Welcome! Today we continue our series in 2 Corinthians. After this we will take a two-week break from this series to focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in keeping with Easter. Following the break, we will resume this series.Our passage today speaks of disappointment and of forgiveness. It is helpful, when looking at this passage, to be reminded of the context in which this letter was written. As we shared several weeks ago, and as explained in the Book of Acts, the Apostle Paul spent 18 months in Corinth as part of one of his missionary journeys. Unlike his previous stops which were short--sometimes only days or weeks--he spent a year and a half of his life pouring his life into the people, and then church, of Corinth. Later, after leaving, he heard of many serious problems facing the church. There were factions, extremely inappropriate behavior at the communion feasts, misuse of spiritual gifts, severe personal sin that was not being dealt with, and in addition to this there were false teachers who were attacking Paul – his teachings, his character, anything they could attack – so as to gain a following of their own. These issues were tearing apart and destroying God’s work, the Corinthian church.
In response, Paul wrote I Corinthians. Later, in addition, Paul may have written another letter, one that has not survived, one that some scholars call the severe letter. The reason people think such a letter exists is because of hints of such a letter scattered in 2 Corinthians. Whether such a letter was in fact written is not particularly important. What is important is that the false teachers appear to have been sufficiently effective in what they were doing so as to get the Corinthians, by and large, to no longer trust Paul, consider him a friend, or even believe in his message. And what was his message? Plain and simple, it was the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now it is clear from many of Paul’s letters that God had grown Paul from an angry, proud, selfish persecutor of Christians into a kind, humble, selfless lover of Christ and the church, that is, the people who came to follow Christ. Paul loved the people he had worked with at every location he had ministered, and based on the way Paul writes in his letters, it is clear he had a love that was so deep it would put most of us, if not all of us, to shame in comparison. Paul loved these people like his own children. And having spent 18 months in Corinth, he knew these believers better than most. Having poured out so much into them, his love for them had to be as deep as or deeper than it was for anyone else.
Now what was the situation in Corinth? These people that Paul loved with a depth too great for words were entertaining the baseless accusations and charges of the false teachers and were accepting these charges and rejecting Paul. Parts of this passage, and indeed, this entire letter give indications of what some of these charges and falsehoods were. But today I want to focus on what Paul must have felt.
How would you feel? One natural reaction would be to hate the false teachers. After all, they are the ones giving these lies to the people you love. If they weren’t doing this, there wouldn’t be a problem, right?
Or maybe it is not so simple. How could it be that these people Paul lived with, shared everything with, was transparent with, sacrificed for, and so on, could be so quick to entertain any and all accusations against him? How could their love for him, their trust in him, be so fickle, so shallow, so weak?
How would you feel? Disappointment in them? Maybe a little anger? “Come on! Love believes the best! Love always hopes. Love always protects! Love always endures! What’s wrong with you people?”
Perhaps you might also turn inward and wonder, “What did I do wrong? How can it be that these people have learned so little of God’s character, been so little affected by God’s love, so little transformed by the Spirit? Whose fault is that? Is it maybe mine? I have failed them.”
These are natural reactions. By the way, you don’t need to be an apostle to experience similar situations, to feel similar emotions. For example, if you are married, think about your relationship with your spouse. Have you ever experienced a breakdown of trust? Did you blame your spouse? Did you blame yourself? If you are a parent, think about your relationships with your children. Have your children ever doubted your love for them? Did they ever go astray? Did you blame those who influenced them? Did you blame them? Did you blame yourself?
And look at this from the other side. Have you ever done things that disappointed those close to you? Did you ever do things that disappointed your parents? Your siblings? Your friends? Your boss? Were you ever quick to doubt the intentions of others? Quick to believe rumors? Quick to mistrust your parents or siblings or friends or boss?
And what about God? Have you ever doubted His love? Have you ever questioned His goodness? Have you thought He was unfair, or uninterested, or distant? I believe these questions and these situations occur to all of us. And I believe that these verses apply in a far greater set of situations than just the one that Paul and the Corinthians were going through. Let’s look at what Paul wrote, beginning with chapter 2, verse 5.
If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. – 2 Corinthians 2:5-8
There is so much here! Look at the first sentence – what is Paul doing? What is Paul saying? He’s saying first of all, that this rejection stuff was not that big a deal for him “he has not so much grieved me” and then that it was not that big a deal for them, either – he doubly weakens his statement that the offender had grieved all of them by saying “to some extent” and by saying “not to put it too severely.” What do you think about that?
