2 Corinthians 2:4 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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2 Corinthians 2:4

Comments

Oh, say the critics, there is not much anguish of heart in 1 Corinthians. Well that is nonsense: there is. It is evidently behind the words. The apostle is deeply grieved and moved as in 1 Corinthians he writes to them about this incestuous man. ‘It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you’ – the bad report had got out into the entire region, and it was a particularly aggravated form of this sin. He was grieved that the Corinthian church, which was a good church, should allow this in their midst. So the discipline is applied and the man is excluded, and no doubt there were difficulties. In another verse, the apostle Paul says that the man was disciplined by many. So the action of the church at Corinth was not unanimous; many people, the vast majority excluded the incestuous sinner, but some did not. That is amazing. Some people in the gathered church voted against the discipline. Why would they have done that? Well, maybe they were people close to the man, who followed their hearts rather than the instructions of the Lord, the commands of God, and they failed to obey. Maybe they reasoned wrongly, what good will this do to the church? Whatever it was, there were some people who had lost their spiritual moorings in the church who voted against. It was quite clear the sin had been committed; it was quite clear what the command of God was: exclude the man.This has a bearing on the mighty power of conversion because the apostle knows that because they are truly saved, he only has to write. He does not need to go and to exhort them with powerful words and to sit before them in grief and to attempt to move their hearts by oratory. He knows that because of the mighty power of Christ, they have consciences that will be touched and when he writes, they will be moved.

Application

If a church comes together to exclude someone, the members of the church, the idea is that we together exclude the person. It is not the action of a pastor, a single elder acting as a magistrate. It is not the command of Paul as a man, as the giver of the Word. Yes, he was an apostle. But it is the action of the whole church. It is not for us to behave, as it were, democratically and say – do I agree with this or do I not? Our duty is together to obey God, if the action is proved. And it was not entirely unanimous, there was a fault there. However the victory for obedience to the Lord was won and the discipline was carried out.

Questions

What is the purpose of discipline in the church of Christ? We generally give four purposes in order of priority. The first purpose is to uphold the honour of Christ. It cannot be that incestuous sin is permitted in the church of Christ. It is a stain upon the honour of Christ. Is not the first purpose of discipline the restoration of the offender? No, it is not. The first purpose of discipline is to uphold the honour of Christ. The second purpose of discipline is to maintain the purity of the church. If you left the grievous sin in the church other people would be easily tempted to follow suit. It is endorsed, it is made acceptable. That would be disastrous. The third purpose of discipline is for the sake of the gospel because the preaching of the gospel cannot be blessed whilst Achan is in the camp, while such grievous sin is tolerated and known in the church. So gospel work is frozen, the blessing of God is withheld. Fourthly, the purpose of discipline is the restoration of the offender. Now the restoration of the offender is most important, but we put it in that scale of priorities just to help us to realise there are bigger priorities: the honour of God, the progress of the gospel, the purity of the whole body. These are more important than the individual. Nevertheless the restoration of the offender is also one of the purposes.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

2 Corinthians 2:4 Commentary and Bible Study