. I am going to read some portions from chapter one, but 2 Corinthians 2:1-11 is the primary section that I am wanting us to glean some vital truths through this sermon. So look back to 2 Corinthians 1:12. I’ll read from verses 12, 15 and 16, and then from 23 on into chapter 2. Starting from 2 Corinthians 1:12 should give us a good orientation concerning Paul’s contextual flow. Paul says at 1:12,
“1:12 For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves ... toward you. ... 15 In this confidence I intended at first to come to you, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea. ... 23 But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm. 2:1 But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again. 2 For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful? 3 This is the very thing I wrote you, so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. 4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. 5 But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you. 6 Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, 7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. 10 But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 1:12-2:11
Please prepare your heart to learn along with me in this sermon with the theme,
God Wants Us To Be Nurturing The Habit of Reaffirming Our Love For Our Imperfect Brothers and Sisters
[prayer]
Examining Paul’s Holy-Spirit-led interaction with the church in Corinth, brings with it an interesting mix of considerations. We have the combination of looking into a dimly lit picture of a brief moment in history, with the inherent task of figuring out how to understand the imprint left to us of the contextual dramas that occurred among the fledgling church in connection with the apostle Paul. Combined with these things are theological issues. There is also the aspect in which certain points are being argued by Paul. Explanations of Paul’s actions are given. Exhortation, instruction, and rebuke is found all through the letter. There is comfort and encouragement involved. There is much more, but the main point is that we have this kind of mix that God has preserved for our edification; and we are looking into it by the Spirit so that we will glean some principles for our lives. In the mix, we see something emerge for building us up--for changing us--for growing us more into reflecting the image of Christ. It is a pattern which we should live our lives by. What are some things we see? One thing we see is that God wants us to affirm our love for one another. God wants us to lovingly build each other up in our faith. The only way to do this properly, is to purposely recognize our interconnectedness. It is the connection in which each of us is a valuable member of the body of Christ.
But this doesn’t make it easy. Because as we live our lives this way, we will find that sometimes affirming our love for others will require doing things that we do not like very much, like for example, confronting sin which may cause sorrow to the one confronted and corrected. But in whatever we do, the same love for others must also be accompanied by something else. It requires intense personal effort in applying forgiveness and comfort to relieve the sorrow. These are stark principles that we find all through 2 Corinthians. They are stark principles that are woven into the fabric of the section we are studying. All of them have to do with the fact that God wants you and me to be nurturing the habit of reaffirming our love for our imperfect brothers and sisters.
/1/
I want to talk about the first principle. The principle is essentially the fact that God wants you, me, and all of the body of Christ, to be co-workers (co-laborers) under our Lord. But this principle has to do with co-laboring in a certain manner and a certain sense. God wants you, me, and all of the body of Christ to co-labor with one another in building each other up in the joy of our shared salvation. This is what God wants us to do. But in this principle, God also wants us not to do something else. You, me, and every member of the expansive body of Christ, should never try to lord over others. Instead, we should always try to love others by undergirding them in their faith. The goal of your life-ministry is to build-up. So the principle is more simply stated this way; God wants us to co-labor with one another in building each other up in the joy of our shared salvation by undergirding others in their faith without lording over them.
@1 God wants us to co-labor with one another in __________________ ourselves up in the joy of our salvation without _______________ over one another. (building, lording)
I want us to notice some key statements from our passage on this. I am also going to add some revelation from chapter 10. Paul says,
“1:23 ... to spare you [Contextually, Paul means to spare you sorrow. So, to spare you sorrow] I did not come again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; ... 2:2 ... I wrote you, ... having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. 4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful,
[But why? Why did Paul write in sorrow, but not so that the Corinthians would be made sorrowful? The why is important. Notice,]
but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.” 2 Corinthians 1:23-24, 2:2-4
Okay, right there is the “why.” This is what we want to do; We want to minister in such a way that others might know the love which we have especially for them. So be aware of this because we are going to jump over to 2 Corinthians 10:8-9. Notice that Paul explains the same sense when he wrote of,
“8 ... our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, ...
