"For the unbelieving husbnd is sanctified through the (believing) wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy!" (I Corinthians 7:14)

In last week's lesson on I Corinthians 6:12-20, the apostle Paul urged Corinthian believers to "flee fornication"!  Their bodies, he stressed, were not for immorality but for the Lord," as members of Christ, and should never be joined with a prostitute!  "Do you not know (he said) that the one who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body (or 'one flesh') with her and, in effect, makes Christ a member with a prostitute!  "May it never be!"  But he's not finished saying what they need to hear!  "Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body!  Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body!"

Then, in last night's lesson, in I Corinthians 7:1-16, the apostle Paul addresses a much related subject, something about which the Corinthians had earlier written to him about (with basically a "why can't I?" type of attitude, according to Constable)!  The subject being about marriage, and divorce, and remarriage--an area of "trouble (MacArthur notes) due to the moral corruption of the Corinthian culture which tolerated fornication, adultery, homsexuality, polygamy, and concubinage"!  

And so Paul begins by asserting that "it's good for a man not to touch a woman!"  "Touch" being a Jewish euphemism for "having sexual relations"!  It's difficult to understand exactly what Paul had in mind by making this opening statement--in view of all the positive things he goes on to say about the "beauty and blessings" of the God-ordained sexual relationships between husbands and wives, in the verses to follow!  Unless he was referring to sexual relations outside of marriage, and in context with all the immoralities that were taking place in the Corinthian culture!  Which probably explains why he said what he did in introducing his comments to the Corinthians on the subject of marriage! 

And so, "because of the immoralities" that abounded, Paul writes that each man should have his own wife, and that each woman should have her own husband! And he added that "the husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband," and noted also that "the wife doesn't have authority ovcr her own body, but the husband does and likewise also the husband doesn't have authority over his own body, but the wife does"!  And so, "stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of control"!  

Interestingly, some of the married Corinthians who had become Christians, and whose prior lives been caught up with the sexual activities of the Corinthians, apparently thought that they could somehow now become "more spiritual' if they abstained from all sexual activity in their married relationship!  To which the apostle Paul gave a sharp rebuke, making it clear that sex within the bonds of marriage was not "unspiritual" at all!  In fact, it was God who "invented " it, and designed it, and blessed it!  And so Paul made it clear that there was "no place for celibacy in a Christian marriage"!  (Interesting also to note the degree of "equality and mutuality" which Paul called for between a husband and a wife, something that was highly "counter-cultural" in Paul's day, and particularly in the Corinthian culture where husbands had clear rights over their wives!)

Paul's position on marriage is totally consistent with what God said in the beginning, in Genesis 2:18-24, when he created a woman for a man!  "It is not good for a man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him," and verse 22 says that "the Lord God "fashioned a woman from the rib He had taken from man, and brought her to Adam"!  And after he picked himself up from the ground (ha!), he said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman"!  And God capped it off by proclaiming: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh!" (And that remains God's plan to this day!)

As for those who were single but formerly married, and for the widows--as well as for those who had been involved in all kinds of sexual perversions prior to becoming believers--Paul (in verse 8) encouraged them to remain single, "even as I"!  Unless they don't have self control, in which case "let them marry, for it's better to marry than to burn"!  MacArthur notes that "a person cannot live a happy life, much less serve the Lord, if he is continually burning with sexual desire, even if the sexual desires never result in actual immorality!  And that in a society like in Corinth (or ours!), in which immorality is so prevalent and accepted, it is especially difficult not to succumb to temptation"!  (It's noted that, in verse 8, Paul seems to identify himself with the "formerly married and widows," lending support for the understanding that he too was previously married--perhaps before he became a believer--and now was committed to remaining single and unencumbered in serving the Lord!  MacArthur notes that Romans 16:13 seems to refer to his former wife's mother, lending further support for this understanding!)

Then, "to those who are married," beginning in verse 10, Paul says that "it is the instruction from the Lord that the wife (who is a believer, presumably) should not leave (i.e., divorce) her husband (but if she does leaves, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled with her husband), and that the (believing) husband should not divorce his wife"!