When I first read this, I can tell you what I thought. I didn’t like what Paul is saying, not one bit! This kind of disappointment, believing the worst of someone, breaking fellowship, replacing love and trust with a coldness, formality, and secret (or not-so-secret) distrust, is painful! I don’t like Paul saying that he hasn’t really been all that grieved or that neither have they. Yes they have! Yes we have! Yes I have! I don’t know if I have ever experienced anything more painful than the kind of thing he is describing. Part of me wants to tell Paul, “Paul, you have no right to say this.”
So why does he say it? I believe he says it because, as we have talked about several times in the last several months, we are not to be ruled by our emotions. Neither should we deny our emotions; but what Paul is implying is that yes, it was painful at first, very painful – painful for him, and painful for them – but not only do you not have to stay in that state, you shouldn’t stay in that state.
What happens if you do stay in that state? One thing that often happens is that you talk to others about your situation. One of the ways you can tell someone is in that state is that they look for people who will tell them what they want to hear. What do they want to hear? Things like “Oh, you poor dear! I cannot believe he said that! How shocking!” And so on and so on.
What happens when people go on sharing their stories of how they were wronged is that it creates gossip. It spreads hurtful emotions. It causes people to take sides. It leads to divisions. It fractures a church, or a family, or a business, or a set of friendships. And it can reach critical mass and spread discord like a wildfire. People want to take action, to retaliate. At first it is just with looks, or purposeful coldness. Then it is with comments. And then people want greater vengeance, and people separate from one another, leaving things smoldering and unresolved.
Paul says he will have nothing to do with this, and neither should they. I think there were probably people in Corinth who were deeply offended at how their fellow Corinthians in the church were speaking ill of Paul. Paul defuses this by saying, “I’m not offended. Not really.” Do you realize the power you have when you are in Paul’s situation? You have the power, like Paul, to put the fire out before it starts. Or you can do the opposite of Paul and fan the flames. Which do you think God desires?
Paul says they were offended, but not so much either. And Paul has a powerful point: if he is not taking offense, then how can they? They weren’t slandered, he was. This is why Paul’s decision not to take offense is so powerful. If you want a possibly painful mirror into your spiritual maturity, here it is: How easily are you offended? How easily do you take offense? It had to be pretty hard – nearly impossible – to offend Paul.
Throughout scripture you will see wonderful examples of choosing to not take offense. Consider Joseph in the book of Genesis. Joseph was sold out by his brothers and ended up a slave and then was thrown in prison before finally serving Pharaoh. Joseph struggled when he finally saw his family in Egypt, but he came to the point of telling them not to be grieved or angry with themselves for what they had done. He chose to not take offense. In the New Testament I think of Stephen, being stoned to death, asking God to forgive those who were killing him. And of course we have Jesus on the cross, saying the same thing. This is the advanced PhD class in not taking offense, but I fear we may be failing the freshman class. I know I still struggle.
Then Paul gets specific for the situation and says that what this person has gone through is enough. That word “punishment” in Greek is epitimia, a word that only appears here in the New Testament. Elsewhere it is legal term – referring to a legal penalty such as would be given by a court. The implication, along with the term “majority” is that what this person has gone through has been public. Elsewhere in Scripture (Matt. 18, 2 Thess. 3:6, I Cor. 5, and others), we see the procedure of eventually going to a public situation in a church when someone continues to sin. That seems to be what happened here.
But Paul goes further – much further. He tells them to forgive him. That may have seemed a tall order. But coming from Paul, the one who seems to have been the one most slandered, they don’t really have a leg left to stand on if they want to refuse.
And forgiveness is at the heart of everything a Christian is to be. We are forgiven, by God, through Christ. And we are to forgive. Jesus taught over and over about forgiveness. Think about the parable in which the person who owed a huge debt is forgiven that debt but then refuses to forgive a relatively tiny debt owed him. That parable did not end well for that man. Think about when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, and Jesus gave them a model prayer, and right in the middle of it there is this horrible line where just as we ask for forgiveness, we affirm that we have forgiven those around us. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Forgive him.”
But he doesn’t stop there. And this is where I think we often fall short. Paul also says, “Comfort him.” Wait a minute, Paul. That’s not fair! I’ll forgive him, but I don’t want anything else to do with him after that. When I word it this way, do you see the fallacy in this thinking? Are you really forgiving him?