[This is the reason why the Lord gives any authority to His ministers. You and I better be about God’s mandate of building up and not destroying. And something else that we should not do in ministry is what Paul says next,]
9 for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.” 2 Corinthians 10:8-9
I’ll tell you what--there are multitudes of people in our day who call themselves “ministers of God” and they do not even have the apostolic authority that Paul had, and yet they actually do the exact opposite of what the Spirit is directing to do through Paul in just these few simple verses alone. But right now, let’s think about our own selves. Think about when you intermingle with Christians in this world. As you do, you are God’s minister for the moment. The Christians you are with are the same. They are God’s ministers for the moment. What and how we minister is key. But think about the fact that Christians are intermingled among the population of everyone--even the lost. We are social people, and we are in society. This is just the way things typically are--I mean, unless you are a hermit or in a coma, or something like that. And so this is the way things are, so as you intermingle with people throughout your life, think about how you are living each moment as a miracle of God who was created in Christ Jesus to be spiritually alive. This is you all the time. Even right now among this group of people, you are a living breathing--spiritually alive--temple of the Holy Spirit. You may not feel this way, but it is still true. And there is something else that may not seem like it is just as true, but it is. All those Christians in the world that you come in contact with, hear about, and know about; whether you like them, or dislike them--they are exactly like you in this sense. Each one really lives each moment as a miracle of God who was created in Christ Jesus to be spiritually alive. Each one really is a spiritually alive temple of the Holy Spirit. In considering this, we must recognize that sometimes we are not consciously aware of this important fact. I think it primarily has to do with the influence that the natural-world can have upon our thinking. We can become distracted when it comes to others. However it happens, the point is that we are not always consciously aware of the miracle difference that Christians are as we come in contact with them. We are not consistently overwhelmed with their uniqueness as we should be. In fact, we do not always know which ones are regenerated. We do not always know which ones are spiritually dead derelicts of Adam. By the same token, many of God’s living temples around the world are not consciously aware of this concerning you either. In fact, many Christians are even ignorant of the basic biblical sense that God has given us concerning these things. There are just as many who know this as doctrine, but are not acting like this is a truth that they need to reflect. What I mean is that they are not manifesting the fullness of what God wants them to do in respect to this amazing existence. Many of them have had deficient teachings. Many of them are stunted in their spiritual growth for numerous reasons. The point is that their lives do not manifest the essential attribute that the Spirit wants us to manifest. It is as if it is a secret teaching. But it really isn’t. Yet they act like it is some kind of mystery that has never been revealed to them. Now think about that. Think about it like insider-information that you have, even though it is not supposed to be secret. Keep this in mind and let’s use our imaginations for a moment to explore this in a personal way. Imagine being in some kind of a room somewhere in which God Himself is sharing His will with you. Think about how He loves you. He cares for you. Now imagine Him gently looking you in the eye and saying to you,
“Do not lord over the faith of others, but be a worker with them for their joy. Let them know that you love them even if it is through much affliction and anguish of your own heart to do so--even if it is through many tears while you are weeping for them. (Now remember, I am wanting you to consider that God is speaking to you, and so the Spirit would indicate--) This means that you are going to have to love my people in such a way as if your heart breaks for them. You are going to have to let your heart be breakable for them. You will only do it in real love. Real love is my way. It is my love. This is the way of My Son who is in you. He has authority. You also have authority; but it is because you are in Him. So remember that your authority in my Son is to be used for building up those people. You are never to use it to destroy them--ever.”
Folks, the essence of this scenario is what the Spirit truly is speaking to us as His revelation to us from His Word. Keep that in your mind’s-eye and let this, which I am calling “insider-information” to make my point, sink down deep into your soul. Make it your ambition to live this insider’s-information as God’s living message to others. You are His message. The principle then is that your message to others is that they know they are loved by you. They know that you are co-laboring with them in building them up in the joy of our common salvation. They know that you are undergirding them in their faith without lording over them. And they know it because this is what you are to them. Essentially you become the insider’s information for them, and this is what God wants; co-labor with one another in building each other up in the joy of our shared salvation by undergirding others in their faith without lording over them.