But Paul adds his opinion (not the Lord's!), in verses 13-14, that "if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her! And if a woman (who is a believer) has an unbelieving husband, who  consents to live with her, she must not send him away!  For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy!"  Wow! According to this passage, Children in this kind of "mixed marriage" enjoy special treatment from God in a "special setting apart" that gives protection in the home and a supply of grace needed for that sometimes difficult situations"!  In other words, Paul is saying that God will pour out his grace, and a believer will bring blessing into that home!

Then, in verse 15, Paul takes it to another level!  "Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him (or her!) leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace!"  Note that the Christian partner should never be the one seeking a divorce!  MacArthur notes that the bond of marriage is broken only by death, adultery, or an unbeliever leaving, in which case (says MacArthur!) a Christian is free to marry another believer!  MacArthur further notes that "some believers may be reluctant to let go of their unsaved spouse, who want out and is creating discord in the home--thinking that they can somehow evangelize the spouse by hanging on to them; but that Paul seems to suggest that there is no such assurance, and that it is better to allow divorce and be at peace"!  (But, interestingly, Paul, closes this portion of the passage in verse 16, by still holding out hope for the unbeliever's salvation!)

We can't close this lesson without turning to the Scripture, in Matthew 19:3-9, where Jesus addresses the issue of marriage and divorce in response to a question from the Pharisees, as to "whether it's lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason"?  And this is Jesus' timeless answer: "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh!  So they are no longer two, but one flesh!  What God has joined together, let no man separate!"  But they asked: 'Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?'  And He said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce his wife; but from the beginning it has not been this way!  And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery!"

Interestingly, the disciples responded to Jesus' teaching with the conclusion that "if the relationship of the man and his wife is like this, it's better not to marry"!  Jesus noted that "not all men can accept this statement (i.e., remain single), but only to those to whom it has been given (as a "gift"), and he referred to "eunuchs who were born that way, or made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom"!  (Sounds a lot like Paul's understanding!)

Paul has more to add to this subject in Ephesians 5:22-28, and it's an appropriate and timely ending for this lesson!  "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.  For as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.  So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies..."!

I don't think Paul's ready to leave this subject alone!

Thank God for Christian marriages!

Lowell

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body!" (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
 
In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 6:1-11, the apostle Paul confronted the Corinthian believers with the "in your face" question of how any of them "dared" to instigate a lawsuit and take another "brother" ( a fellow believer) to civil court to settle a dispute between them, rather than settle it among themselves, or within the church--thereby not "hanging out their dirty laundry" for all to see, even dragging down the testimony of the church before an ever-watching, and already skeptical world!  This kind of behavior was apparently quite prevalent in the Church of Corinth, and just another example of how worldly and carnal some of the professing Corinthian Christians were living!  Just like the world!  And reverting back to their former life before being saved!  "Why can't you settle your disputes among yourselves, or find 'a wise man' among you (in the church) to decide on any needed actions, or better yet, allow yourself to be wronged or defrauded"?  Paul asked!  "It's already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another!  Better to suffer a loss financially than spiritually!" And he probably reminded them of what he told the Colossians (in Colossians 3) about "putting on the new self," and following the example of Christ in forgiving one another, "just as God in Christ has forgiven you"!
 
But he wasn't finished with his exhortation!  "Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God," he wrote!  "Don't be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God!  Such were some of you; but you've been washed (regenerated, given a new life!), you've been sanctified (with a new capacity for holy living!), and you've been justified (given new standing!), in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God"!  Thus encouraging them to examine themselves and to remind themselves that they've been transformed, and that a transformed life should produce transformed thinking, and living!  (And this a lesson which left us with a challenging question to ask ourselves as well: "What will people who are observing me conclude about followers of Christ by the way I'm conducting myself?")
 
And that set the tone for our lesson last night on I Corinthians 6:12-20 where Paul challenges the Corinthians (and us as well!) to consider more deeply about who we are, and what we have, as "believers," and how that should affect how we choose to live!
 
