In 1 Corinthians, Saint Paul has to deal with an out of control church situation, in which almost anything goes, and in which almost any attempt to set limits is seen as limiting freedom from the law. In that epistle, Saint Paul begins to talk about the limits, what must be received, and what must be implemented. And, he also takes the drastic step of requesting the elders of the church to excommunicate a particularly recalcitrant member, in fact to hand him over to Satan so that he may learn obedience to God.
But in 2 Corinthians, Saint Paul has to caution the believers against a situation that is still a problem to this day. There he speaks of the excommunicate member and says:
But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe. This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
What is Saint Paul saying? Well, having disciplined the church member, the church was unwilling to forgive! And, it is certainly most clear that they had no intention of forgetting. Worse, read the paragraph carefully. The members were using Saint Paul as the excuse to not lift the excommunication! Saint Paul sets the record straight and explains that he wished to test their obedience as he brought order to the church, and that they need to learn that enough is enough. The purpose of discipline is not that of everlasting punishment, but rather to bring the person back. If their unwillingness to discipline gave ocassion to Satan, so their unwillingness to forgive once the discipline had worked its purpose also gave ocassion to Satan.
Sadly, it is this 2 Corinthians situation that is what is all too often found today. Yesterday two Birmingham policemen were found innocent. The alleged crime does not matter at this point. What does matter were the conservative and liberal voices lifted to argue that they should not be allowed back on the force, even though innocent! In passing, I made sure to listen to a couple of radio stations that were clearly conservative and liberal, and it was as I said above. Of course, there were the people convinced that they were guilty, regardless of the jury decision. And, I admit that there have been occassions when that would have been true. But, what troubled me were the people who did not wish them to return on speculation. That is, they did not necessarily believe that they were guilty, but rather that just the shadow of a question over them meant that they should no longer have a job.
When Michael Vick was released from jail and returned to the NFL, there were those who said that he should never be allowed to work for them ever again, that he had lost the opportunity. In other words, they were arguing for permanent punishment and doom to a life as a minimum wage person, despite the fact that he had paid the full penalty under law. This case more clearly reminds me of that situation in 2 Corinthians for people are quite willing to cause Vick permanent sorrow.
It is both the lack of forgiveness (in the case of Vick) and the willingness to quickly pin a scarlet letter on innocent people (the two policemen) that troubles me. Saint Paul had trouble with it back then, and we have trouble with it today. Do we really want to give even more occassions for Satan to both cause problems and to shame Christians with their lack of forgiveness?
As Saint Paul would have said back then, it ought not to be so among us.
Amen! Father! Well spoken….errrm, written!