2 Corinthians 2
McGeeCHAPTER 2THEME: God’s comfort in restoring a sinning saintThis epistle is teaching us wonderful truths about God’s comfort. In the first chapter we saw God’s comfort for life’s plans. Now we see God’s comfort in restoring a sinning saint. Before the apostle gets into this subject, he continues with the subject of chapter 1. He is explaining his motives for not coming for an earlier visit. Then he discusses the sinning saint in the congregation in Corinth. Finally, he shows that God causes us to triumph in Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:1
PAUL’S EXPLANATION CONTINUESPaul admits that he was discouraged with them. If he had come to visit them, it would have been in sorrow.
2 Corinthians 2:2
Paul didn’t want to come in his sorrow, with tears in his eyes. He would have had them weeping, too. Then who would make Paul glad? They would all have been boo-hooing into their handkerchiefs.
2 Corinthians 2:3
Paul wanted to come to them in joy. He had been hoping to get word from them telling him that they had corrected those things about which he had written them. Now Paul opens his heart to them.
2 Corinthians 2:4
A great many people today fall out with the preacher when he preaches a message that is rather severe. Sometimes correction from the Word of God will really bear down on the congregation. Some people think that a pastor should not do that. May I say to you, my friend, that a faithful pastor must do that. The command is: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2Ti_4:1-2). Any man who stands in the pulpit today has a tremendous responsibility to rebuke what is wrong.
Many of the saints don’t like this. Paul tells them here that his rebuke was not because he was opposed to them, but because he loved them. A faithful pastor shows his love by preaching the Word of God as it is rather than “buttering up” the congregation.
2 Corinthians 2:5
RESTORING A SINNING SAINTLet me remind you that in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, he rebuked them because they were permitting gross immorality in the congregation. In fact, they had a case of incest in their congregation, and they were shutting their eyes to it. (Yet they were acting as if they were very spiritual!) This kind of gross immorality was something that was even shocking to the heathen; yet the congregation was ignoring it. Paul had written them to get this matter straightened out. He read the riot act to them. He told them, “…put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1Co_5:13). The congregation did listen to Paul. They excommunicated the man. They had obeyed Paul. They had excommunicated the man, which was the right thing for them to do. Then the man acknowledged his sin and came under great conviction. Now what ought they to do? They should forgive him.
2 Corinthians 2:7
“He will be overwhelmed, not only because of his sin, but because you won’t receive him. So now put your arm about him, and restore him to your fellowship.” To the Galatian believers Paul wrote: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Gal_6:1).
2 Corinthians 2:9
You see, the Devil tries to push us one way or another. Sometimes the Devil gets us to shut our eyes to gross immorality. There are many instances of that in our churches today. I know one preacher who has had trouble with women in three different churches. Each church he went to serve knew his past record, and still they accepted him as pastor! In shutting their eyes to gross immorality, they were hurting the cause of Christ Jesus. Now suppose he had repented and had really turned from his sin (which he did not), then they should have forgiven him. Unfortunately, many of our stiff-backed brethren will not forgive anything. That can be the work of the Devil as well as shutting one’s eyes to immorality. Satan gets the advantage of a great many Christians because they are unforgiving. There are two things that we don’t hear very often even in our conservative churches: we don’t hear folk admitting their sins and asking for forgiveness nor do we hear folk forgiving those who confess. There is an unforgiving spirit in many of our churches. We need to remember that we are all capable of any sin. Whatever the other man has done, we are also capable of doing. When such a man repents from his sin, he is to be restored in the spirit of meekness. He is to be brought back into fellowship. This is part of the ministry. It is a glorious ministry, isn’t it?
2 Corinthians 2:12
He came to Troas, and there he found an open door. It was the will of God for him to stay there and to preach the gospel rather than proceed on to Corinth at that time. Paul was not being fickle. He was being faithful. He was faithful to the opportunity which God gave him.
2 Corinthians 2:13
Even while he was preaching the gospel in Troas, he was grieved at heart because Titus hadn’t come to bring him word concerning the congregation in Corinth. He waited for Titus to come, but Titus didn’t come. Then Paul went over to Philippi in Macedonia. It was there that Titus came and brought word that the Corinthians had dealt with this sin in their congregation and that the man had now repented and had turned from his sin.
2 Corinthians 2:14
THE TRIUMPHANT MINISTRYNow we come to what some have called the power of the ministry. It is part of the greatness of the ministry, and I rejoice today to be able to preach the kind of gospel and the kind of Word of God that we have to give. We are dealing here with a grand and glorious picture. In this dramatic picture, Paul is saying that preaching the gospel is like leading a triumphal entry. The background is a Roman triumphal entry. One of the great Roman generals would go out to the frontierto Europe where my ancestors were at that time, or down into Africawhere he would have victory after victory, for Rome was victorious in most campaigns. The conqueror would then return to Rome, and there would be a big, triumphal entry into the city. It is said that sometimes the triumphal entry would begin in the morning and go on far into the night. The Roman conqueror would be bringing in animals and other booty which he had captured.
In the front of the procession would be the people who were going to be released. They had been captured but would be freed and would become Roman citizens. In the back of the procession would be the captive people who were to be executed. In these triumphal entries there was always the burning of incense. They would be burning the incense to their gods to whom they gave credit for the victory. All the way through the procession would be clouds of smoke from the incense, sometimes even obscuring the procession as it passed by. With this as a background, Paul is saying, “Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.” This is wonderful, friend. You can’t lose when you are in Christ. You cannot lose! Paul says that God always causeth us to triumph. Wait a minute, Paul. Always? In every place? We know you had wonderful success in Ephesus, but you didn’t do so well in Athens. Do you feel that you triumphed in both places? “Yes,” Paul says, “He always causes us to triumph in Christ!” “And maketh manifest the savour [the sweet incense] of his knowledge by us in every place.” Are you having a victory when no one turns to Christ? “Oh, yes,” Paul says.
2 Corinthians 2:15
In that triumphal entry were those who were going to be set free and those who were going to be executedbut all of them were in the triumphal entry.
2 Corinthians 2:16
Paul is overwhelmed by this"who is sufficient for these things?" My friend, the greatest privilege in the world is to give out the Word of God. There is nothing like it. I would never want to run for the presidency of the United States. It is difficult to understand why anyone would want to be president in this day of unsolvable problems. But it is glorious to give out the Word of God! Do you know why? Because He always causes us to triumph! While I was a pastor in Los Angeles, we very seldom had a Sunday when someone didn’t turn to Christ, and many times there were a great many folk. When the gospel is preached and the multitudes accept Christ, that is wonderful. We can see the triumph there. We are a “savour of life” unto those who are saved. But now wait a minutewhat about the crowd which rejects Christ? We are a “savour of death” to them. I often say to the congregation after I have preached a message, “If you go out of here after rejecting Christ, I am probably the worst enemy you will ever have, because now you cannot go into the presence of God and say that you never heard the gospel.” However, all people are now in the triumphal entry.
Many will not be set free; they will be judged. But regardless of our destiny, we are in the great triumphal entry of Jesus Christ because He is going to win, my friend! Every knee must bow to him, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Every individual will have to bow to Him somedayregardless of whether He is the person’s Savior or Judge. No wonder Paul exclaims, “Who is sufficient for these things?” “To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life.” Today the incense is ascending; the Word is going out. And we are a savor of life to some and a savor of death to others.
2 Corinthians 2:17
This is the entire plan of the Christian ministry. We are not to corrupt the Word of God or distort it or make merchandise of it, but to give it out in sincerity as the Spirit of God reveals its truth to us.