"All things are lawful for me (Paul writes), but not all things are profitable!  All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything!"  Wow!  Sounds like the apostle Paul is making a case for "Christian liberty"!  Constable notes that "he was, and is, famous as the apostle of Christian liberty, and that he saw early, and clearly, in his Christian life that the Christian is not under the Mosaic Law"!  His epistle to the Galatians is, in fact, an exposition of that theme, and he preached "freedom" wherever he went!  
 
Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject to the yoke of slavery!"  In Romans 6:14 he writes, "Believers are not under law but under grace!"  And in Romans:1-2, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death!  For what the law could not do, weak as it was in the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit!"  
 
And so we get some insight into Paul's life as a "free man in Christ"!  Obviously not as a "legalist," with a set of "do's and don'ts," and rules that governed every aspect of his life, but as one free to discern the will of God in every situation through his connection with the Word of God and the Spirit of God guiding him into all truth, and in revealing to him "the good and acceptable and perfect will of God"!  Constable writes that "legality is not the only test the Christian should apply to his or her behavior, but is the practice beneficial, helpful, admirable, profitable, expedient, and good"?  Paul gives insight into his guiding principle in Galatians 5:13, where he wrote: "Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh!"
 
The Corinthians, unfortunately, chose to twist Paul's teaching of "liberty in Christ" to mean that there were no restrictions whatsoever in Christian living and so they were free to live however they pleased, whether in choosing what they ate to satisfy their stomach's appetites or even by engaging in sexual relationships with prostitutes to satisfy their body's sexual appetites!  "Sex is no different from eating!  The stomach was made for food and the body was made for sex," they postulated!  And by so thinking, and doing, totally violating the principle of Galatians 5:13, and getting caught up in serious sin!
 
The apostle Paul took immediate umbrage and, with great profundity retorts: "Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them.  Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body,  Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up (bodily!) through His power.  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?  Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?  May it never be!  Or do you not know (there he goes again!) that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her?  For He says (going back to the beginning, in Genesis 2:24), "The two shall become one flesh"!  With eternal consequences!  Wow!
 
And thus the great warning for all who would hear: "Flee fornication!  Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body!''  (MacArthur writes that "no sin that a person commits has more built-in pitfalls, problems, and destructiveness than sexual sin!  It has broken more marriages, shattered more homes, caused more heartache and disease, and destroyed more lives than alcohol and drugs combined.  It causes lying, stealing, cheating, and killing, as well as bitterness, hatred, slander, gossip, and unforgiveness!''  And it especially perverts God's plan and purpose for the bodies of His people"!)  
 
And here's the clincher: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?   For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body!"  Wow!
 
What more can we say?
 
Flee fornication, men!
 
Lowell

"Your boasting is not good!  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" (I Corinthians 5:6)
 
In last week's lesson on I Corinthians 4, the apostle Paul wrote about what a true servant of God is, how he lives, what he endures, and how he should be viewed!  Beginning with this: "Let a man regard us (speaking of himself, Apollos, and other apostles and teachers) as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God"!  The word he used in the Greek for "servant," we learned, means "under-rower," and pictures a "galley slave" given the most menial task of responding to the ship's captain in rowing at the bottom, third-tier level of a large, big-bellied ship of that day.  Paul used another Greek word for servant in II Corinthians 6:4 which pictured a "table waiter"!  And so, Paul pictured himself and other apostles and Christian leaders as humble servants of God--galley slaves and table waiters!  Jesus used the same second servant word, we noted, to describe His disciples in Luke's gospel!  And in the same II Corinthians 6 passage (noted above), the apostle Paul would later describe the kinds of things that went along with being such a servant (at least in his experience): "In much endurance (he writes), in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labor, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth; in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as a deceiver and yet true; as unknown yet well known; as dying and yet we live; as punished and yet not to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things"!  Whew!
 
But not only a "servant of Christ"!  Also, a "steward of the mysteries of God"!  A steward, referring to a special kind of servant who is entrusted with the administration of his master's property, or estate; charged with looking after his best interests, and being accountable to him for the results!  And with "the mysteries of God," referring to divinely-inspired revelations given to him by God!  Paul wrote about this earlier, you'll remember, in I Corinthians 2:7-9, where it says: "But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but just as it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which has not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him"!  The apostle Peter wrote, in I Peter 4:10: "As each of you (and that would apply to each of us as "men of the Bible"!) has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as a good steward of the manifold grace of God"!
 