/2/
This leads to the second principle for nurturing the habit of reaffirming our love for our imperfect brothers and sisters. God wants us to manifest the love of God by exhorting one another to love and good deeds. This may mean that we have to do the uncomfortable things; We may have to confront people. The particular people I am talking about are those offensive Christians who are hurting the body of Christ.
@2 God wants us to ____________ one another by exhorting one another to love and good deeds which means we may have to ________________ others. (love, confront)
We see the principle crystalized in the fact that Paul confronted the various sins of the Corinthians even though he had to do it in affliction and anguish of heart. And we see that He did it so that they would know the love that he has for them. A lot of people think that if you confront sin, stop divisiveness, and deal with hurters who hurt the body by tearing down, and you do it by lovingly using God’s word for correction, that somehow you are the one being divisive. Somehow you are supposed to be the hurter. They'll say that you're tearing down. What they will say is that you are the one who is not being loving. This kind of reaction from people is a symptom of being influenced by the lost world culture. Because according to God, confronting people in the way that God’s word describes, is a pure manifestation of love--no matter how uncomfortable it may seem to you, and no matter how uncomfortable it may seem to the one you are confronting. Paul confronted the sins of the Corinthians through tears and anguish of heart because of love. We also see the same principle demonstrated in the way that the Corinthians dealt with the offensive Christian who was causing trouble in the church. The majority applied church discipline in respect to being obedient to all things that Paul wrote to them. Evidently it was not something that was easy to do either. Paul wanted to see if they would be obedient which shows that the disobedient-route would have been easy to take. Later in chapter 7, Paul refers to both confrontations again. He refers to his letter of confrontation which caused the Corinthians sorrow which is the letter he wrote before 2 Corinthians--the third of four, 2 Corinthians being the fourth. And he also refers to the man that the Corinthians made sorrowful in their confrontation of him. Let’s take a look at 2 Corinthians 7:8-12. As I read, look for the principle. Remember this second principle I am covering. It is that God wants us to manifest the love of God by exhorting one another to love and good deeds which may mean that we have to do the uncomfortable things. Paul says,
“8 For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it--for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while-- 9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance;
[That is the point of the principle. In other words the principle is to confront in love, but there is always a view in mind concerning the uncomfortable confrontation. The view--the goal--is not to put down, demean, or to get even and exact revenge. It is not to use the Bible, and so-called “vested authority” to get even with others from some inner personal quirk you have in your own heart. What is the goal? Repentance. Think about it; Repentance is another form of being built up in Christ. Paul goes on]
for you were made sorrowful according to the determination of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
[There it is again. It is the determination of God. God uses you and me as the tools to accomplish it. We are His ministers for the moment, but it is according to His determination--His will. And the reason is “so that” the brothers and sisters you are confronting will not suffer loss in anything (which contextually has to deal with something Paul addressed in the 3rd epistle, cf. 1:23 with 2:3-6). Paul goes on,]
10 For the sorrow that is according to the determination of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong!
[Okay, right here we see how the principle reciprocates. In other words, it went from Paul’s sorrow to cause sorrow to the Corinthians on to the Corinthians confronting a specific offender in which he felt sorrow too. Paul goes on,]
In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. 12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 7:8-12
In other words, Paul wanted the Corinthian-Christians to experience their allegiance to God’s true apostles in the midst of all the various personalities vying for importance in the Corinthian church. In the process, people are confronted in which further godliness is the result which ultimately becomes manifest.
