(2 Corinthians 1: 19- 2:11.)
To be of any profit this article mast be read in connection with a Bible, opened at the above passage.
THERE is a very definite contrast between the “yea and nay” of verse 19 and the “yea and ... Amen, of the following verse. The former indicates that which is vacillating and contradictory: the latter that which is definitely affirmed, and then unswervingly confirmed in due season.
Man is fickle. With him it is frequently yes on one occasion and no the next. Moreover man is contradictory when it is a question of God and His will Again and again does he break down, and consequently negative all that God desires for him. His reply to God’s will is uniformly “Nay.” The opposite of this is found in Christ, for “in Him was, yea.” He said “Yes” to every purpose and desire of God.
And not only was the yea found in Him but the Amen also. He not only assents to all the will of God. expressed in His promises, but He proceeds to carry all out, and bring all to full and final completion. In Him the thing is clone, and shall be clone, until a great Amen can he put to all God’s pleasure so that God is glorified. And further. He obtains a people who become His servants for the carrying out of the Divine will: so that the two words, “by us.” can he added at the end of verse 10. What glorious stability and security is here! What confidence, what repose garrisons the heart that rests in Christ!
The Son of God, preached by Paul among the Corinthians, bore this wonderful character. Hence the solidity and certainty of his preaching. Hence also the stability which characterized Paul himself, and which is properly the character of every true Christian. We have been established in Christ. And it is God who has done it. What man does, he may yen-likely undo at some subsequent period. What God does, He does forever.
We are thus firmly established in Christ — the Christ in whom is established all the counsel of God — by an act of God. Let us lay hold of this fact for it lifts the whole thing on to a plane immeasurably above man. We have received too, the anointing of the Spirit equally by an act of God.
Bear in mind that the significance of “Christ” is “the Anointed One.” So verse 21 shows us that we are anointed as those who are established in the Anointed One. The Anointing reaches us as those who are connected with Him. When Aaron was anointed the “precious ointment” that was poured upon his head even “to the skirts of his garments” (Psa. 133:22It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; (Psalm 133:2)). Which thing was a type or allegory: for the grace and power of our exalted Head has been carried down to us His members by the anointing of the Spirit. Thus it is — and only thus — that the promises of God can be carried into effect to the glory of God “by us.” It is Christ Himself who will bring to perfect fruition the promises of God in the coming day; but He will do it by us. That is, He will carry things out in detail through His saints, who are His anointed members. If only our hearts lay hold of this, we shall he very much lifted above this present evil world.
But the Spirit of God is not only the Anointing: He is also the Seal and the Earnest. As the Anointing He connects us with Christ. As the Seal He marks us off as being wholly for God. We are the Divine possession and marked as such, just as the farmer, who purchases sheep, at once puts a mark upon them that they may be identified as his. In the book of Revelation we read how the coming “beasts” will cause all to “receive a mark” (13:16). Those who do receive that mark will have to face the fierce wrath of God. as the next chapter shows: and chapter 7, of the same book reveals to us that God anticipates the wicked action of the beasts by putting “the seal of the living God” on His own.
God “hath also scaled us,” and we may well rejoice in this blessed fact. But do we always bear in mind its serious implications? We cannot carry two marks, if the one mark, that has been placed upon us, is God’s mark. He is a jealous God. The mark that is upon us is exclusive. If we attempt to carry also the world’s mark — to say nothing of the devil’s mark — we shall provoke Him to jealousy, and lay up much discipline and sorrow for ourselves. Take great care. O young Christian! for the world is ever seeking to put its unholy marks upon you, as though you belonged to it. You do not belong to it, you belong to God; so be careful not to wear the seals and badges it wishes to put upon you.
Then again, the Holy Spirit is the Earnest in our hearts. If as the Anointing, we view Him in connection with Christ; and, as the Seal, more in connection with God the Father, the Earnest indicates what He is in Himself. Presently, when the promises of God reach their fulfillment, we shall be in the full flood-tide energy of the Spirit of God. But today He is the Earnest of all this in our hearts. “In our hearts, notice: not merely in our bodies or in our minds. Our bodies are indeed His temple. Our minds may happily be suffused with His light. But in the deepest affections of our hearts we have the earnest—the pledge and foretaste of the glory that is coming. By the Holy Ghost given to us, we may realize anticipatively something of all the good that shall be ours. When the promises of God arc brought to fruition to His glory, and by us.
In these three verses (20-22) we have been conducted to a wonderful climax of blessedness: and it all springs out of the seemingly small matter of the Apostle being obliged to make it plain that he was not a man of light mind, promising things that he had no real intention of performing. He did not merely defend himself. He improved the occasion to some purpose.
Having done so, he returns in verse 23 to the more personal matter out of which it all sprang. Another thing had most evidently weighed with him, and helped to divert him for the moment from another visit to Corinth. He had no wish to come amongst them only to find, himself bound to act in severity by reason of sin and grave disorder still being found in their midst. Hence he had waited until he had news of the effect of the earlier epistle he had written to them. He hoped for better things. It was not that he assumed dominion over their faith but rather that he was just a “helper.” or “fellow-worker,” to the end that they might be delivered and rejoice.
The chapter closes with the words, “by faith ye stand.” This is a fact that we ought very much to lay to heart. If he had assumed dominion over their faith in any matter, their faith in that respect would have ceased to be. He would have merely ordered them to do certain things (quite right things, doubtless) and they would have clone them, not as the fruit of the exercise of faith, but mechanically. There would then have been no faith in their actions, but just the mechanical action as a kind of outward shell. And then one day they would have scandalized everyone by collapsing; just as a but in the tropics collapses suddenly, when all the insides of the supporting posts have been eaten away by the white ants.