What if God’s forgiveness to us was like this? What if God said, “I’ll forgive you, but after that, I’m not going to have anything to do with you. Yes, I’ll let you into heaven, but you’ll be on your own there.” I hope you know that God’s forgiveness is nothing like this! God will spend eternity with us; each of us! Our friendship and love for Him will grow to be a billion times stronger than anything we have ever experienced or ever will experience in this life on Earth. You might reply, “Yes, but maybe it will be one-way; that is, the love going one way will be deeper than the other.” To this I would say you are absolutely right! But the one-way it flows will be from Him to us, not the other way around. Your love for Him will grow a billion-fold but it will never compare to His love for you.
So we are to forgive and comfort. And just as the punishment appeared to be public, I think the implication here is that the forgiveness and comfort were also to be public. You are to forgive and comfort the person and not care about what others think. Just like the father in the parable of the prodigal son showed love and restoration to his lost son, and because of it, experienced resentment from the other son, so it may go with those who did what Paul was saying to do. So be it. The problem is theirs, not yours.
The passage goes on – if we don’t forgive and comfort, the offender might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Have you ever really, really blown it in a relationship? Unless the other person not just forgives but also provides comfort, it is easy to start to think that you have ruined things beyond all repair. And in a human sense you have! We are not naturally forgivers. It takes a yielding to God’s Spirit to forgive and give comfort. But without it, the other person may leave. The offender may become so discouraged that he sinks into depression and maybe even despair. Paul says, “reaffirm your love for him.” Saying “I forgive you” is only the beginning here. Being outwardly friendly doesn’t cut it here. This is real forgiveness! Although even being willing to allow the relationship to fix itself is hard enough, Paul says to actively work to restore the relationship.
In these four short verses, this Scripture has moved us from wanting to continue to stay in our grieved state, feeding the fire of discord, to actively, personally loving and working to restore the one who caused it all. Amazing! Let’s continue on with the passage, if you dare:
The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—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. – 2 Corinthians 2:9-11
Again, Paul minimizes the offense. Despite the pain he has suffered, and he has suffered pain, he has chosen to not be offended. Again, we can choose this! And he says to forgive so as to thwart Satan.
Are you aware of Satan’s schemes in your own life? Satan desires to destroy every relationship you have. If you are married, he is actively working to poison your relationship with your spouse. If you have children, he is working and scheming to turn them from you and from each other. He is working to break up every friendship you have, whether with believer or unbeliever. He is working to break up this church, scheming to poison relationships, build discontentment, distrust, separation. He is working to get you burned out of church, so that you stop being a part of this church and never become a part of any other. He is working to take you out of the game, so that you can be completely ineffective in encouraging and building up other believers, in influencing unbelievers for Christ, in growing personally. Ultimately his goal is to separate every believer from Christ (if that were possible) and to keep every unbeliever from ever turning to Him.
Paul is saying that one of your most powerful weapons against Satan is forgiveness and restoration. When you forgive and restore, you are outwitting him. When you forgive, you reconnect yourself to the power of Christ in your life. Sometimes we hold on to unforgiveness because it seems to give us power, to make us strong, to feed us. That power, that strength, that food is a cheap imitation of what is available through Christ. And you need to ask yourself what is the source of that imitation power, strength and food? Do not be unaware of his schemes.
When it comes to forgiveness and restoration, there is a passage from the Old Testament that really strikes me, a passage that Matthew repeats in his gospel account:
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. – Isaiah 42:3
A common sentiment people have is something like this: I’ll forgive him when he really is repentant. Just saying “sorry” isn’t enough; he needs to show it. Or people will say: He said “sorry” in general, but he doesn’t have a clue about how deep he hurt me. Or people will say: He apologized but not for everything.
My response is Isaiah 42:3. Matthew used this verse to describe Jesus in Matthew 12. What did he mean? Picture a reedy plant, with a stalk that is bent over, just hanging together. That is a bruised reed. Now picture a lamp of oil with a wick in it that is almost completely out; it is sputtering and smoky. Jesus says that’s good enough. When people came to Him, they weren’t always respectful. They rarely had a clue who He really was. They rarely really loved God. But He still spoke to them; He still healed them. And now, when people live their whole lives in rebellion to God, but then turn to Him, it is still much the same. People coming to Christ rarely really understand the depths of their sin; when they come to Christ, they hardly know what they are asking. But they come. There’s not much there; they are like a bruised reed or a smoldering wick. But Jesus accepts them, seals them with His Spirit, and begins a process of transforming and growing them for the rest of their lives.
