July 22, 2019 – Click here to listen
Some four years after founding the Corinth church, the great Apostle Paul was badly maligned by a church member. I was studying 2 Cor. Chapter 2 this morning and it begins with Paul commending the congregation for disciplining a member for doing just that, but urging them that it was time to forgive and comfort him so that he would not be swallowed up with sorrow.
More than likely this guy was back-stabbing Paul out of jealousy, or perhaps he was under the influence of Judaism coming out of Jerusalem. Nonetheless while Paul was on a mission trip the guy had bad-mouthed him behind his back and it makes his gesture of encouraging forgiveness more magnanimous and a good indicator of his unswerving devotion to the teachings of Christ to suggest that the church should now forgive and comfort him.
Last week I wrote about having trouble forgiving and comforting a “friend” who admitted he’d run me down behind my back in front of some other “friends.” I know I’m no Paul for if I was, like Paul, I would just forgive and forget. The guy who talked bad of me seemed to be sorrowful about what he’d done and told me that the Holy Spirit was responsible for urging him to perform his mea culpa. My flesh tells me GOOD! He deserves to feel bad about it and he should feel bad for lying about me behind my back!
But I know that Christ is disappointed in me over this.
I assume pride is getting in the way. I need to work on it and pray about it. When I was young and a street urchin I disliked hypocrites in the church immensely. I didn’t have a lot of exposure to Christians, but what I had was not good. I got to the point of hating Christians and I almost killed a street preacher in New Orleans for pointing his finger at me and screaming that I was going to hell. All my life the few church people I knew didn’t act like Christians at all. In fact, they acted worse than non-Christians to my way of thinking. It took a miracle of God for me to become a Christian. After my friend apologized and asked for forgiveness all I could think of was this supposed friend wronging me.
Hmmm . . . He didn’t act like a Christian when he stabbed me in the back, but it seems I conveniently forget about not acting like a Christian when I refused to truly forgive and forget after his apology. I’m as much a part of the problem as he is.
I’ve heard many famous athletes lament the fact that they are role models for young kids. They didn’t sign up for that, but nonetheless they do have that responsibility. Likewise, like it or not, Christians, especially Christian leaders, have the responsibility of representing Christ and when we behave shabbily how harmful we can be to Christianity. I am determined to improve in this area, and I’m asking God to fortify me and give me strength to overcome it. A friend of mine once told me after I had wronged someone to go ahead and apologize and eat some crow. He elaborated that it didn’t taste all that bad. He was right. I guess I need to truly forgive and forget . . .
1 John 4:20
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.