Lesson #25

2CORINTHIANS 2
Lesson #25
THE IMPORTANCE OF FORGIVENESS

• Memory Verse: 2Cor 2:15

• In chapter one of 2Corinthians, Paul told us about the wonderful comfort we have in our lives through Jesus Christ. Paul continues in chapter 2 with his theme about God’s comfort.
• Read 2Cor 2:1-4 The Heart of a Pastor
• Before Paul resumes his discussion about forgiveness, he explains why he had not visited them.
• He did not want to visit them with a heavy heart because of their unrepentant sins. (1)
• His sorrow would have made them sad. (2)
• In this section, we learn about the great sorrow Paul felt when he wrote 1Corinthians. (4)
• Paul uses the words affliction and anguish of heart, tears and grief.
• Paul expresses his abundant love for them as his motive for writing the severe corrections in 1Corinthians.
• This passage shows us the heart of a true pastor. It is not easy correcting people’s sinful life styles for some people feel it is meddling in their lives. However, this is the work of God that calls people to repentance. A pastor that does not do this is negligent before God.
• The key is the motive of love that must be behind any reprimand.
• Pablo would rather come in joy after hearing they had repented. (3)

• Read 2Cor 2:5-11 Forgiveness and Comfort
• You will remember that in 1Corinthians Paul reprimanded the church for permitting to remain in church fellowship a man living with his father’s wife. Paul told the church to excommunicate this man if he did not repent. (1Cor 5:13)
• The church had obeyed Paul’s direction and excommunicated that man. After that, the man finally decided to repent. Now what should the church do?
• Paul says they should be equally obedient to his words when he tells them to forgive the man and accept him back into fellowship. (7-8)
• Notice that Paul counsels them to comfort this man. This is what acceptance into fellowship does for the repentant sinner, it gives him comfort. The idea is to rescue him with love from a deep sorrow that would cause him to think there is no hope for him and cause him to fall further away from the Lord. (Gal 6:1)
• If the man has truly repented, Paul, too will forgive him in the name of Christ. (10)
• Satan’s tactics: (9-11)
• Paul encourages all those in the church to forgive this repentant sinner, for if there be some that withheld forgiveness, Satan would take advantage of the situation to cause further divisions in the church.
• The extension of forgiveness is an integral and necessary part of ministry.
• It is important that forgiveness be demonstrated by all in the church so as to maintain the unity in the body of Christ.
• Understanding the Spiritual Dynamics of Biblical Forgiveness:

• There is so much in the Christian life that is connected to forgiveness that it is important to understand the spiritual dynamics of forgiveness.
• Forgiveness begins with God for man through Jesus Christ. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins to bring us forgiveness from sin and eternal life.
• Because the believer is forgiven of his sins, God now expects him to forgive others for their offenses in the same way God forgave us of our offenses. We are to be like Christ, our model.
• Why is forgiveness so important?
• Read Heb 12:15
• In the same way that God’s forgiveness for our sins determines our eternal destiny, our forgiveness for others determines the difference between spiritual maturity and spiritual immaturity in our lives. Those Christians that do not forgive others remain forever spiritual babies.
• A lack of forgiveness restricts the working of God’s Spirit in the lives of all people touched by the offense or touched by the lives of the two people involved in the offense.
• How does the lack of forgiveness do so much damage spiritually?
• When a person does something to offend you, you immediately focus on that person and his offense. It makes no difference whether the offense is big or small, justified or not, real or imagined.
• Focus on the offense immediately puts an obstacle between you and the other person. It is not an obstacle you can see. Instead it is a spiritual reality of separation in a relationship.
• A person with a root of bitterness has a constant focus on that offense. The longer he holds on to it, the bigger it grows, and the deeper it grows. Over time, there is a spiritual wall of separation that seems too big and too deep to ever heal.
• Spiritual Truth #1:

We become like that on which we focus.

• A Christian that makes Christ his focus becomes more like Christ in his attitudes and actions.
• A Christian that makes an offense his focus becomes more like the offender.
• If people would just realize this spiritual truth, they would immediately stop focusing on the offense. In reality the last person you want as your model is the person that committed the offense.
• Spiritual Truth #2:

A root of bitterness is a spiritual bondage.

• A Christian that permits a root of bitterness to grow within him puts himself in bondage to the offender. (Joh 8:33)

• “…of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”

(2Pet 2:19b)

• A continual focus on the offense and the offender gradually and eventually overcomes the believer.
• Spiritual Truth #3:

Pride feeds the root of bitterness.

• A person that is unwilling to forgive another person sets himself as judge over another.
• A person that is unwilling to forgive another person is too proud to seek reconciliation with another. He prefers bondage to freedom so as to maintain his pride.
• A person that is unwilling to forgive another person sins against the command of Christ to forgive each other. In pride, he is unwilling to repent of his own sin.
• Spiritual Truth #4:

Taking up the offense of another spreads the bitterness and the spiritual bondage. (Psa 15:3b)

• When a believer takes up the root of bitterness by taking sides against an offender, he broadens the circle of spiritual bondage. It is in this way that family feuds and divisions in families develop.
• Spiritual Truth #5:

The only way to kill the root of bitterness is by repentance and forgiveness.