As I wrap up this second principle, I think I need to explain that this offender that is mentioned in chapter 2 and chapter 7 which I think is the same man, is either said by some interpreters to be the incestophile of 1 Corinthians 5, or by others to be someone else. I must confess that over the years I have vacillated on this interpretive issue of relating this to the 1 Corinthians 5 man myself. Long ago, I thought it was the same man. Later on, I began looking into some other considerations, and have become familiar with other views. Now I want to take a little bit of an aside to share my view of data concerning who this offender is supposed to be. First I want to point out that one thing that is typically said by some interpreters is that the first offender (the one in 1 Corinthians 5) sinned against the church according to 1 Corinthians 5:2; and so there are some who make a distinction between an offender offending the church and an offender offending someone else, like for example offending Paul. With this view then, they see two different distinctions in Paul’s two preserved letters as canon, of the grouping of four known letters, in that particular respect. I see where they are going in coming to this particular conclusion, but on this point exegetically I disagree that the lost man’s problem of 1 Corinthians 5 was against the church, nor does looking back at 1 Corinthians 5:2 support the assertion. I will go into why I think this, and even why it is important to all of this in just a moment. But first I want to share another common suggestion. There are some who say that the man mentioned here in 2 Corinthians sinned against Paul. 2 Corinthians 2:5 and 10 are referred to for supporting the assertion. But in close scrutiny of the passages, we see that 2 Corinthians does not state with clear wording that what Paul is saying is that the man sinned against Paul. It is also said by some, that the man back in 1 Corinthians 5 was to suffer extreme discipline which would result in his physical death. But Paul does not say that that the man would suffer physical death in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul said that the man would experience destruction of his flesh from Satan so that his spirit would be saved. What the data in 1 Corinthians 5 actually demonstrates is that the man, who was an incestophile, was not a Christian. It was not that he offended his father, or mother, or the church, in his sin as the issue. The issue is that he was not saved and enjoyed being accepted though a criminal, and as such he was a taint to the purity of the fellowship of the saints that needed to be barred from the group. If those of you who were here when I preached on the incestophile of 1 Corinthians 5, will remember, I pointed out five indicators from Paul which demonstrate that Paul recognized the man as being unregenerate, unsaved, lost, and spiritually dead:
One was that Paul discerned that the man needed his spirit saved according to 1 Corinthians 5:5.
The second is that the man was “leaven” and we remember that Paul says that the true Christians are in fact “unleavened” at 1 Corinthians 5:6-7 which is further defined by the leaven reference in Galatians 5:7-9 being unsaved people who influence the saved.
The third is that the “old leaven of evil and wickedness” (as the Greek word kakia indicates was someone who was not afraid to be a criminal in breaking laws) was partaking in the communion meal with the true saints according to 1 Corinthians 5:8.
The fourth is that the man is a “so-called” claimed brother who has infiltrated “inside” as a fake insider according to 1 Corinthians 5:11. We saw that Paul used the same expression of “so-called” in few more chapters in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 to describe fake gods in contrast to the One true God.
And finally, Paul said to remove the wicked leaven from inside to outside. “Inside” is a reference to the true church community of actually regenerated saints. The man was seeking refuge among the church community as an incestophile acting like a Christian. The outside is the world of Satan--the world of the lost where the man belonged, and of which he was guilty of breaking the secular law as an incestophile, 1 Corinthians 5:12.
This makes more sense when we recognize that sexual relations with either a primary (blood relative) or adoptive kin, was considered a serious criminal offense under Gentile Roman Law. God's Old Covenant Law also dealt with incest as a sin. It demanded the death penalty either for sex with the father's wife, or with the actual birth mother according to Leviticus 18. So the point is that getting the incestophile out, and keeping him out, shows that the true Christians were to put out the fake Christian criminal to be dealt with by the lost world culture. That is what we know about the man of 1 Corinthians 5. On the other hand, what we know of the man of 2 Corinthians is as follows: The man has not caused sorrow to Paul according 2 Corinthians 2:5 which in some sense, could mean that the man matches the man of 1 Corinthians 5. Further, the man has caused sorrow to all the Corinthian Christians to some degree according to 2 Corinthians 2:5 which again could possibly mean to some extent, problems the unsaved man of 1 Corinthians 5 brought into the church. But we must remember that the majority of the Corinthians inflicted actual punishment on this 2 Corinthians man in which they were avenging wrong, which is not something that we ever find taught that Christians ought to