So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
It seems important that we consider, at the very least, the immediate context:
2 Corinthians 2:5–9 (KJV)
But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.
So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
I am confident that this takes us back to:
1 Corinthians 5:1 (KJV)
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
Paul had instructed them to remove this man from the protection of the church and deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. It wasn’t their first impulse, but it appears they had obeyed—and that this man had repented.
Now Paul gave further instruction:
- His punishment was sufficient.
- They ought to forgive him.
- They ought to comfort him.
- They ought to confirm their love toward him.
This man had had relations with his father’s wife—a wickedness so vile that even the Gentile world of Corinth was against it!
But he had repented.
Now:
- They were to forgive him.
- They were to comfort him.
- They were to love him.
As difficult as it may have been for them to judge him at first (though I doubt we’d have any trouble with that part these days), Paul said the true test would come at this point. Would they be obedient “in all things”?
The proof of our faith, and of our obedience to it, is likely not in how we put away evil from among us—but in how we receive the repentant back into fellowship.
We must judge sin, or else we plunge into the grossest of sins. But we must also forgive the repentant, or else we fail to reflect the grace of the God we claim to love.
#GraceAndTruth #BiblicalForgiveness #ChurchDisciplineWithLove #RepentanceAndRestoration #ObedientInAllThings
The Harder Command: Loving the One Who Repents
Are you struggling with how to handle someone who has truly repented after serious sin?
God doesn’t just call us to judge rightly—He commands us to forgive boldly, comfort sincerely, and restore completely.
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