Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20010610.htm

2 CORINTHIANS: OVERCOMING WHEN GOD'S SERVANT FACES RESISTANCE
Part III: Giving ROOM For GOD To Disciple Fellow Christians
(2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11)
  1. Introduction
    1. Often with our own children and at times with new converts we lead to Christ, we can become overly concerned about their need to grow up and avoid the pitfalls into which we can predict they are heading!
    2. Paul provides us with an excellent example of handling the very immature disciple who has a long and halting pathway to travel before becoming spiritually mature in the Lord, 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11:
  2. Giving ROOM For GOD To Disciple Fellow Christians, 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11.
    1. The Background: A man in the Corinthian church had committed an act of immorality even the pagans in Corinth would not have done -- cohabiting with his stepmother, 1 Corinthians 5:1. Well, instead of exercising church discipline, the believers had even made light of the affair, 1 Cor. 5:2. Thus, Paul found it necessary to be rather direct with the believers, calling them to exercise formal church discipline on the guilty, 1 Cor. 5:3-7. The section before us describes Paul's picking up the pieces at Corinth following this event with believers who wondered why Paul had led them strongly to discipline the guilty party!
    2. Paul worked hard to give these very immature believers room to grow after the tough discipline he had administered in their midst, 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11:
      1. He informed them that his apostolic authority had no dominion over their relationship with Christ, 2 Corinthians 1:24. They were accountable to God, not to Paul.
      2. Paul then demonstrated that only God had dominion over their faith by giving them room following his tough use of apostolic authority to discipline these folk, 2 Corinthians 1:23; 2:1-11:
        1. Paul tried to give the Corinthian believers emotional room to heal, 2 Cor. 1:23; 2:1-4: (a) He avoided even visiting Corinth at one point so as to minimize the emotional pressure his presence might have produced following his hard disciplinary action, 2 Cor. 1:23; 2:1-2; (b) he instead wrote a letter to say as much, feeling it would be less of a threat than his presence with the circumstances, 2 Cor. 2:3; (c) in the letter itself, Paul expressed his grief that the event of his disciplinary action even had to occur so as to help the emotional rebuilding process, 2 Cor. 2:4.
        2. Paul tried to give the man who had been disciplined social room to be restored: he told the Church to limit its negative treatment of the disciplined man, and to restore him to full acceptance following his repentance, 2 Corinthians 2:5-8, 9-10.
        3. He then tried to get the Church to limit its negative treatment of the disciplined party so as not to destroy his spiritual motivation to mature in the Lord, 2 Corinthians 2:11 with Ryrie Study Bible: King James Version footnote, which says: "The forgiven brother needed to be restored to fellowship lest Satan put him under the pressure of continued self-accusation and introspection. As long as the matter was not settled, Satan kept Paul and the church estranged."
Lesson: We do not have the right to rule the faith of fellow believers in Christ, EVEN when GOD holds us responsible to administer discipline over them as leaders! These people belong to God, not to us, and so does their WALK with the Lord! All that WE overseers (Church leaders, husbands, parents, etc.) do in even Biblical administration must be metered by what Scripture permits and commands we do.

Application: (1) If Paul as an APOSTLE of Christ did not have the right to command even a brother under his administration what and when and where to do anything, but merely to obey the LORD in how he even exercised leadership over the brother, NEITHER can WE dictate to another brother in Christ, regardless WHO he is, what he should give in the offering, what services he must attend, what he should do with his children or anything else not DIRECTLY delegated to us in Scripture by God! (2) If a brother in Christ is in error, we must let GOD direct as to WHEN, HOW and WHY he is corrected. (3) If we find ourselves in the awkward ROLE of administering DISCIPLINE to another brother in Christ, we must CAREFULLY FOLLOW SCRIPTURE at EACH STEP, and then LEAVE the rest to GOD to handle!