do with outsiders. Punishment was not what the Corinthians did to the incestophile of 1 Corinthians 5. Remember, the incestophile of 1 Corinthians 5 was a known criminal. He was the medium of a bizarre immorality among them, of which was even rare among the Gentiles, 1 Corinthians 5:1. He was not punished by the church for it, and Paul did not direct wrong to be avenged in his case. The fake Christian was simply blocked from seeking refuge in combined fellowship and protection with God's true saints, and forced to stay in the world of satan and the jurisdiction of the lost where he belonged. On the other hand, because of the majority-inflicted punishment upon this 2 Corinthians man, the Corinthians must forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. But the unsaved criminal man of 1 Corinthians needed to be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow by the conviction of the Spirit unto salvation of His own spirit. He needed to do as John stated so precisely in 1 John 1:9-10. He needed to confess His sins, turn to God, turn to Christ as Lord and Savior, and embrace Him in His grace through faith. In doing so, the man would enjoy true fellowship with the Son in spiritual salvation. But the man here in 2 Corinthians, must have the love of the Christians reaffirmed, confirmed, validated, for him. In fact, they are to personally forgive him. And unlike the unsaved man of 1 Corinthians 5 that Paul judged as lost and unforgiven of his sins by God, Paul already forgives this 2 Corinthians person for the Corinthian’s sake in the presence of Christ. This more recognizably describes actions of the body with a true member of the body. It does not reflect how the body is taught to interact with the unsaved. Then in chapter 7, we see those other details layered in to describe the incident of chapter 2. Paul’s painful epistle that he wrote in tears (the third letter of the series of four letters) long after writing 1 Corinthians is what produced in the Corinthians the actions to vindicate themselves and to be indignate, 2 Corinthians 7:11. More, in zeal they avenged the particular wrong done by the wrong doer, 2 Corinthians 7:11. This is something else that does not follow the consistency of the rest of the New Covenant teachings concerning how Christians are supposed to interact with lost people who are in their sins, and does not fit actions toward the 1 Corinthians 5 man (even if Satan had destroyed his flesh and he finally had turned to the Lord in salvation and had become a brother in Christ later after 1 Corinthians was written). Finally, in 2 Corinthians 7:12, Paul gets more specific, yet still only with abbreviated detail, and says that there was one offended by the offender. This seems to indicate that this offensive person was hurting one of the Corinthians specifically, and in doing so, caused sorrow for everyone--even in them having to confront him and penalize him with actions that one would do toward an unrepentant believer. It is with all these things in mind that I lean strongly toward thinking that Paul spoke, on one hand, of a special case of an unsaved infiltrator back in 1 Corinthians 5. Then in a later letter (the third letter--the one after 1 Corinthians) which Paul called his painful letter that he wrote in tears, Paul addressed another problem Christian who offended someone who was either in the Corinthian church, was one of the other apostolic ministers, or possibly Paul. I concede that the person offended may possibly have been Paul, and Paul was purposely being non-specific because he knew that the Corinthians understood the case and would see that he is focusing more upon how they were supposed to react to the offender, than upon the one who was offended--being himself. But I am only loosely holding to this particular possibility of Paul being the offended party, yet it is worth considering. Then finally it seems to me that Paul wrote his fourth letter which is this 2 Corinthians epistle we are studying, and in it, he commends the church in Corinth for their zeal in avenging a certain Christian who had wrong maliciously done to him. They avenged the hurt Christian by penalizing the wrong-doer Christian. This action made the wrong-doer Christian sorrowful about what he had done. Now the broader Corinthian church needed to reaffirm their love for him, and forgive him. Both the reaffirmation of love, and the forgiveness, are actions that Christians are supposed to nurture with the body of Christ. Conversely though, the spiritually-lost need to be overcome with excessive sorrow as the Holy Spirit convicts them of their sin, wretchedness, and lostness before the holy God of the universe. Therefor, I find it very difficult to think that Paul is not referring to two different people in two different micro-contexts of the same city in his two letters. I also can not see removing what Paul is talking about here in 2 Corinthians 2:1-11 from the incidence he refers to again in 2 Corinthians 7. Even if you disagree with my assessment of this distinction between the incestophile of 1 Corinthians 5, and the Christian offender of 2 Corinthians, I thought I needed to share my view for your consideration.
Either way, the main thing is to remember the essential point of this second principle for nurturing the habit of reaffirming our love for our imperfect brothers and sisters. It is to manifest the love of God by exhorting one another to love and good deeds which may mean that we have to confront offensive Christians who are hurting the body of Christ.
