The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 53

of her witness and her duty because she has no "discipline," no severe dea\incrs for har grave offenders. She bas no love to burn against transgressors. " III. Suen SORROWING LOVE CAN SHOW FINE CONSIDERATION FOR THE FEELINGS OP OTHERS. Paul did not wish to make his second visit to Corinth in grief, and if he had carried out his first plan that would have been the almost inevitable result. He would wait, delaying bis visit, so that he might have the chance of seeing them with a smile on hi_s fa.ce, after receiving the tidings of their heeding hi~ warning :1nd putting a.way the sm. "The second reason St. Paul alleges for not commg to Corinth is apparently a selfish one-to spare himself pa.in. .And he distinctly says he had written to pain them, in order that he might have joy. Very selfish, as at :first it sounds• but if we look closely into it it only sheds a brighter and fresher light upon the exquisite unsel- fishness and delicacy of St. Paul's character. He desired to save himself pa.in because it gave them pa.in. He desired joy for himself because his joy was theirs. He will not separate himself from them for a. moment ; he will not be the master and they the school; it is not I and you, but we; 'my joy is your joy, as your grief was my grief.'" Do we love enough to rebuke and punish those whom we love?-R. T. Vers. 5-11.-The Church's dealings with unworthy members. "The main defence of the apostle against the charge of :fickleness in the non-fulfilment of his promise was that be had abstained from going to Corinth in order to spare them the sharp rebuke ne must have administered had he gone thither. A great crime had been committed; the Church bad been compromised, more especially as some of the Corinthians had defended the iniquity on the ground of liberty, and St. Paul had stayed a.way after giving his advice, that not he, but they themselves, might do the work of punishment. He gave sentence that the wicked person should be put away, but he wished them to execute the sentence. For it was a matter of greater importance to St. Paul that the Corinthians should feel rightly the necessity of punishment, than merely that the offender should be punished." We notice- I. THE SINNER WITHL'i THE CmraCH GRIEVES THE WHOLE CmraCH. If one member suffer, all the members suffer with him; and if one member sin, the whole Church ought to feel grieved and distressed by the sin. St. Paul argues that, if a Church fails to clear itself of complicity with the wrong of its members, the guilt of such wrong attaches to it as well as to him. No man within Christ's Church can be alone in his sin, for we are "members one of another." The judgment of the Church may be the means of winning the penitence of the erring member. I!. THE SINNER WHEN PENITENT SHOULD FIND THE LOVE AND FOilGIVENESB OF THE WHOLE CITTIBcH. In relation to him there should be harmonious and united Church action. Yet, in actual fact, the wrong-doing of individuals too often creates party feeling. Some take the side of the wrong-doer and prevent the full exercise of Church discipline. lll. SUCH FORGIVENESS OF THE CHURCH MAY EXPilEBB Goo's FORGIVENESS. It is only becoming, and only efficient, as following upon God's forgiveness. And it has its special use in being the earthly assurance of the Divine forgiveness and acceptance. The Church can give no absolution ; it can only find expression for the absolution which God has already granted to the penitent, and add its forgiveness of the wrong so far as it disturbed Church relations. In the proper expression of Church feeling towards moral offenders, the Apostle Paul, as a recognized Church leader, herein sets an efficient example. He is as jealous for the Church's honour And mercifulness as be ie for tho restoration of the penitent offender.-R. T. • Ver. 1L-8atanic devices within the Church. Tho reference hero made to Satan must be regarded as figurative. It should not be used as an argument for tho oxistence of a supreme evil spirit, however the existence of such a spirit may bo assumed, St. Paul ha.a elsewhere used the figure of" delivering unto Satan" (1 Tim. i. 20). By thiY we are to understand a solemn excommunication or oxpulsioh from the Church, possibly with the infliction also of some bodily disease. The offender was to bo left to feel all the physical and social consequences of his wrong-doing, in the hope that, through suffering, be might be brought to a sense of his sin. Satan is thought of as the power which leads men into vice and then torments them when they have followed the leadings. The apostle conceives of God as ovorrullng tbo very sin, and consequent ea. n. 1-17.J 'l'HE SECOND EPISTLE To 1'HE CORINTHIANS. 53