We are wrong to wait for the perfect apology before forgiving. In many cases we are wrong to wait for an apology at all. People are bruised reeds. People are smoldering wicks. We are all sinners. We need to have more the attitude of Paul “there’s hardly anything to forgive” than hold on to our anger and hurt. I for one am glad that Jesus forgave me, bruised reed, smoldering wick that I am. Let us let Jesus be our model in showing forgiveness.
Continuing on with our passage:
Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia. – 2 Corinthians 2:12-13
This seems like a change of subject, but it actually refers back to Paul’s loving concern for the Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 2:4 talks about how he had written them out of great distress and anguish of heart. And chapter 7 explains that Paul finally found Titus in Macedonia. Titus had been in Corinth since the last letter, and Titus passed on the report that the Corinthians now had deep sorrow and longing and concern for Paul. The point Paul is making here is that there really was nothing, in Paul’s mind, to forgive. Even when he didn’t know how the Corinthians were doing, he didn’t hate them or hold anger in his heart; he loved them and was deeply concerned for them. And he was so concerned to find out how things were going that he went off from Troas towards Macedonia in search of Titus.
Did you notice that part about the open door? I take this to mean that here was a place he was free to preach the gospel and build into the local believers. This was a relatively rare thing. But what did Paul do? He left! His concern for the Corinthians and for Titus was so great that he left an open door! This really demonstrates the depths of Paul’s distress.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. – 2 Corinthians 2:14-16a
This is Paul’s response to leaving behind an “open door.” Even though he left, God continued to work in Troas, and God also worked where he went, in Macedonia.
I have to share something about the Greek behind the phrase “triumphal procession.” The Greek word is thriambeuo. In the Ancient Greek this referred to a hymn sung in festal processions in celebration of the Bacchus, the Greek god of wine. The Romans later took this word to describe a very specific event when the Roman government and people honored a great general.
From what I have read, there were very specific conditions for this honor. The general had to actually be the supreme leader of all the troops. There had to have been a battle in which at least 5000 of the other side had died. The overall empire had to have been expanded. A region had to be completely conquered, brought to total peace, and the troops had to have returned home while peace was maintained.
The triumphal procession would take place in Rome, going to the capital. The state officials would go first, followed by the senators. Then there would be trumpet blowers, as many as could be found. Then soldiers would march carrying the spoils of war. Following this was a white bull to be sacrificed to the god Jupiter, the king of the gods (whom the Greeks called Zeus). Next would come the captives, in chains. Then would come the priests, many of them, each carrying censers full of incense whose smoke would darken the parade route and which could be smelled for a long time after the parade was over. People in the homes along the route would also light as many incense lamps as they had, to thicken the smoke and the smell. Women would also line the streets with thousands of garlands that were trampled under the men and horses, adding to the odor. Finally the general would come, riding a chariot, wearing a purple toga and a purple robe. He also carried a magnificent scepter in his hand. And as he passed by, all the people would shout praises in unison.
Now look at that passage again:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. – 2 Corinthians 2:14-16a
It’s a powerful image, isn’t it? God Himself is the victorious General. We are the aroma of Christ. Think of the two sources of that fragrance: the burning incense and the crushed flowers – death and life. We are both. And just as different people, depending where they were, might have smelled the flowers more or the incense more, to different people we are the smell of death and the fragrance of life. To those who are being saved, in my understanding, to believers, we are the smell of death. That is, we are dying to self, sacrificing all for one another and the furtherance of the gospel. To those who are perishing, in my understanding, to those who are hearing the gospel and turning to Christ, we are the fragrance of life, the bringers of the good news that leads to eternal life.
I should note that there are other interpretations of this verse out there, but the one I just mentioned makes the most sense to me. The most common interpretation is that it is speaking of those who are headed to heaven and those headed to hell; those to heaven smell life, and those to hell smell death. This is possible, but the “one” and “other” order is reversed, and as I said, the other interpretation makes more sense to me.
Regardless, notice to whom we are the aroma of Christ. What does it say? To God. God smells the burnt incense and crushed flowers of Christ in us. And He is pleased. I hope this encourages you! I won’t lie to you – sharing Christ can be hard. Forgiveness can be hard. Dying to self can be hard. But we are in God’s triumphal procession. And all of heaven is watching.
And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. – 2 Corinthians 2:16b-17
Who is equal to the task? Not us, not in ourselves. I think of I Corinthians 15:10:
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. – I Corinthians 15:10
We are inadequate, but Christ is adequate. Far more than adequate! He gives us the power to spread the aroma of Christ wherever we go and enables us to come to the emotionally and spiritually mature place where we are not easily offended, where we are quick to forgive, and where we are eager to restore.
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