/3/
This leads directly to the final principle I want to cover for nurturing the Christ-like habit of reaffirming our love for our imperfect brothers and sisters. It has to do with how God wants us to continue onward in our love which is His love. There is a certain way to do this. Essentially God wants us to re-affirm our Christian love for others by comforting the offensive Christians which have been made sorrowful by our confrontive-corrective actions with them. Just as confrontation in love is necessary, reaffirmation in love is necessary. Reaffirmation which means that you keep on demonstrating to the person that you love them, is also just as necessary.
@3 God wants us to _________________ our Christian love for offensive Christians which have been _______________ sorrowful by our confrontive-corrective actions. (reaffirm, made)
Notice that Paul says,
“7 ... forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.” 2 Corinthians 2:7-8
In considering reaffirming love in the midst of being part of God’s determination in bringing someone to godly sorrow, we must always remember that godly sorrow is good. I did not say that sorrow itself is good. I said that godly-sorrow is good. Godly sorrow is always good because it produces good. It leads to recognition. It leads to turning from wrong thoughts and actions. It leads to reconciliation. Remember this is why Paul said in chapter 7 that he caused the Corinthians sorrow by his letter, but he did not regret it; and that his letter caused them sorrow, but only for a while, 2 Corinthians 7:8. So, Paul actually rejoiced that the Corinthians were made sorrowful to the point of repentance. This is love. Why? Because sorrow brought the repentance-result, and the result was godly. It was the result that Paul was looking to for their edification. And there is more. Paul knew that they were made sorrowful according to the sovereign determination of God, 2 Corinthians 7:9. Sorrow that is according to the determination of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to deliverance 2 Corinthians 7:10. We must always remember this. We must always remember it so that we can rally this knowledge for our fortitude to go forward to confront ungodly, hurtful, offenders. But we must always remember this for another reason. It is a reason that we may not be comfortable thinking about. And so right now I want you to become painfully candid with yourself. I want you to be starkly real. Why?
Because you may end up somehow being the ungodly, hurtful, offender.
You say,
No, that would never be me.
But wait a moment--You are not perfect are you? You do not know your future do you? You may be purposing to make every effort to try to not be ungodly with others. You may be purposing to make every effort to try not to be hurtful and offensive, but you do not know for sure what the outcome of the future will be in your imperfection. Of course such a thought of being ungodly, hurtful, and offensive, is difficult for us to consider, but we must not be naive. We must be careful because any of us can fall into the snares of fleshliness. So seriously consider what I am saying. If you ever happen to be the one that the Lord deals with in such a way by using the body according to His determination in which you experience sorrow for something ungodly that you are doing, or have done, then you must try to look beyond your feelings, emotions, and self-oriented spirals. All of us must try to do this if we find ourselves in this place. We must look to the fact that godly sorrow is good for us because it is meant to work repentance within us. So what others are doing, if they are indeed correct about us, may seem like an approach that is bad to our flesh, but we know from God’s revelation that it is good for our soul. Now you may be wondering why I am covering all of this in this last principle. Remember, this principle has to do with reaffirming our Christian love for others by comforting offensive Christians which have been made sorrowful by our confrontive-corrective actions. I am covering all of the necessity for this kind of sorrow and how we are supposed to think about it because whenever it is actually taking place, the person going through the sorrow may or may not understand all these things; or at least be understanding them with openness. From my experience with these things, many (if not most) usually do not. Further, the one going through all of this may or may not recognize that you are truly loving them with the love of God through all these things. From my experience, this is often the case as well. This is why there is a necessity for a continuous, moment to moment, reaffirmation of your love. We know that according to God, sorrow is necessary but excessive sorrow is not necessary. So while the sorrow toward repentance is taking place in the individual going through it, reaffirmation of your love should also be taking place at each step too. Listen to me--This principle is not simply a side issue. It is a necessity of the whole process. What I am saying is that if you are not affirming your love for someone who you rebuke, exhort, and correct with sound doctrine, and you are not reaffirming your love for someone that you have to apply corrective disciplinary measures to so that they will quit offending, hurting, maligning, and dividing,
then don’t do any of it.
