NO WINNERS IN CHURCH HURT, OR HURT CHURCH..
Wow in my study this morning… 2 Corinthians 5-11…. It’s a letter written to the Corinthian church from Paul, explaining that it was time to forgive and restore a man that was disciplined and punished by the church. But the key factor in this whole passage of this scripture is that it implies that the man REPENTED!!! There are two things in church discipline that needs to be avoided.. being to lenient and not correcting mistakes, or being to harsh and not forgiving the sinner. Bottom line there is a time to confront and a time to comfort. In 2 Corinthians 2:10-11” I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” It is most important that the person that has been disciplined by the church, must REPENT!! There is no way around it!! Allowing a unrepented person in the church to continue in behaviors that can damage a church, causes church split, partiality, and leaves so many bad examples for others to mimic.. We must use church discipline to help keep the church pure and to help wayward people repent. And because we are aware of the schemes of the enemy, we must be forgiving, but not accepting of the bad behaviors. Sometimes when a church has to give out discipline, no longer tolerating the sinful behaviors of the person or persons, people take that as being unforgiving, or not caring for that person, which is so far from the truth.. Bottom line.. Put on your man pants, and repent already and let’s move forward together!!! Man when I read this passage this morning, I read a lot of pain words in Paul’s letter.. The body had been wounded, people have been hurt, pain is everywhere, and it needs to be healed.. Sometimes the hurt persons will flee before repent.. It leads them to seek the other perfect church.. OH HELLO!!! There isn’t one!!! I do know one thing… You leave wrong… you start wrong.. bottom line… Sheep stink!!! Sheep need to be led, not driven.. Satan does his best work inside the church!! Ouch!! He delights in causing division in the church family. He encourages to tolerate sin against the body, he delights in harsh discipline which drives people away, and he promotes an unforgiving, unrepententing spirit which leads to bitterness and resentment. I end with this.. Forgiving does not mean that we let those that hurt us “off the hook” they need to suffer the consequences of their actions. When we forgive and let them off our”hook” they are still under God’s hook!! Forgiving doesn’t mean we restore the relationship with the ones who hurt us, as if nothing ever happened. Something did happen!!! Trust was broken!! Circumstances have changed, abuse occurred. But we can choose to establish boundaries, giving the offender an Opportunity to regain our trust.. we have the freedom to expand the boundary fence. Or we can leave it alone as it is and pray for an opportunity for restoration in the future. That is all..