MacArthur notes that the most important virtue of a servant of the Lord is summed up in a word: Humility!  And we see that quality consistently demonstrated in the life and ministry of the apostle Paul!  Acts 20:19, for example, records him traveling through Asia, "serving the Lord with humility and with tears and with trials which came to him through the plots of the Jews"!  And, in I Corinthians 4, you'll remember, he writes that "God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become spectators to the world (picturing them, perhaps, as gladiators competing in the Roman colosseum)...and fools for Christ's sake..."!  And he goes on in the verses to follow to describe how, in contrast with the Corinthians, they (the apostles) were dishonored and weak while the Corinthians saw themselves as (somehow!) "prudent in Christ...and strong...and distinguished"!  The apostles who "when reviled, blessed; when persecuted, endured; when slandered, tried to conciliate, becoming as the scum of the world, and the dregs of all things"!  
 
All the above reflecting the kind of treatment Paul, and the other apostles, were willing to endure in order to proclaim the gospel of Christ!  The Bible Hub portrays the paradoxical nature of their lives as "lowly in the eyes of the world but rich in spiritual blessings"!  And this, Paul suggested, apparently reflected the "lowly way" the arrogant Corinthians viewed Paul and the apostles ss well!
 
And so we saw Paul here, in exercising his apostolic authority, and with a bit of sarcasm thrown in, trying to get the Corinthian "brothers" to see for themselves the pride and arrogance and other sinful ways of their lives!  Making it clear (in verse 14) that he "did not write these things to sham them but to admonish them as his beloved children...and to urge them instead to be "imitators of him," as he was of Christ!  And he said that it was for this reason that he was sending Timothy ("his beloved and faithful child in the Lord") who would "remind them of my ways which are in Christ"!
 
Paul closes I Corinthians 4, you'll remember, by expressing his hope than when he returns to Corinth he would find them following his teachings, so that he would be able to come to them with "love and a spirit of gentleness," rather than "with a rod"!
 
And so that sets the scene for I Corinthians 5--where it soon appears that the "rod" might be necessary after all!
 
Verse 1 begins, unfortunately, with Paul having had reported to him (with good authority, apparently!) that "there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles!" (Uh O!  Get out the rod, Paul!)  A man's sexual union with the woman who had married the immoral man's father!  Thus, his stepmother!  And, Paul notes how the Corinthian "brothers" had actually "become arrogant" about it (there's that word again!), even boasting of their "openness," and permissiveness in accepting it, when they should have mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from their midst"!  (MacArthur notes that it wasn't so much the existence of this sin in itself that shocked and upset Paul, but that it was actually tolerated within, and by, the church of Corinth!
 
So why was this so repugnant to God (and to the apostle Paul, and even to unbelievers)?
 
It was happening inside the proverbial "body of Christ"!  The church of God!  And it was vile!
 
I Corinthians 6:17-19 says, "Flee fornication!  Every other sin a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body!  Or do you not know (there he goes again!) that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your body!"  And note back in verse 13, where it's written that, "the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body"!  (MacArthur notes that "bodies of believers and the Lord have an eternal relationship that will never perish, and that the body will be changed, raised, glorified, and (one day!) made heavenly"!)
 
Constable writes that "the church's refusal to act against the offender provides the most striking example of the Corinthians "arrogance" (there it is again!), the carnal attitude that would lead to this and other serious sin in the church of the Corinthians, as we'll see as we continue our study of I Corinthians!
 
So how did the apostle Paul respond to this report?  Verse 3 says that "even though he was absent from them in body but present in spirit, he had already judged the one who committed this sin (again exercising his apostolic authority!) as if he were present among them and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, had decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of Jesus Christ"!  (Indicating that this immoral man was, in fact, a believer!)
 
So how should the leadership of the church have dealt with this issue to begin with, rather than waiting for Paul to act?
 