That’s right; Just shut up and get out of God’s way. Mark this principle down in your heart. It is very important. Essentially it is better to do nothing than to something without love. Again, it is better to do nothing than to do something in absence of the love manifestation of Christ. Likewise, it is better to do nothing than to try and rebuke, exhort, and correct with sound doctrine and apply corrective disciplinary measures, if you are not going to continue to reaffirm your love in real actions, in real ways, as part of your ongoing plan and operation. The continuous, relentless, reaffirmation of your love, holds excessive sorrow at bay, and it also keeps any confusion at bay concerning the facts of what and why the confrontation had to take place. Again, consider Paul’s charge,
“8 ... our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, ... 9 for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you ...” 2 Corinthians 10:8-9
Whenever we confront someone to keep them from thinking it is in lack of love, or in revenge, or some kind of religiously pious looking drama that comes from pride, or from some other kind of humanistic motivation, we must continue to have their edification in mind while we have our own diminishment in mind. So we must be willing, ready, and doing reaffirmation over and over again so that they know that it is true. Now think about how this principle penetrates into our inner-most beings. In other words, it makes you look at what you are doing to make sure you are doing it with pure motives. Yes, reaffirming your love for others is for them, but it is also for you too. It keeps you on the course of what true ministry is supposed to be.
“the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart” 1 Tmothy 1:5
“love builds up” 1 Corinthians 8:1
“Let all that you do be done in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14
Now think about how to accomplish this from the inside out. God is the one at work in us to will and work for His own good pleasure. When you have something else in you that is competing with God, then you have the problem. If you hold a grudge against the person that you are rebuking, exhorting, and correcting with sound doctrine, and in applying corrective disciplinary measures, that grudge you hold is not love. If you do not forgive the offender with the love of Christ, then you will hold those offenses in a cache in your heart. And unforgiven offenses will keep you from reaffirming the love that God has put in your heart. You will be operating on legalism and personal issues of standard bearing, instead of operating in the Spirit according to the New Covenant word of God. Even anger is wrong when it comes to this method of ministry. We think of James 1:19-21,
“... be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:19-21
So there is so much to this principle. Considering all of these things, the question we need to ask concerning others which keeps us in check is this;
If you say you love someone who has offended you, do they know it?
That’s the question;
If you say that you are lovingly seeking the good of an offender by rebuking them, do they know it?
Reaffirmation in the practical, tangible sense of being real and effective means that the answer will be yes. If it is not yes, then your reaffirmation needs to keep coming to them over and over again until they get it.
Let’s recap all we have covered; We have been tapping into the Spirit’s desire for us as the body of Christ. Essentially, God wants us to be nurturing the habit of reaffirming our love for our imperfect brothers and sisters. God wants us to do this in a certain way. He wants you, me, and all of the body of Christ, to co-labor with Him, under Him, to build each other up in the joy of our salvation. He wants us to do so by not lording over others. He wants us to co-labor with one another in building each other up in the joy of our salvation by undergirding others in their faith without lording over them. We looked at an important way to do this. God wants us to manifest His love of Christ by exhorting one another to love and good deeds. This means that we may have to do the uncomfortable things. We may have to confront people. This primarily means that we may have to confront people who are offensive Christians who are hurting the body of Christ. And in it all, no matter what shape it takes, God wants us to continue onward in our love which is His love. God wants us to re-affirm our Christian love for others by comforting offensive Christians which have been made sorrowful by our confrontive-corrective actions with them. Just as confrontation in love is necessary, affirmation in love is necessary. Reaffirmation which means that you keep on demonstrating to the person that you love them, is also just as necessary. [amen]
@1 God wants us to co-labor with one another in __________________ ourselves up in the joy of our salvation without _______________ over one another. (building, lording)
@2 God wants us to ____________ one another by exhorting one another to love and good deeds which means
we may have to ________________ others. (love, confront)
@3 God wants us to _________________ our Christian love for offensive Christians which have been _______________ sorrowful by our confrontive-corrective actions. (reaffirm, made)
