2 Corinthians 1:23-2:13 On Trolls and Forgiveness
C. S. Lewis once said, “We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.”
In today’s reading from 2 Corinthians we see the reality of forgiveness and the real work, commitment, and love that it requires.
In today’s world this work of forgiveness and reconciliation is need as much now as ever. Today’s passage speaks into our hurting and divided world with wisdom and love.
So, let’s explore it together…
We pick up the letter from verse 23 where we see some more context around Paul’s disagreement with the Corinthians.
2 Cor 1:23-2:4
23 But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
2 For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? 3 And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. 4 For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
Last week we explored how disappointed the Corinthians were that Paul had to change his plans and couldn’t visit them. This week we get some more insight into why.
Paul didn’t visit the Corinthians out of pastoral care and consideration. It seems he had some kind of severe discipline in mind.
Paul instead refers to a painful letter that he sent the Corinthians. One where presumably he poured out his heart and concern for them as well as spelling out some difficult truths that they needed to hear.
What is evident is the level of feeling. Paul speaks of pain, anguish of heart and many tears.
Paul displays a profound love and pastoral care for the Corinthian congregation.
There is a very raw pain that we encounter when we come into conflict with those whom we love. Any of us who have been through a conflict with a family member, a loved one, or close friends know that hurt and the deep grief associated with tension and breakdown in relationship. Songs are composed about it, books written about it, entire films scripted around the hurt and level of feeling we experience in relational angst and hurt.
We are left wondering what might have happened for Paul to be so moved. What was the offence behind this passage?
Many of the ancient commentators on this passage identified the offender in this passage as the man mentioned in Paul’s first letter in chapter 5. This man sleeps with his Father’s wife and causes pain and scandal in his family and community. Another option is that it could be a member of the community undermining Paul’s authority as a leader and causing dissension. It’s not entirely clear.
Paul doesn’t name and shame the offender and here we see beautiful pastoral motives. Paul promotes healing not gossip. His reason for writing is unity and reconciliation, not retribution.
What is clear is that this person’s actions are affecting the entire community and causing pain.
Paul’s image of the church as the body of Christ comes to mind. Where one part of the body is hurting or in pain, the whole body is impacted.
Here we see the reality of the pain involved in living out community. It simply can’t be avoided. Our romantic ideals will not last long when we commit ourselves to genuine community. What is required is the hard work of love, justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation. This applies on a micro scale in our marriages and families, in a wider scale in our extended families and churches, and on a more global and political scaled in our cities and nations.
So, what does Paul suggest. How are they going to address the pain and offense going on?
2 Cor 2:5-8
5 Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. 6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
Here we see that Confrontation is the first step in genuine love.
Paul doesn’t skip over the pain. He acknowledges that there has been hurt.
Paul refers to some kind of justice that has taken place.
Paul is promoting a peaceful and just resolution not unholy compromise.
A common discipline in the early church for someone who had cause deep hurt and offence and who wasn’t willing to reconcile was that they would be put out of fellowship. They would be removed from the life of the worshipping community.
It was likely that something along these lines had happened to the offender at Corinth.
There must have been a really hard but necessary conversation that happened.
We so easily shy away from these conversations in community simply because they are not easy to have. It’s easier just not to have the conversation or the confrontation.
Social worker and author, Brene Brown, has written an excellent book on leadership and tough conversations.
She says this about the current world in which we live:
“People are opting out of vital conversations about diversity and inclusivity because they fear looking wrong, saying something wrong, or being wrong. Choosing our own comfort over hard conversations is the epitome of privilege, and it corrodes trust and moves us away from meaningful and lasting change.” (Brené Brown, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.)
It seems that right now the whole world is starting to have hard conversations about tough realities. We are talking again about racism and the deep hurt and pain caused over generations.
There is no simple fix here.
The point we see, made clearly by Paul is that the hard conversations must happen. We cannot have any kind of reconciliation without first the recognition of hurts, and dealing to the pain, and seeking justice.
Paul confronts the particular issue in the Corinthian community directly.
Paul insists that though the offender has cause pain and is facing the consequences, things shouldn’t always stay this way. The point isn’t that the offender is left to excessive sorrow but is brought back into the community and shown love.