There are plenty of Christian folk today who would much like to live their lives on somebody else’s faith. They would like to be told what to do. Let somebody else have the exercise, and solve the problem, and issue orders as to what is the correct thing! They will be good and obedient and do as they are told. But it does not work, save disastrously. It is by faith we stand, not by somebody else’s faith. By somebody else’s faith we fall. And further it is not good for the somebody else. Such forceful individuals begin to love having dominion over the faith of their brethren, and so becoming little popes. Consequently it ends disastrously for them.
The Apostle had made up his mind that he would postpone his visit until it could be made under happier circumstances: and now, as he wrote this second letter, the heaviness was passing and brighter things coming into view. His first letter had made them sorry, as he intended it should, and their sorrow now made him glad, as verse 2 of chapter 2 shows. It had been sent ahead on its mission so that when he did come amongst them it might be with confidence established, and with joy.
In verse 4 we get a very touching and valuable glimpse of the manner and spirit of Paul’s writing. Reading his earlier epistle we can discern its powerful and trenchant style; we can notice how calculated it was to humble them with its touches of holy irony. We should hardly have known however that he wrote it “out of much affliction and anguish of heart... with many tears,” had he not told us this. But so it was. Foolish and carnal though they were, yet he loved them with a tender affection. Consequently the inspired Word of God flowed to them through the human channel of a loving and afflicted heart, and was mightily effective. Would to God that we were followers of Paul in this, and learned the holy art through him! How much more effective we should be.
What a deluge of controversial writings has flowed through the church’s history! What polemics have been indulged in! Anti how little, comparatively speaking, has been accomplished by them. We venture to believe that if only one tenth had been written, but that tenth had been produced by men of God, writing with much affliction and anguish of heart, and with many tears, because of that which made the writing needful, ten times as much would have been accomplished for the glory of God.
After all, love lies as the rock-bottom foundation of everything. Not cleverness, not ability, not sarcasm, not anger, but LOVE is God’s way of blessing.
“Out in the darkness, shadowed by sin.
Souls are in bondage, souls we would win.
How can we win them? How show the way?
‘Love never faileth,’ Love is the way.
‘Love never faileth,’ Love is pure gold;
Love is what Jesus came to unfold,
Make us more loving, Master we pray,
Help us remember, ‘Love is Thy way.’”
It might have seemed harsh of Paul to call the evil-doer at Corinth, “that wicked person,” and to instruct that he be put away from their midst. But his loving heart caused his eves to shed tears as he penned the words. Paul’s words and tears were effective and the punishment was inflicted, as verse 6 states: and inflicted not by Paul merely, or by one or two of the more spiritual at Corinth but by the whole mass of the saints. Thus the man was made to feel that they all abhorred and disowned his sin. His conscience was reached. He was brought to repentance.
This of course, is the end that discipline is designed to reach. Erring believers are not disciplined merely for the sake of punishment, but that they may be brought to repentance and so restored, both in their souls, and to their place of fellowship amongst God’s people. This happy end was reached in the case of the offender at Corinth.
How unfrequently is it reached today! All too often the putting away is done in a hard judicial spirit. The anguish of heart, the tears are absent, and the offender becomes more occupied with the harsh manner of his brethren than with his own delinquencies. Hence his repentance is a long way off — to his loss and theirs.
The action taken at Corinth was so effective that the man was brought himself into much affliction and anguish of heart. Indeed the danger now was that the Corinthian assembly would in their zeal against his sin, overlook his sorrow, and not forgive him administratively by restoring him to his place in their midst. Now therefore Paul has to write to them urging them to do this, and thus confirm their love towards him. It was possible otherwise that he might be overwhelmed with overmuch sorrow. Sorrow for sin is good; yet there is a point where it may become excessive and harmful — a point where sorrow should cease and the joy of forgiveness be known. The joy of the Lord, and not sorrow for sin, is our strength.
Verse 10 shows that if the assembly at Corinth forgave the man their forgiveness carried with it Paul’s. And again, that if Paul forgave any, by reason of his apostolic authority, he did so for their sakes, and as acting on behalf of Christ. The forgiveness spoken of in this verse may be termed administrative forgiveness. It is the forgiveness of which the Lord spoke in such scriptures as Matthew 16:19,19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:19) where it is apostolic; Matthew 18:18,18Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18) where it is vested in the assembly; John 20:23,23Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:23) where it is confirmed to the apostolic company by the Lord in His risen condition. In 1 Corinthians 5 we have a case in which the powers of “binding” or “retaining” were exercised. In our chapter we have an example of “loosing” or “remitting.”
Paul wrote thus not merely for the sake of the sorrowing brother, but for the sake of all, lest Satan should get an advantage over all of them. Note it well! The very devil himself in some cases likes to see believers righteous overmuch, at the expense of “the meekness and gentleness of Christ.” The Apostle could add, “for we are not ignorant of his devices.” Alas that so often we cannot truthfully say that! We are ignorant of his devices, and though our intentions are good we fall into traps that he sets.
What wisdom we need to hold the balance evenly in practical matters, between the claims of righteousness and love. How necessary to remember that all discipline is inflicted in righteousness, whether by God Himself or by men, in order that repentance may be produced: and that when it is produced love claims the right to hold sway. Let us not continue to smite in discipline a repentant soul, lest we come under Divinely inflicted discipline ourselves.
F. B. Hole.
Here is the first truth of our holy faith — “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.” He who was born at Bethlehem is God, and “God with us.” God — there lies the majesty; “God with us,” there lies the mercy. God — therein is glory; “God with us,” therein is grace. God alone might well strike us with terror; but “God with us” inspires us with hope and confidence.
C.H.S.