5/29 - 2 Corinthians 2

After 1 Corinthians, Paul made a visit to Corinth that was apparently none too pleasant. He addressed them in person, and then by letter (v. 4), because one of the members there had openly insulted him and possibly the entire church since they felt it necessary to punish him (v. 6). There were likely other items of contention with the Corinthians that he addressed in that letter (7:8-9) but he wrote it in love so that the church could be approved in their faithfulness. And now in this letter, he offers his forgiveness and suggest anyone else who was offended by this certain individual to do the same.

The key for this chapter for me was understanding that everything in the church will not be all peachy, and clearly hasn't always been from the beginning. And not only that, if we're not careful we allow Satan room to wreak havoc.

"Now who 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." (v. 10-11).

Here I see a few strategies we can use that will preserve our joy and keep the enemy where he belongs - under our feet. First, we see acceptance of others' forgiveness. Paul was willing to forgive who they forgave. I think there's power in the testimony of others that once we see another believer able to do something as powerful as forgiveness, we then are encouraged about the possibility of trying something like that ourselves. I know my wife has very quickly forgiven me of some things I've admitted that I had no expectation of her forgiving. The power in that is not only do we grow closer, but it increases my willingness to forgive.

The other key aspect of this verse for me was the acknowledgement of who our true enemy is. When we've been offended it's easy to view the offender as the enemy but in doing so, we fall right into one of Satan's devices. As a professional deceiver, he uses our ignorance of him to take advantage of us. He would love nothing more than to be able to control our lives with spite, anger, lust, etc without us even knowing it's him who's doing it. So the last line of this passage becomes important - "for we are not ignorant of his devices." We must know our enemy. We can see in the Word examples of confusion, deception, discord, and pain all brought on by the enemy and if we're not careful, we do something silly like blame others or worse, God. [Sports analogy alert] Every year I see my Bengals suffer at the hands of a certain AFC North team because of the deception in their blitz packages. It's not that we don't know that they're coming after the quarterback, its that we don't know how they're coming. We know that Satan is out for us (1 Peter 5:8) but if we're looking in the wrong place (like other people and God) we'll never stop him.

God, as I walk with you today don't let me be deceived. I face so many daily distractions and I pray that Your Word, that is hidden in me, will allow me to discern Your will for me. I pray for a heart to forgive those who offend me, just as you forgave me.