2 Cor 2:9-11
9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 10 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
Paul makes the point that the Christian community is characterized by forgiveness.
Of course, we can be so reluctant to forgive.
Jesus knows this.
In Luke 17 Jesus says: “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Paul mentions that forgiveness happens in the presence of Christ. It is his presence that makes a difference. Our forgiveness to one another is offered in the light of the forgiveness Jesus offers.
In Matthew 18 Jesus tells the story of the unforgiving servant. This servant is forgiven a huge debt he owes but then shortly after receiving his own freedom, he chases after those who owe him money mercilessly, placing them in prison until they pay up.
Jesus tells this story to illustrate the gracious forgiveness of God toward each of us and the pure hypocrisy of being willing to accept forgiveness but never offer it to others.
FORGIVENESS AND PUBLIC WITNESS
Forgiveness is important in our personal relationships, and it is also important for our public witness.
Paul, like Jesus speaks of the serious ramifications of unforgiveness in the Christian community.
In verse 11 he sees unforgiveness as something that can be leveraged by Satan to destroy Christian witness. One commentator puts it powerfully:
“Satan’s realm is one where immorality, the thirst for revenge, ruthlessness, heartlessness, and deadly rancor hold sway. Those who are in Christ have received God’s free pardon, and they are transferred into a realm where faith, hope, love, and tender mercies rule. Satan is powerless before a united community filled with love and humble forgiveness.”[1]
There is a lot at stake in this issue of forgiveness.
We continue to live in a world full of injustice and one plagued by conflict.
All this injustice and pain is no surprise if we have a coherent and robust doctrine of sin, or fallenness, or brokenness. Whatever you call it, we need the biblical language which explains our ability to hurt one another, to cause chaos and fall short of the love that God calls us to express to our neighbours.
Yet, we in so many ways, in the 21st century have lost shared language when it comes to brokenness, guilt, and forgiveness.
Putting his finger on this issue, Alan Jacobs says this:
-"When a society rejects the Christian account of who we are, it doesn’t become less moralistic but far more so, because it retains an inchoate sense of justice but has no means of offering and receiving forgiveness. The great moral crisis of our time is not, as many of my fellow Christians believe, sexual licentiousness, but rather vindictiveness. Social media serve as crack for moralists: there’s no high like the high you get from punishing malefactors. But like every addiction, this one suffers from the inexorable law of diminishing returns. The mania for punishment will therefore get worse before it gets better."
― Alan Jacobs, Humanities Professor, Baylor University (Snakes and Ladders blog, 2017)
Jacobs raises the issue of internet trolls and the mentality of rights without responsibilities.
It seems everywhere we turn today, especially online, people are hurling accusations at one another yet pretty slow to self-reflection and genuine reconciliation.
The Christian community are not off the hook. Thomas Merton, the insightful monk and writer said:
The devil makes many disciples by preaching against sin. He convinces them that the great evil of sin, induces a crisis of guilt by which “God is satisfied," and after that he lets them spend the rest of their lives meditating on the intense sinfulness and evident reprobation of other men. (Thomas Merton)[2]
Paul’s vision of conflict resolution is a robust alternative to vindictiveness and self-righteousness. How is this so?
Firstly – because it confronts injustice and pain truthfully. It doesn’t deny reality.
Secondly – because it seeks restoration of relationship. Growth and healing is the goal, not retribution or revenge.
Paul’s theology of forgiveness has huge implications for our personal relationships and our public discourse.
So where do we start?
I think the best place to start is with the practice of confession. We aren’t naturally forgiving and full of grace.
We will become people of forgiveness by knowing the depth to which we are forgiven.
Week in and week out at worship we confess our sins and we hear the words “through the cross of Christ God have mercy on you, pardon you, and set you free.”
Bonhoeffer put it well:
“As Christ bore and received us as sinners so we in his fellowship may bear and receive sinners into the fellowship of Christ through the forgiving of sins.” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together)
Today may we know the freedom that in Jesus Christ, God forgives us. It is from this freedom that we are free to forgive others.
[1] David E. Garland “THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY Volume 29 2 Corinthians.”
[2] Thomas Merton “New Seeds of Contemplation”