• Restrictions are placed on the Holy Spirit by a person holding a root of bitterness.
• The Holy Spirit cannot work in the lives of these two people that are held in spiritual bondage one to the other until there is repentance and forgiveness.
• The working of the Holy Spirit is further restricted when the offense and bitterness spreads to other people close to these two people.
• In this way, it is necessary to kill the root of bitterness in all the people that have involved themselves in the offense.
• Spiritual freedom through forgiveness:
• Read Mat 6:14-15
• Read Mat 18:32-35
• There is only one way to kill the root of bitterness:
• One person must make a decision to end the bondage.
• That person must ask God for forgiveness of his own sins in either initiating the offense or in perpetuating the offense.
• That person must approach with an attitude of prayer, love, and forgiveness the other person.
• This must be done on a personal level. A letter or phone call is not good enough.
• Plan your words before you go.
• Summary:
• There will always be offenses and offenders in our lives. How must the Christian view these situations in a mature way?
• If the believer understands the spiritual dynamics involved, he is better equipped to handle offenses when they come.
• An offense is God’s way of bringing to the surface a specific need in the life of the offender.
• Ask God to give you a new love for the offender.
• Pray for him and the needs in his life.
• An offense is God’s way of bringing to the surface the nature of our focus. Is it on Christ or the offense?
• An offense is God’s way of bringing to the surface our own wrong attitudes.
• What does this chapter in 2Corinthians teach about forgiveness when someone offends you?
• The individual and the church are commanded to forgive another Christian when there has been repentance.
• What does the offended person owe to the person who offended him?
• The victim of the offense owes the offender an opportunity to repent and make things right.
• If that opportunity is taken, then the victim owes the offender his forgiveness according to the command given us by Jesus Christ.
• What are the results when the Christian does not forgive?
• A root of bitterness grows.
• As we have seen, the results are spiritual bondage in the life of the victim, in the life of the offender, and in the lives of all people that become involved in the offense.
• When forgiveness is withheld, it keeps us spiritually immature.
• When forgiveness is withheld, we cannot expect forgiveness from others when we are the offenders.
• When forgiveness is withheld, we cannot expect God’s forgiveness.

• Read 2Cor 2:12-13 Paul’s Worry
• Paul was worried about the church in Corinth when Titus did not come to give him a report of the results of his corrections especially in regards to the man in the church that was sleeping with his father’s wife.
• While Paul waited and worried over the Corinthian church, he continued on his travels as the Holy Spirit opened doors of ministry for him.

• Read 2Cor 2:14-17 The Triumphant Power of the Ministry
• Background:
• The words of this passage illustrate the Roman triumphal entry into the city of Rome after a great triumph in battle. Paul uses those words as an example of the Christian’s victory in Christ.
• After the Roman army had been on the road fighting battle after battle in a long campaign, they would finally return to Rome in a great victory march. The city of Rome made a big celebration over these triumphal entries into the city that would last all day. The Roman conqueror would bring with his army all the wealth he had taken from every conquest. There would be herds of animals, clothing, jewels, perfume, gold, silver, and bronze. There would be slaves of those defeated in battle carrying incense, and some coming to Rome for execution carrying incense. There would be free men of those liberated by the Romans carrying incense. (14-16)
• Paul says that in the Christian’s life, there are some that are saved and some that perish.(15-16)
• In the Roman triumphal entry some in the procession were coming to Rome liberated from the enemy, but others were coming for execution. Therefore the incense they carried was either a sweet smell of life or a pungent smell of death.
• Even when some people do not get saved by their contact with a believer, Christ triumphs in that those people saw the testimony of a Christian life.
• Through Jesus Christ all the problems in the lives of believers and in the life of the church have a potential resolution if they are dealt with through a biblically based ministry that allows the Holy Spirit to apply love and forgiveness to a situation.
• Notice that Paul says; “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ…” (14)
• Does God always triumph in the life of a Christian even when it seems as though the Christian is defeated?
• Yes. God, in His sovereignty and predestination, uses every situation in a believer’s life to accomplish some good either in the Christian or for others. The important thing is to look for the good and to praise God through the apparent defeats. It is the attitude of the believer that snatches victory out of the jaws of the lion that would defeat us. (1Pet 5:8-9)
• Our lives are a sweet smell to God. (15)
• In the end Christ is the triumphant conqueror for eventually every knee shall bow to Him either in worship and love or in the final judgment of eternal death.
• “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”

(17)

• God’s remnant of true born-again believers in this world will always be a minority. Like Paul it is important for this minority of true believers to speak the Word of God with sincerity and truth giving out God’s truth so that whether people reject or accept the truth, at least some will get saved for an eternity with Christ. This is the triumph of the ministry!

HOMEWORK
2CORINTHIANS 3
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of 2Cor 2
• Are there any relationships in your life that need healing through forgiveness to break a spiritual bondage?
• What specifically will you do this week to bring resolution and healing to this relationship?

• Preparation for 2Cor 3
• Read 2Cor 3:1-18
• What are the deficiencies of the Old Covenant?
• What are the blessings of the New Covenant?

• Memory Verse: 2Cor 3:17