Jesus set up the process in Matthew 18:15-17, where He said to His disciples: "If your brother sins (notice the reference to "brother," speaking of a fellow believer), go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother!  But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed!  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he (still!) refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector!"  
 
So, why is so important that "known sin in the church" be confronted and dealt with promptly?  "Do you not know (there he goes again!) that a little leaven leavens the whole lump...?"  Constable writes: "Sin spreads in the church like yeast (or leaven) does in dough, and eventually the whole congregation would suffer if the believers did not remove this sin from their midst!"
 
Leaven is often used in Scripture to denote sin because of its permeating (and fermenting!) power!  Jesus said to His disciples, in Matthew 16:6, to "watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees..."--referring to their teaching and hypocrisy!  And we get a better understanding of this analogy from the way the Jews were taught to celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the Old Testament.  Exodus 12:14-15 says, "This day (speaking of the Passover) will be a memorial to you and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations...Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whosoever eats anything unleavened from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel!"  Exodus 13:7-8 adds that "you shall tell your sons, saying, 'It's because of what God did for them when He delivered them from Egypt!"  The final act of separation from Egypt, you'll remember, came on the Passover, when the death angel passed over Egypt and slaughtered the first-born of every Egyptian family, and every Jewish family too that didn't follow God's command to splatter the blood of a sacrificial lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their houses.  And so, the children of Israel were delivered from their bondage in Egypt (with the Passover symbolizing separation from life in Egypt)!  Just as Christ, our Passover Lamb, separates us, and delivers us, from the bondage of sin!
 
And so Paul writes, in I Corinthians 5:7-8, for the Corinthians (and this applies to us as well!) to "clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened (and a "new creation" in Christ).  For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed therefore let us celebrate the feast (figuratively speaking!), not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth"!  (MacArthur notes how the church is, therefore, "to remove everything sinful (leaven!) in order to separate it from the old life, including the influence of a sinful church member"!)
 
Paul further notes in verse 9 how he had earlier written for the Corinthians "not to associate with immoral people"!  But he clarifies that (in verse 10) by saying that "he didn't mean that we shouldn't associate with immoral people of this world--or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters of this world--but actually with a so-called 'brother' if he is an immoral person (or any of the above)!  Wow!  Constable notes that "it's not that a Christian should shun the world and avoid contact with unbelievers, since that kind of isolation would require that he stop living in the real world, and exist in some type of Christian ghetto, isolated from all contact with unbelievers"!  We are, rather, called to be "the salt of the world," and "the light of the world," and to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 5:13-16, and 28:19-20)!  And that requires contact, and relationships, with the people of the world (like Jesus exhibited during His earthly ministry)!  And so, while we are to be in contact with the world, we are not to be "conformed" to it!
 
And so the church and believers are to cut off association with a "brother" who is participating in known sin and refusing to repent and change!  And, as Constable writes, Paul prescribed this as a strong form of discipline in order to confront the offender with this behavior, specifically as a means to encourage him (or her) to repent and change!  I like the way he adds that "church discipline is not a group of 'pious policemen' out to catch a criminal, but rather a group of brokenhearted brothers and sisters seeking to restore an erring member of the family out of love"!  A lack of accountability with the church family actually demonstrates a lack of love and dishonors the lordship of Jesus Christ by honoring man over God"!  And so church discipline is always for the restoration of the offender to fellowship with God, and His people!
 
I also like what Paul writes in II Corinthians 2:6-11, where he may be referring back to this same incident in our text!  He writes, "But if any of you has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much---to all of you!  Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him; otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow (and verse11 says, "and given an advantage for Satan")!  Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him"!  This indicates that the church had, in fact, followed the process of discipline and punishment, as required by Scripture, and that it worked!  And was enough!  Now it was time to show mercy, because the man had repented, and it was time to restore the joy that comes with being right with the Lord, and back in fellowship with the brothers, in the church of God!  Wow!  It works!  And what a great ending!
 
Constable writes that "great orthodoxy (or correct doctrine) must always be followed with great orthopraxy (or correct practice)"!
 
Thank you, Lord, for Your inspired Word!
 
Lowell